Just lucked across a neat deal yesterday (that I actually feel kinda bad about, but I digress) on CL. I thought I'd start an off-topic thread, and see if anyone bites.

Yesterday, I got for $10 a NiCad 18v Hitachi tool kit that came with 2 batteries, a universal quick charger (that coincidentally works on an old HF 18v drill that I have with a bad charger), 18v drill, a Saw-zall, circular saw, flashlight, and fancy carrying case with pockets for it all. He had it for $10 because the batteries wouldn't hold a charge.
So I tested with my multi-meter, and each battery topped out at about 11v, even when the charger said fully charged.
I took a 18v 1a Power adapter from some random old device that I no longer used, cut the end off the cable and separated and stripped the positive and negative cables. Gave each battery a good shock, Frankenstein style, and then put back on the charger. Now, fully charged, each battery shows around 18.5v, and has LOT more power and longevity.
Not bad for $10.


I'd also found a set of running boards in perfect condition for my 3rd gen for free a few months ago. I don't particularly even need/want them, but my stockers were all torn up and these are gorgeous, so still a great deal.



What deals have you guys found? You can even go so far as to list awesome deals you made by SELLING something , too, if you want. I have plenty of stories on that too.

I saw my neighbor one afternoon struggling with a commercial wet dry vac. Every time he would turn it on it would shoot out a dust cloud and je would promptly curse up a storm. He tried everything but was unable to clean it properly so he trashed it. I talked to him, asked about the vac and he said good riddance so i wheeled it to my garage. Downloaded the manual, turns out there is a secondary filter that he did not know about that was caked with sheetrock dust. Cleaned that bad boy, put everything back together and voila working wet dry vac with blower attachment. Every now and then my neighbor sees me use it and i think he kind of kicks himself.

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I used to have a lawn care business and ran Echo trimmers and edgers. I was out for a walk one night and found an Echo trimmer laying on the curb, being thrown out. I picked it up, tried to crank it and it wouldn't start. Took it home, ordered a carb rebuild kit, spent an hour rebuilding the carb, put fresh gas in it and it started up perfectly. It looked like it was only used for one year and then old gas sitting in it clogged it up.

I sold it the next day on craigslist for $160. $150 profit for an hours worth of work


Also got a set of 5 brand new BFG KM 255/75/17 and Jeep wheels for $450 on craigslist. I sold the wheels for $250, and have over 50k miles on those tires right now. Not bad for a $200 set of 32" mud tires.

That's pretty amazing, Unner. My wife and I are CL 'flippers' also.

A good portion of my furniture is 'trash' furniture. Used, but still in great condition. Just gave a good cleaning, maybe a coat of paint, and then used in our house.
OK, list here:
2 Armoirs, 1 leather recliner (in great condition; no tears/sags), 1 leather 3 seat couch (one small tear on the back), 3 credenzas, 2 ceiling fans, and a massive computer desk for my wife's office. Bunch of random knick knacks.


My wife and I have also made a good amount of money selling 'trash day finds'. It first started when we found a leather bed frame in spectacular shape. We could not tell if it was a full or queen size (we have a queen), so we brought it home. Turns out it was a full, so we had no use for it. Threw it on CL on a whim, and made $60 the next day.

Then we started looking for 'trash'. We enjoy driving and just hanging out, and the neighborhoods around us have different trash days, so nearly any night we choose, we can pick a neighborhood and just drive around after work and hang out and scour.
We've found, cleaned, and sold a couple bed frames, several shelves, a few love seats, an armoir, 2 complete dining room sets (table and 4 chairs), 2 computer desks, and a lot I'm forgetting. Our garage has a corner dedicated to 'resale'. The stuff we've picked up that we work on and have on CL. This also give my wife a regular opportunity to look drop-dead sexy using my power tools to fix things up.
We kinda figure that it's the homeowner's loss. Honestly, a lot of times it's easier to take a few pictures and put it on CL than it is to haul it all out to the curb. Why would you haul a couch to the curb by yourself, when someone can pay YOU $100 to take it away?

Also got quite a bit from the crazy floods that went through Houston last year. People were cleaning out their houses/garages and putting it on the street because a lot of things were 'ruined' and we just went down the street and had our pick. A lot of houses had things in perfectly fine shape next to things that were obviously water damaged. I'm assuming that they were just writing it all off on insurance, regardless of is was actually damaged or not. Found a few tool boxes full of hand tools and muddy water out on the curb. Because hand tools can't get wet, right? Probably $300-$400 in tools.
Found a couple of armoirs with slightly water damaged feet , couple of chairs, etc.
We have a basic sense of humility, so we didn't get anything that looked 'too bad'. We really only targeted the 'insurance fraud' houses.


Definitely not enough to make a living of of by any means, but it has 100% paid for a 1 week vacation to Florida and our season tickets to the 2015-2016 Houston Broadway, plus a lot of just 'fun money'.

I haven't bought many things off of Craigslist, though I have used Facebook market quite a bit, but my best Craigslist find was a 120 gallon aquarium, these usually retail for close to a grand, and I got this one for $100 with custom built oak stand. The tank alone weighs about 200 lbs because the glass is so thick. The tank is 6 ft long, and each of these sharks were over a foot long when I took this pic.

