Finding the Good Stuff on Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace

Lately, I’ve been stalking thrift stores, Craigslist, Close5, Facebook yard sale pages and every other second-hand selling outlet known to mankind.

Ok, let’s be honest, I’m always stalking those places. But the 70’s Landing Pad has given me a more valid excuse to stalk and buy more. Yea, so there’s that. P.S. You can see some of my new purchases here.

Anywho, there tends to be a lot of crap out there that people want to get rid of – particularly on Craigslist. Now, I’m a believer in the “one man’s junk is another man’s treasure” motto, but really I just don’t need your passenger side car door from a 1997 Nissan Altima or your used hairbrush. Yep, I saw a hairbrush for sale on the Craigslist yesterday, folks. Now, I’m sure both the Altima car door and hairbrush could be very valuable to many people. However, I’m not one of them. While I would love to have enough time everyday to just scroll through all the newly listed for sale items on places like Craigslist, Facebook yard sale pages, etc., and find that little gem among all the other crap, I don’t. What I do have time for though is to search for specific keywords that help me find what I’m looking for – or what I suddenly realized I was looking for when I find it. 

My #1 Tip for Finding The Good Stuff

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Keywords

Instead of just going and scrolling through all the sale items in the furniture or housewares or whatever section, I search for certain keywords that relate to things I like. Here are a few keywords I search for….

Brass 

As we all know, I love brass. Using this single keyword is how I found an arched three arm vintage brass floor lamp for a whopping $50. I would show you a picture, but it’s currently residing between a circa 1982-ish bar I scored for $30 and a sofa table and would be too difficult to move at the moment.

Lucite

Ahhh, lucite you elude me. While I haven’t purchased any lucite items I’ve found (they’ve either been too far outta my league money-wise or I really had no place for it), just know I’m not a quitter.

Vintage / Retro

These terms relate to my style, so they are often in rotation. You could also use ‘antique,’ I just don’t because I find that keyword pulls up really old stuff that just isn’t my style.

Brand Names

I’m a big fan of Home Decorators Collection, CB2, Anthropologie, etc. I often search for just those brand names and see what comes up. I searched for Home Decorators Collection last week and found a brand-new tufted black leather sofa for $600. I drug Grunt Labor, Bill and the Circus out in the freezing rain (literally, it was freezing rain) to go pick it up because I couldn’t chance losing it.

Think about items in your decor, or life in general, that you just really love. Then search for whatever keyword would relate to those items. For your keywords, think somewhere between broad and specific. The reason I search for just ‘brass’ rather than ‘brass home decor’ is because most people aren’t going to list something as brass home decor. Make sense? Here’s another example, which is totally un-related to decorating, but shows you what I mean. The Circus has entered the Barbie stage. She loves them. She wants a Barbie house sooooo bad. Instead of searching for ‘Barbie house’, I’ve been searching for Barbie in case something like a Barbie pool came up for sale because she wants one of those too. Also, do any of you have a Barbie house for sale for less than $200? Because that’s what a new one costs and Mama ain’t payin’ that. 

Variations of Keywords

Ok, so really I guess I’m giving you two tips, but they kind of go together, so here ya go. I’ve been wanting to get a new (new-to-me) couch for the living room at the 70’s Landing Pad. While I call a couch a couch, some call it a sofa and list it on selling platforms as such. So I search for both sofa and couch separately, instead of just one. Also, people can spell words differently like nightstand – some spell it in two separate words, night stand, so I search for both. Here are more examples…

Couch / Sofa

Bar Stool / Barstool

Nightstand / Night Stand

Bar Cart / Tea Cart / Bar

Chandelier / Light Fixture / Ceiling Light / Lighting

Cowhide / Cow Hide

Accent Chair / Occasional Chair

Dresser / Chest of Drawers / Bureau

Headboard / Bed

Side Tables / End Tables

Lucite / Acrylic

See what I mean? While, I’m going to call a bar cart a bar cart, the good Baptist lady down the road might call it a tea cart. Bless her heart.