Why You Should Check Out The Free Ads on Craigslist

Are you one of the people who stops on the side of the road when you spot a CURB ALERT?  Can’t just seem to pass up what might be waiting for you to take it home?

I guess I am one of those people.  A few of my friends are too.  One said that some of the best things have been the free things she finds on the side of the road.

One evening last year when we were on a shopping night, we stopped along side of a neighborhood road.  She had spotted it earlier and wanted to go check it out.  So we stopped.  Each of my friends grabbed something and I think I must have picked up something too.  I can’t remember what it was that I had wanted.

I love stopping as you never know what they are getting rid of and you might find that you need it.  Many times I find myself driving by too as it’s usually something big like furniture or other huge items.  Things I just don’t need.  I’ve been getting rid of furniture and it’s not what I need.

But, it’s really fun to stop when it’s a few small boxes or a smaller scale curbside alert.

I’ve come home with different pretty mugs, bedspreads for my girls (these are gone now, but they satisfied us for a while), clothing, etc….

Lately when I stop, I have been looking for the clothing for listing on Ebay.  Or in the past people have gotten rid of the silk flowers and things I can use for photography props, pretty baskets, etc….

On several occasions this summer I have lucked out and found good handfuls of clothing to list on Ebay.  Some of it did pretty well.  And some of it ended up going back to Goodwill.

This weekend I hit the jackpot and a woman was getting rid of piles of nice girls outfits.  Some of it my girls are going to wear and a good amount has been listed.  And I’m sure some will sell.  We’ve got a small pile that the girls said they would wear and the rest I looked over really well and then listed.  There were some really nice girls Lands End bathingsuits.  Those might go.

Anyway, up until last week, I hadn’t thought of checking out Craigslist for free stuff.  I had just been relying on driving around and scouting out the curbside alerts.  

But you might want to check to see what people are getting rid of.  Most of the time, you won’t see what you want but you never know if you don’t look.  And then you have to figure out how far you would be willing to travel to get it.

Plug in your GPS and go.  This is how I got rid of my furniture on Craigslist.  It really works and you get lots of people calling to see if you still have it.

I just checked this morning.  Couches, free piano, free kittens, other free stuff I don’t need really.  But then I saw Curb Alert and it dawned on me it means that they have junk on the side of the road.  Interesting.  One was in a town nearby and I was thinking I could probably find it.  They had no pictures.  Another one had pictures and I could tell it was nothing I needed.

There’s also this little junk antique shop down the road a little bit from my kids house.  She leaves a lot of her stuff outside in front of the Antique house all day.  In my mind and in my oldest son’s mind, she doesn’t take good care of it.  Off and on, she has a free section of things she just wants to get rid of.  I have gotten  a few things before.  My favorite thing is this large open basket with a handle.  The kind that’s all flat and you could lay out flowers on it.  And I’ve gotten some cute little flower pots and other trinkets there.

What bothered my son was that their bus would drive by her shop and on a rainy day they would see all these books she would leave out on a table uncovered.  Talk about things getting wrecked.  Nobody is going to want to buy wet abused books.

Craigslist seems to have new free listings every day so it is a good thing to keep checking.  My boyfriend loves to look at Craigslist for things.  Once he saw something where someone was trying to get rid of a bunch of porcelain dolls.  Not free of course, but I’m sure at a good price.  I didn’t jump on it though as I didn’t know what brand and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to travel somewhere to get them.

Bottom line is that you need to check, stop at the side of the road because you never know when you are going to need or want something.

Lots of times, I simply walk away and wished I didn’t stop.  Who needs VCR tapes anymore?  Or it’s just a box of junk that maybe nobody would really want.

This last weekend I also stopped at another free curb alert.  Most of the stuff I didn’t want, but then I saw that they were getting rid of three unopened V-8 pomengranate green tea, raspberry green tea, and another green tea.  I got thinking that it’s unopened and probably free.  So I grabbed all three and tested one out this morning.  Not bad.

The funny thing about the curb alert where I got all the girls outfits was that her car had parked on the side and then mine and she said it was all free and she was getting rid of it.  Well, I began grabbing my big handful, and within a short bit as I was looking several more cars pulled up and other women started looking too.  Then the woman comes out with more stuff, puzzles, games, and two big things of Gatorade.  Several of us started looking at the Gatorade and she said she had bought it back in the spring and wanted to get rid of it.  So I decided to grab one and another girl grabbed a few.  Brought it home and Julia grabbed it.  Gone.

They also loved my yard sale purchases.  I found a lovely Victoria Secret pocketbook for a quarter to give to Mollyanne and a LPS toy for Julia, a laundry basket for free that Julia is putting her webkinz in, lots of outfits to sell, a Nicky Epstein knitting book (I might keep that one), small amount of yarn, and a nice tarot card set.

Now, I’ve listed the tarot card set and the guy bidding has requested that he just wants the cards to save on the shipping.  It’s going to work out for me, as I was kind of interested in reading the book, but I didn’t really care for the cards.

I don’t really know anything about Tarot.  But perhaps for a future novel, it could be interesting as part of it.  Who knows.  I’m not there yet.

But for a set I paid $1 for, I just made $8 and I might make more.  Kind of cool.

Yard sales and free stuff are great and they shouldn’t be passed up.

Jennifer Jo Fay

Copyrighted September 2, 2012