i am a craigslist fiend...

having been created in the bay area, craigslist is huge here, and i've only really heard of it being widely used in new york too. craigslist is basically an online community where you can pretty much find and do almost anything. it's great because it is very much a community space- driven by people in your community, and void of corporate ads and intrusion. it's like a mini version of ebay, mixed with myspace and monsterjobs.

but man, have i used craigslist. my coworkers laugh at how insanely obsessed i am with craigslist, and i'm sure i'm not even an extreme case. but if you look around my house, i would say a good majority of my furnishings and decorations i've bought through craigslist. my mugs, cooking utensils, microwave, toaster oven, all my house plants, gani's toy trunk, our living room rug, entertainment center, sofa, tons of baby stuff, this computer that i'm typing on right now (a $20 find!), my current job, my previous job, perci's job, this house... ALL acquired through craigslist. and we've been able to sell so much stuff using it too. it beats the garage sale we tried to have where we made $7. isn't it amazing what a community can do?

what's fun for me about using craigslist is one, finding some really good deals. but two, it's also neat to have someone else's stuff. first of all, you're buying second hand so you're cutting down on consumption, but it's also really cool to meet the people who you're buying from and possibly hear a story behind what it is they're handing down to you. like when we bought isagani's high chair, this kid max who had it before him actually was waving bye to the high chair because i told him i was taking it for my baby. his mom also warned me that max had fallen out of it several times because he always climbed onto the table part to stand (which gani never did, so it gives me an idea how crazy max was). and it's kind of neat to venture out to other parts of the city that i would never have a reason to go to other than to pick up something that someone from craigslist was selling.

but of course, there's always to down side. sometimes you get fraudulent offers on things you try to sell, but they're pretty easy to catch. just look for the guy from zimbabwe who wants to wire you the money and can't spell well in his e-mails and has a long complicated story about how he's overseas and needs you to hold it for him. another down side is that i keep buying stuff! and wasting time looking for things to buy! i have also had friends who've tried the dating and meeting people through craigslist, and usually it doesn't pan out. i've also had friends end up in not-so-great roommate situations, but despite these things, craigslist has served me well.

so my next craigslist purchase is a carseat. but that's a whole other disgusting story that only my sister knows and i'm so creeped out by it that i don't want to even write it in my blog. gani just needs a new carseat. we'll leave it at that.