atmmachine816

Has anybody used craigslist and have good expierence with it? There's a listing in my city that I am interested in and was wondering if I should consider buying it from the person.

thanks

austin

capekate

Hi Austin
Buying from criaglist is like buying from the classified section of your newspaper. Some items are good, others bad. Since it is in your city you are able to go and view the item you are interested in and make the judgment call if it is something you are interested in buying.Go with a friend...
If it is a tank you are interested in, I would ask the seller to fill it with water before you get there, so that you can see if it has any leaks before buying. As in any mechanical items, ask to see it run first before buying.
Good luck...

~ kate

atmmachine816

Ok thanks. Yes it's a tank but I'm not interested in the tank, it's the filter, heater, and airpump that comes with it that I am interested in. Yes I will ask the person to test them for me.

capekate

kewl.... and good luck with that. Before you go, keep in mind what these cost at new price.. and really deduct a lot of cash for used. And ask how long they had these items running before deciding to sell. If you cant get them really cheap.. they may not be worth it.

~ kate

atmmachine816

Yes this is 10$ for a 10 gallon setup, reason for selling is a new 29gallon tank. It is very cheap and I asked what brand the filter, heater, and airpump is. If it is a decent brand I will take a trip to actually look at it. If it's some crappy brand I won't consider it.

capekate

WOW you cant beat that price! Good luck with that. Sounds like a good deal. wonder what the wattage is on that heater, if it was used in a 10g tank set up? It may be very low and good for only a very small tank. Even taking the tank as well is a good idea, you can use it for a QT or emergency tank.

~ kate

atmmachine816

haha yeah, well I need a small heater for a 5 gallon bucket for my saltwater tank. AND I think we are finally moving into a much larger house, there's always room in it for a another fish tank and I can afford it now.

COBettaCouple

Kate's right, it's like picking up a tank at a yard sale. Give it a good inspection and decide if it's worth taking home.

atmmachine816

yeah, maybe if it's halfway decent I can convince my parents to actually let me set it up. For ten dollars that's now bad, I won't decorate it much but another tank is more fish.

ambientchica

I use craigslist all the time and am really fond of it. it's kinda like garage selling without leaving your humble abode! You can find some really good deals and that one sounds great!

atmmachine816

thanks, just to make sure, in contacting a person about it you click the link in the top left that brings up a email address?

Dino

We used it to get a free pond liner, pump, filter and 6 koi.
All for the cost of driving twice to a town 60 miles away.

MudHog

it can be very worth it.

I bought my jackpot root decorations off there. The buyer didn't want to ship it, so I contacted a buddy of mine local to hime and asked him to handle everything for me there and ship them too. Everything worked out great and actually got an extra decoration out of the deal from the seller.

I'm using it and ebay to locate my new light fixture that I want to upgrade to. As mentioned, being local helps as you can see the item in person and check it out hands on.

Good Luck.

zigmeister

I bought my 60 gal tank and stand from someone who had it listed on craig'slist. They were local so I went and looked at the tank before I made a decision. It has been great. The filter and heater that came with it were only big enough for a 5-10 gal tank though. Catersun and I put it to use for the little hospital tank. Take caution as always when making arrangements to meet strangers.

atmmachine816

Well been two days, no response from the seller, I may not be so lucky afterall, glad you guys all have had good expierence.

mlinden84

I agree! I love them both, but there's nothing like sitting in your pjs at 3 am looking at things on craigslist!!

bert2001

I love craigslist. Just tonight I picked up a complete 29 gallon setup with filter, heater, hood, awesome lighting, and stand. It was pratically brand new. He had it set up for about a month and realized that cichlids will eat smaller fish and gave up on the hobby. He also threw in the gravel, some food, some increadible holey rocks, an automatic feeder, and a 50' Python automatic gravel vac. The gravel vac and the light bulb alone were worth more than I paid. It was the best $70 I ever spent.

Do be careful though not everydeal is a good one.

mlinden84

Wow what a great deal!
Thats why I LOVE Craigslist!! (plus it's great to get rid of stuff too!)

atmmachine816

Well this has been very interesting reading what everybody has found. Anybody else find anything interesting?

mlinden84

I got my 55 gallon tank/stand with everything needed (filters, lights, heater, plus a ton of accessories) for $100. The kid had it set up for 2 months, but kept killing everything, so he decided to sell it.

Also, (not fish related) I bought a huge little tikes outdoor climber for my daughter for $25. They are selling on ebay for $400.

I check craigslist almost daily, you never know what people are going to get rid of for cheap!

≈ D ≈

Got my 55g FW tank from craigslist. Tank, stand and all lighting for $120 and a 5 hour drive. You can get some pretty decent deals on there but you can also get some outrageous ones

If I had waited 2 weeks, I could have got a similar setup for $75 that included a heater

mlinden84

Yeah there are some people who are asking for way too much money for that needs to go in the trash.

I live about 5 minutes from a university college town, so I usually wait until May and July when all the students move out... then you get really good deals (or stuff for free!) from students who don't want to move it. They figure they'll just have mommy and daddy buy them new stuff for their next apartment.