Ugh, Craigslist is "ghosting" me

[eljefino]

I have fun with CL. Hobby level, not enterprise.

Last thing I, or anyone at my house/IP address, advertised was an old snowblower engine in mid january.

They apparantly think I'm some sort of clandestine used car dealer, however, because they've "ghosted" my ad.

In a nutshell, you fill out all the HTML how you like it, enter the captcha, get an email to publish your ad, follow the link, and get a confirmation that says "your ad is published at this URL." Follow the URL and there it is! But... there's a catch. Go back to the search page and your ad doesn't show up.

This is, in a word, asinine. I appreciate clever anti-spam techniques when they work. I even respect "tarpits" that are meant to slow and annoy internet ner-do-wells. But this is over the top.

I also, figuring it was a technical snafu, relisted my ad with slightly different wording and the same pictures. In hindsight this was a poor decision, getting even hotter on their radar.

Ugh... so trying to get this to work (it is my personality to try something until I succeed) I've stumbled into all these "marketer" coaching sites that are the very spammers I hate like everyone else... Am probably going on a "war-walk" after dinner with my netbook for a new IP address...

 

[Jim74]

I quit posting on craigslist because they "ghost" every ad I place. It's ridiculous.

 

[rpn453]

It's a terrible site. I'm glad Kijiji is far more popular here.

 

[onion]

I've had the same problem- not sure how it's determined which ads are 'ghosted' or not. But my experience was this:

I advertised a set of used tires, and diligently put all specifications in the ad so they knew exactly what they were getting... and did a little salesmanning, pointing out that these were 'performance' tires. The ad was ghosted... I got no bites.

About a week later I advertised the same tires at the same price, but put minimal effort into the ad- no picture, no salesmanning, just the make, model, size, condition, and price. That ad posed just fine, and I sold the tires in two days.


I don't often sell stuff on craigslist- maybe one or two things per year. I don't know how their algorithms work or if they just have somebody making guesses..., but from now on I'll be as amateurish as possible. Seems to be what they want.

 

[eljefino]

I think my biggest mistake was using IMG tags so I could link to photobucket and 800 pixel images. I hate the 325 pixel super compressed images from their own hosting. Either it recognized the photobucket account from a previous listing of mine, or photobucket is used by spammers for full page image ads.

Wish they'd tip their hand a bit better.

However, I complained on their help forum and apparantly some kind soul made my ad run. Now getting 20 emails an hour; I think it's gonna sell tomorrow.

 

[onion]

That makes sense. Both of my 'ghosted' ads used photobucket pictures.

 

[Volvo_ST1]

I post on average three ads on craigslist every week, but I have never been ghosted.

 

[kkreit01]

I've sold lots of junk, and never had any issues. Of course my ads are short and to the point, and I use their image upload. That's why I like to place CL ads -- it's quick and easy. Ebay takes too much time, and too much of your money. I only had a CL problem once when I tried "selling" a hamster. Apparently you can only "re-home with adoption fee"? Stupid.

 

[Loobed]

craigslist vacuums. They use to be good 10+ years ago, but now they are almost worthless. I can't even post an ad on their site anymore. They want drivers license and other personal info just to sell a motorcycle tire.

 

[Hokiefyd]

I've never had this problem. I always load pictures straight from my computer to the ad (not try and link them to an image server). I've sold all sorts of stuff on Craigslist. Two weeks ago, I sold my Dodge Dakota in an hour on there.

 

[Loobed]

Originally Posted By: Hokiefyd
I've never had this problem. I always load pictures straight from my computer to the ad (not try and link them to an image server). I've sold all sorts of stuff on Craigslist. Two weeks ago, I sold my Dodge Dakota in an hour on there.


The North Carolina craislist must be run differently than the San Francisco craigslist.

 

[eljefino]

How does one show a straight dent free body in 325 pixels? I always wash my cars then take pics in late afternoon with directional lighting with a decent DSLR.

I think saying "cash sale" sets off the radar as there are lots of scammers saying "Make cash now".