9 Crazy Things for Sale on Craigslist

The popular online classified ads clearinghouse known as Craigslist can be a great resource for finding almost any item you can imagine for sale or trade. It allows you to rent or purchase a home, find a job, hire a domestic worker, or even adopt a pet through its postings. In addition to the many useful or highly-sought items you can score after a bit of Craigslist digging, there are also some strange and unsettling things offered by users around the world. These are nine of the crazy things you can find on Craigslist, all for a price you can call your own.

1. Very Vintage Plumbing Fixtures – If you’re in the market for an unsightly toilet of questionable functionality or rusted iron bathtubs, Craigslist should be your go-to marketplace. The possibility of selling things that you would normally have to pay someone to haul away can inspire homeowners to put some awful and perhaps unsanitary items up for sale online.
2. Questionable Furniture – People who aren’t particular about where their furniture comes from have been known to find bargains on Craigslist. If you don’t mind the odd stain of unidentifiable origins or odors best described as “unpleasant,” you can easily make an ill-advised purchase from an eager Craigslist seller.
3. Strange Services – From pretend best friends to companionship of a less-than-legal nature, there’s almost no service you can think of that can’t be bought from Craigslist peddlers who aren’t bothered by a pesky moral compass or compunctions about acting outside of society’s rules. While Craigslist did shut down their Erotic Service section after a rash of solicitation arrests, a subculture of sellers making thinly-veiled references to services you can’t legally purchase does still exist.
4. Broken Goods – Perhaps it’s the anonymity factor of online classified ads, but Craigslist is rife with postings for broken items that would be more expensive to repair than simply to purchase new. Generally targeted at “handymen” and “tinkerers,” everything from broken televisions to cracked and chipped china is sold on the site.
5. Inoperable Vehicles – Aside from the more legitimate market for classic vehicles in various stages of restoration, there’s also a thriving band of Craigslist sellers hoping to get an old car off the cinder blocks in their backyard and onto your tow truck. If you’re in the market for an eighties-era Cutlass that will never run quite right regardless of the amount of work you put into it, Craigslist is the place to go.
6. Common Goods at Insultingly High Prices – During resource shortages and natural disasters, sellers of dubious intent pop up like crazy on sites like Craigslist to peddle their wares at outrageous prices. For instance, in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy it wasn’t uncommon to find people offering gasoline at more than $25.00 per gallon.
7. Human Souls – Some Craigslist postings are clearly made in jest, while others can be difficult to decipher. One of the perennially popular and somewhat spooky items commonly found in the darker corners of online classified ads is the human soul, usually offered by a desperate person in exchange for all manner of boons.
8. Creepy Collectibles – Some collectible items, like vintage Barbie dolls or scarily extensive movie memorabilia collections, are both fun and slightly unsettling. Others can be downright creepy. From taxidermied animal oddities to antique undertaker’s tools, there are plenty of awkward collectibles to be found on Craigslist that are perfect for times when you want all of the conversation in your home to be uncomfortable.
9. Stolen Goods – Unscrupulous criminals used to take the things they’d stolen to pawn shops and fences. Now, they take to the web and sometimes don’t even bother to obscure the origins of their wares. It’s not unheard of for victims of robbery or break-ins to find their own belongings for sale on Craigslist. In fact, the police in Portland, Oregon even have a dedicated task force that conducts “sting” operations to find and prosecute these thieves and profiteers.

These are just a few of the oddities you can find on Craigslist. Apparently the administrators of the site are familiar with their reputation for unseemly or uncommon postings, as they even maintain a “Best of Craigslist” section to showcase some of the more outlandish or amusing posts.

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