CL searching...I feel silly!

[Mike Cruz]

Okay, so, as many of you may know, I've caught some really nice deals on CL. Part of the reason is that I search within about 2 hours of my home. That includes 7 different (sometimes overlapping) locations (the Maryland, DC, Virginia, Eastern WV, and parts of PA regions). While searching for something in particular today, I noticed a bunch of ads coming up that I had never seen...and their titles were "woodworking".

I just thought I would give a hint to anyone that is looking for a deal on stuff on CL to not just look in one section like "tools" (which I tend to do). You would think that if you were going to place an ad for a tool (TS, DP, Lathe, Jointer, Planer, etc) you would put it in "tools", but I've found a bunch of stuff in "general" that I would have otherwise missed.

Sorry, if I'm blowing anyone's "CL secrets" here, but it kinda just p****d me off that I found stuff today that wasn't where it "should" be, and thought I'd help out by bringing what is apparently the "obvious" to light to others like me.

Good luck hunting!

Oh, BTW, pending pick up, I just gpt a small DP gloat. Not an "awsome" price, but good enough for me to jump on to replace my Craftsman.

[Dave MacArthur]

Yep, I pretty much just do a search on all "For Sale" now, because so often someone was selling a bansaw or ban saw or loopsaw or bendsaw, and placing it in garage sales, general, misc., tools etc...

You do have to wade through a LOT of crud though, and a lot of cross-posting spammers.

[Chip Lindley]

It's been my experience that "serious" woodworking machines are in CL's tools section, although there are no doubt many exceptions. My harvest has been so bountiful during the past two years, that if I missed a bargain in the general or household or farm and garden sections, I probably couldn't afford it right now anyhow!

If one is looking for a specific tool, use searchtempest.com to search all of CL for a certain item such as bandsaw, or planer or wood lathe. Most recent posts are at the top of the list, and there is an advanced search to eliminate unwanted items. It's pretty awsome!

[Karl Card]

I also search cl on a regular basis and sometimes I just search for a particular item just in case it is "somewhere else".

[Carl Beckett]

I have started using one of the craigslist search engines. You just search on a keyword, and specify the radius in distance of how far away you want to search.

Have found it to be very valuable - this way I dont need to dig through the different categories or the different geographies.

There are more than one of these search tools out there. One I use is 'craiglook' just put the .com at the end and you should find it.

(oops - just noted this suggestion is already posted - sorry for the dual post but will leave it up as an alt search site)

[Jeff Hallam]

I find craigslist in my area to be lacking. Maybe Canada is just slow to adopt it but it has far less listings than Kijiji.

[Doug Carpenter]

I just got a nice powermatic drill press on CL. I had been looking for a while. all it needed was a $28 in parts and a little love. The guy that owned it didn't even know you could change speeds by lifting the cover!

funny considering he gave the the owners manual with it.:rolleyes:

I am a CL junkie!

[brian c miller]

If you are serious about searching I'd suggest an engine like craiglook.

You can go by category or keyword within a distance from your zip code and it will even thumbnail pics and a give a brief description. I think it will allow you to email the seller directly but i usually jump over to the ad to see the full desc & other pics.


Happy Hunting. Feel free to send me a % of your savings :D

[Mike Cruz]

Yeah, the engines seem to be nice if you are looking for something in particular. I'm pretty much stocked now, but that doesn't mean that I don't keep my eye out for bargains. Found a DP to swap with the one I have now yesterday. Wouldn't have been looking for a DP, but happened upon it. Same witht the classified ads here on the Creek. I've purchased a couple of things on there that I didn't "need" but could use at a good price.

The "woodworking" search just threw me. I couldn't believe I hadn't thought to search that word before.

[Chris Harry]

Yeah, its definitely a good idea to search other sections. But things like my most recent search for a router are pretty tough. I had to wade thru every home networking router hit to see any hits for woodworking routers. yes you can use the negative word switch in your search but its impossible to rule out every wireless networking router hit.

But its easy to search for Leigh, Incra, etc in all of for sale/wanted.

