Years ago, when you had needs like this, you took out an ad in your local newspaper’s classified ads section, and online classified sites like Craigslist have stepped in to fill that function today.
Problem is, Craigslist is ugly. (Sorry, Craigslist.) More to the point, its usability is a mixed bag. Craigslist often sports low-quality images or none at all, and is often full of spam or half-baked ads that provide little useful information because the poster has never posted an ad before and has no idea where to begin.
Enter eBay Classifieds
Happily, eBay Classifieds (formerly "Kijiji") is an eBay website that fits comfortably between these two extremes, and that has reached a kind of critical mass (along with a recent website update) that makes it a distinct alternative in the space of online trading and classifieds. eBay Classifieds:- Is free.
- Has a much nicer, colorful, and interactive website that is a joy to use—simpler and less cluttered than eBay and far easier than Craigslist to navigate.
- Provides much stronger cues to listing posters (like a scaled-down version of the eBay item listing form), so that listings are generally similar in format and more informative than those at Craigslist and easier for novices to make.
- Has built-in map integration (via the now traditional “map it” link) to make it easier to estimate how far a service or item is from you.
- Offers all of the same “beyond selling” categories you’ll find on Craigslist, including services, local coordination (for things like carpooling), housing, job listings and resume postings, and so on.
- Has a site-wide search (unlike Craigslist) that works and that shows categories in the results.
Read on to learn more about when and how to use eBay Classifieds, both as a buyer/consumer/searcher and as a seller/provider.
