My Boaz’s Ruth: I haven’t sold any items this way. I read an article on using this technique in conjunction with classified ads and thought it would apply to Craigslist as well. What was made clear through the discussion here is that it’s not exactly the same thing, mainly because you get a lot more room for descriptions with Craigslist.

I had also thought that I’d be saving myself a lot of time by screening out tire-kickers. Well, I did the opposite of what I proposed here, put the entire description right in the ad, and haven’t had a single bite. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that screening is worthless. I just haven’t tested it enough.

I also think you would be shutting yourself off from a lot of legitimate buyers (like me) who would not do what you ask because, no matter what you say, this IS the way email harvesters get addresses, etc. And if you can’t even post the item description in the ad, why should I believe you are legitimate seller?

How many items have you sold this way?

1) (Getting an email address) – How is this any different than getting someone to email you using craigslist’s normal email reply system? The only difference I see is that you are giving an email address instead of hiding it behind a cragislist email forwarder. That doesn’t help you get serious buyers, I think it might actually be the opposite because now people see they are sending their email to a relatively safe domain and would be more likely to email you.

2) (Answer questions) – Why can’t you answer common questions in the ad? Plus, my natural tendency would be to suspect something shady and not contact the poster if they were withholding info that should have been in the post.

3) Again, I don’t see how not having to provide your phone number in the post is any different than how most craigslist posts are already. Its very common for people to say ‘email me for contact info’, and thats understandable because no one wants their phone number on the web.

4) So, your saying because you forced people to read item details in two places rather than one, this makes them more serious about buying it? I don’t see the connection.

5) Why would you bother with changing the auto responder etc when you can just take down the post? The item was sold… why even keep the post up?

Why not just post the picture and description in your ad, check your new gmail account at your leisure, and answer only those correspondents capable of composing a reasonable request?