[Kevin Gregoire]

i wish i lived in a big city, i search big cities just for fun and always find some fantastic
stuff at great prices but always to far away. and yes, always stuff in other sections then tools.

[Stephen Cherry]

Mike,

Thanks for the tip, I'm in central MD, so I'll be checking early and often, probably in some of your search areas also!

(Just joking, I'm almost tooled up, if that's possible).

Also, another thing not to overlook is garage sales. Today I bought an ECE Primus smooth plane, and a stanley block plane for 23 dollars! They both needed a good sharpening (10 minutes for both). Plus two pieces of wood, 11" x 48" X 14/4 for 20 dollars each. The seller said they are cherry, but they look tropical. Last week was upholstery fabric 60 dollars for 12 yards (39.99 a yard at joann fabric).

You need to sort through a lot of junk though.

[Jeremy Milam]

Now that craiglook has been shut down, leaving me back to the original CL to search, does anyone have an alternative to recommend? I really liked having the photo previews and distance range.

[Chris Harry]

searchtempest.com or crazedlist.org

[Myk Rian]

yep. searchtempest.com uses the title and description of an ad. It's better than craiglook was anyway.

[Howard Skillington]

Bad news, guys - I just checked Craiglook and CL has had their lawyers shut them down.

Thanks for the heads-up on SearchTempest, which I didn't know about. As of a few minutes ago they're still in business, but it seems likely that CL is going after them, too.

It's a shame that CL doesn't have that good a search engine for their own site.

[Rick Markham]

Mike, you have seen the kind of "deal" I find around here on Craigslist... generally they are only good for a laugh... doesn't keep me from looking though ;)

I have gotten away from looking recently, I'm sure I missed that super dee duper deal that I had been waiting 2 years to see... It seems the only thing on craigs list around here is overpriced junked machines, and garbage tools :( I've been looking for some metal working tools too, and all I get is used up lathes and worn out mills... I think I am SOL here

[Frederick Rowe]

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. There are a number of free RSS aggregators, I use Mozilla Seamonkey whose email client has a built in RSS function.

Here's how it works.

If you are looking for a specific type of item, drill press, for example. Start in your local area CL using the main search window for search all items. Type in "drill press" and hit enter. At the bottom right hand corner you will find the RSS feed link; click it. Seamonkey opens the RSS Blogs & News Feeds window. You will see all the "hits" to drill press listed as they would be in CL. Now click the button that says "Subscribe". This CL search will be added to your Blogs & News Feeds in your email client.

If you wish to geographically broaden your search for a drill press, repeat the above steps for each regional CL that you want. Subscribe to each and organize them in your Blogs & News Feeds by the item you are searching or however else you want.

Here's the beauty of RSS. Now, each time you set your RSS aggregator to check the feed (hourly, daily, weekly, etc . . .) any hits to your "subscribed" search will appear in your Blogs & News Feeds. The RSS feed aggregator does the work for you.

If you simply want to look at everything in the CL "tools" catagory you'll get swamped with hits and this probably won't make things any easier - but then again - neither would any of the 3rd party CL search engines. Keep in mind the usual gaps you need to bridge like subscribing to a search for "band saw" and "bandsaw"

[Dan Karachio]

For some reason CL is against this kind of cross location search. I guessing it could be used by someone who makes it a business to rapidly find used merchandise for resale and as a result kind of cut out the regular consumer. If true, you think they could make an exception for tool hungry people! :D

[Gerald Senburn]

yep. searchtempest.com uses the title and description of an ad. It's better than craiglook was anyway.

You *have* to be thinking of something else. searchtempest completely sucks compared to craiglook

[Jaze Derr]

Bad news, guys - I just checked Craiglook and CL has had their lawyers shut them down.

Thanks for the heads-up on SearchTempest, which I didn't know about. As of a few minutes ago they're still in business, but it seems likely that CL is going after them, too.

It's a shame that CL doesn't have that good a search engine for their own site.

Craigslist went after Craigslook because of the name. I think SearchTempest is going to be safe.