The worst of Craigslist
If anyone were to give you a horse, would you peer all the way past its teeth to check for, I don't know, human heads?
I only ask because a site called ItemNotAsDescribed.com (tagline: Free is a Four-Letter Word) has dedicated itself to examining some of the free offers on Craigslist. Specifically, the site exists to expose the worst of the free in the Land of the Free.
For example, from Tucson's Craigslist come some book shelves, which have seen better days but clearly can't remember them. The ad for the shelves declares: "in the alley by the dumpster is a utility shelf made of wood for free. Someone left it there - please dont inquire - just come and get it."
The ItemNotAsDescribed poster adds: "For storing your least valuable possessions - the ones you're openly hostile towards. 'Here you go, fourth-place trophy, 2008 Fourth of July Chili Cook-Off. Enjoy your new home [mumbles obscenities]'."
Perhaps, though, you'd prefer these smashed-up ceramic tiles from the Humboldt Craigslist? Advertised as: "About 150 broken tan colored ceramic tiles that would be great for art projects," they look a little, well, utterly useless.
The ItemNotAsDescribed contributor puts it far more elegantly: "Strangely, the artworld has not yet recognized your genius. Keep trying. Place these tiles in a heavy plastic bag and throw them away. Made the cover of ArtForum, yet?"
The contributor, as so many on this delightful site, continues in eloquence: "At the very least, you will be helping this poster with her performance art project. She tries to get people to come over and take out her trash, to demonstrate human gullibility. You are her first victim. Sorry, I mean, collaborator."
The site even has categories that might help you sift through these worst of the free offers according to your predilections: "Classy", "Delicious" and "Spooky" are just three of the subsections.
Perhaps my favorite is this most delicious offer from the Bay Area's Craigslist: Gerber Cereal for Infants.
You might wonder why someone might give away baby food for free on Craigslist. Well, the advertiser is very open about the flaws in these wares: "One expired on Sept 08 the other Nov 08. But they still have the cellophane on them."
The ItemNotAsDescribed poster is effusive in his good fortune at discovering such a multi-layered bargain: "Sweet, they still have the cellophane on them. Something for the baby to play with after we've fed him long-expired food."
It almost makes those most generous posters who, earlier this week, used Craigslist to try to sell their free tickets to the Michael Jackson memorial seem like altruists. Almost.
Chris Matyszczyk is an award-winning creative director who advises major corporations on content creation and marketing. He brings an irreverent, sarcastic, and sometimes ironic voice to the tech world. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET.
<g>
Craig had such liberal Utopian hopes, but with all such liberal fantasies, CraigsList has just become the hip place to go to get scammed, spammed, find a prostitute, or to lure someone to their murder.
In all seriousness, this article is a sad excuse to write something. One persons trash is another persons treasure...who are YOU to judge. As already mentioned, broken tiles are used for mosiac projects all the time. The broken down bookcase could be used for kindling/firewood (depending on the finish). In short, don't be so narrow minded.
You have not been touched by some sort of CraigsList mayhem yet? It is not a matter of whether or not this stuff happens via CraigsList (it does), but of the odds of it happening to you. Hold on, your turn may come sonner than you expect.
They aren't even inquiries. A set of wheels I listed for $400 got an email with the subject line "reems" (not rims, or rimz, or even rems), whose entire content was "yo ima take em 100$". The guy I did finally sell to because he could at least piece together a sentence showed up in his pimped beater ryde with temp tags and his massive friend who I suppose was to help with last minute negotiations, both of them dressed like they were heading to a ghetto prom or 18+ dance club or something.
When I wouldn't slash the price from what we'd agreed to, they left, then called me 15 minutes down the road to state "yeah we take em". I don't live in the ghetto, and the responses are typical of the several CL experiences I've had selling old disc changers or furniture.
A friend of mine frequents the city library and says that's the source of a lot of it. Gangbanger kids just hop on, bang away at the keyboard, going from porn without caring who's around over to craigslist and ebay to see if they can grab some junk to resell or rip people off. It's truly the lowest common denominator of the internet.
.... Craig had such liberal Utopian hopes, but with all such liberal fantasies, CraigsList has just become the hip place to go to get scammed, spammed, find a prostitute, or to lure someone to their murder.
-------------------------------------------------------
you mean like how guns are only meant to be used to rob and murder...think that response is narrow minded? well yeah thats how your narrow minded opinion is coming across..
Just because YOU have no concept of how to make use of a good resource beyond prostitution does not mean its useless. Before craigslist I had to pay monthly to do apartment searches from lackluster sites. Its all free now and very useful to me so yeah to me its a utopia.
CNET, please........
Even the wisecrackers may be helping, by drawing attention to an otherwise unmemorable posting. They certainly got Cnet's attention. Maybe I could hire some wisecrackers to wise crack about my items for sale and get some more traffic.
Quite a lot of my furniture came from the street, and is of much better quality (I.E. not chipboard) than what you can buy at Walmart, though I found it the old fashioned way by walking my dog and coming back for the good stuff with my van.
-
by pbitton
July 9, 2009 5:03 PM PDT
- I have to come to the defense of Humboldt artists. We have a number of mosaic artists here for whom such tile fragments would probably be quite useful. We also have a lot of underfunded school projects that could use this kind of material. Just because they don't hold any value for you doesn't give you the right to sneer at others who may have a different perspective on life.
-
Reply to this comment
-
Showing 1 of 2 pages (45 Comments)July 10, 2009 5:00 AM PDT
(2045 recent comments)July 9, 2009 4:00 AM PDT
(187 recent comments)July 10, 2009 9:19 AM PDT
(133 recent comments)July 9, 2009 6:00 AM PDT
(117 recent comments)July 10, 2009 7:32 AM PDT
(78 recent comments)The posting of advertisements, profanity, or personal attacks is prohibited. Click here to review our Terms of Use.