I love Craigslist

[dltccf]

Tonight I just picked up a brand new Delta 12 1/2 inch planer that still had the plastic on it and a Jet shopline dust collector that hadn't even had the box opened yet. The guy selling them was getting rid of his father's equipment. His Dad apparently was one of those guys who loved to buy tools and think of himself as a woodcrafter, but never actually got around to using them. I had the planer making dust already in its new home, now to get the other to start collecting it.

He also had a nice drill press, router table, table saw with more accessories than you could ever use, sanding table, scroll saw, and some other stuff. It a good thing I didn't take any more cash with me or I might have come home with those too.

If anyone wants to know how to get setup to use craigslist to automatically find the good deals in your area first I can give some ideas.

dave

[Icutone2]

Great find!!! I agree with you on Craig's list lots of good stuff if you look close.
Lee

[chebytrk]

sounds like a good idea. Send out a setup instructions for one's local area.

Thanks

[dltccf]

Ok, with craigslist you can find almost anything. However, as anyone who has used it will tell you, you can't find anything easily. the user interface is just not that helpful and the restrictions it puts on you as you try to look around the various different locations around you are irritating. There once was a site called Craigshelper that came up with a great user interface for searching craigslist and made it very useful and much more powerful than Craig did. Craig didn't want the help apparently so he sued and the name had to be changed. the site is now http://www.searchtempest.com go and check it out. It provides a simple search and saves your zip code and your searches and lets you set the distance you want to travel for your searches. Just this alone, makes a huge difference in using craigslist. The real power isn't in one time searches, however. The key to finding the real bargains is to use what is called RSS through the use of Google Reader. If you already have a gmail account you are set up to use google reader. Just go to http://reader.google.com and login with your existing gmail account. Reader is a powerful time saver all on its own, it continuously scan websites you subscribe to via RSS and then shows you only what has been updated. When you combine that with the searches from searchtempest what you end up with is specific searches just for what you want in the locations you want that are continually executed and you can almost immediate notification when what you are looking for becomes available.

This post is getting long so I will continue later with how you do this and with an android app for you phone that combines both these functions and goes with you in your pocket.

dave

[easybuilt]

That is really awesome Dave. I just tried them and works great! Thanks for sharing.

[dltccf]

Ok, time for more on Craigslist: I use an app on my android phone called Craig's Notification. Search for it in the android market. It is free and it combines all of the features I use to get the notifications on the PC into one simple app on my phone that notifies me of stuff wherever I am. The app itself is pretty self explanatory once you get it installed. Just tap the 'add' button in the top left corner and put in your search criteria and your region. When you set the region you have to uncheck SF bay area and add your own area. you can either select all the places you want to search or use the zip function and put in your zip and mileage like searchtempest allows you to do. Once you have setup the search it will do an initial search and show you all the matches. I set the mode to checkbox when there are a lot of items because i can then just check them and delete them without reading the ones I don't want to look at. Tapping on a listing marks it as read and opens it for reading. when you go back to the list you see it is no longer boldfaced. I delete the listings I don't want to see and leave ones I might want to follow up. Then just leave the app when you are done reviewing and it will search in the background for you and a little purple peace sign will pop up on the notification bar if new listings are found.

All in all, this is a very handy app. I have a search set up for the word 'lumber' and searches if I am looking for a particular tool. post a followup here if you use this and if you find anything good with it.

dave