Kitchen Aid fridge. Side-by-side, stainless, counter depth. Got it for about 1/3 the price of a new one. Previous owner upgraded to Sub Zero. Fit in perfectly with the kitchen remodel

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A guy by me left a $5-600 craftsman mower by the curb with a free sign. I rolled it home, cleaned out the carb and started it on the first pull.

As far as bought on cl, there's so much I can't remember. I do better selling on there tho.

C6 Vette brakes with 10k miles calipers, pads, rotors and brackets for $250
Chevelle front drum brake setup $25 for above
4 FJ wheels $125
Free 71 Cutlass bumper
another bumper with tail lights $100
see a pattern here?
4 cooper at3s $400 like new

I nearly forgot; I bought an almost $2000 2 piece corner sofa and chaise lounge for a steal of a price a couple years ago.

It was listed for around $800, if I recall. Had a couple small stains on it, but it's microfiber, so some rubbing alcohol and an old light colored rag can usually take care of that.

I went to take a look, and the guy was as high as a kite. Super friendly (read: super high. Like super super high).
The couch was comfortable, but the stains were worse in person than on the pictures and I wasn't sure they would come out. I was going to pass, but he just asked me to make him an offer. I said $200, almost just as a lowball excuse to get out of his house, and he accepted it.

I had to take the legs off the couch to get it out of his front door, and he was oh so very helpful. Like my cat is helpful when I'm climbing my stairs kind of helpful. My ratcheting screwdriver with a 1ft long extension bit to get to the deep set allen head screws was a real hit with him. Come to think of it, the allen head screws themselves were a real hit with him.

I actually made 2 trips to bring it home; one for each piece. Strapped it down in the back of my Rav4 (before I got the 4runner), and tied the rear hatch shut.
This REALLY amazed him. He was so very impressed that I would dare drive with the rear hatch slightly open. The whole time on both trips, he was texting me to make sure I got home OK. Honestly like 6 texts. He even texted after the fact thanking me for buying the couch and that it was really nice to meet me.

When I got the second piece, he asked me for my Facebook info and if I played Call of Duty on XBOX Live and that we should hang out sometimes. Luckily, I was able to truthfully say I've not been on my Facebook in years, and that I'm a PC gamer. So we had a 15 minute conversation about PC gaming vs console gaming.

All in all, it was a fun day.

I had to keep the couch in my garage for 2 weeks to air out the weed smell before my wife would let me bring it inside. And the stains came right out!

Moral of the story: never haggle on price while high. Or, always haggle with high people.

I just pulled those tires I mentioned a few posts above off to put bigger tires on. I posted them on CL before I even had them off to see if I could get a few dollars for them. $190 is what I got for all 5 tires, so in the end I paid $10 for 50k miles worth of tires!

^
I think this is the winner here.

Reminds me of when my Mom sold $1,200 worth of tires that had probably close to 50% tread. She sold them for like $100. That guy was probably stoked.

A couple years ago, my wife sold her old couch on CL for $90. She had bought her from Goodwill about 10 years before for $100

I had almost the same thing happen to me, with a Bolens 17hp, 42" cut riding mower! Guy had it listed for free about five houses up, and I rolled it down to my house. He said the engine was knocking and he had lost the key. I got home and called a buddy that is a lawnmower mechanic, and he happened to have a key that fit. I ended up buying a battery ($35) and about $20 worth of parts because the deck kept falling all the way to the ground when you'd slightly bump the adjustment handle. Now it runs great, and I've used it to cut the yard 4-5 times already. And I also replaced the valve cover gasket for $4.

My best find, by far, is a 1994 Corolla. The guy had it listed for $600 and said the engine was "missing". I went and drove it, and could barely get it to drive 10 feet without shutting off. After turning off the A/C, I managed to take it around the block and (BARELY) get it up to 35mph. I drove it back, told him it was a bit rougher than I had thought. It was obviously only firing on three cylinders, and I told him it's probably going to need a motor. I then went back home, not thinking too much of it. He texted me later, frustrated that he couldn't get near his asking price. I texted back, telling him how you'll never get the money you have in it, back out of it. I was just being honest and sharing stories about cars that I'd had in the past that I'd dumped way too much money into. He texted back that if I wanted it, I could have it for $300. I told him $250, and he could keep his radio. I then drove down and signed the Title, and limped it home.

I let it sit for a few days, and then started tinkering. I started with the basic tune-up - rotor, cap, plugs, and none of this really made a difference. Well, I threw some OEM spark plug wires in it and it came to life. It runs and drives great, has 255k but all-in-all, it's a great car. I had to do some other stuff, like replace the cat to get it to pass emissions. As it sits, I've got about $1,700 in it, including tax, tag, and Title. I could have gotten away with less if I didn't replace some odds and ends in the interior, the brakes, etc. Oh yeah, and I also did an OEM timing belt, water pump, tensioner, and cam and crank seals. So it should be good to go for quite some time!

TL;DR - 1994 Corolla for $250, and 17hp Bolens riding mower for free (with about $50 in parts invested so far)

I'm a little bit addicted to the free stuff section. Good stuff goes quick, and you need to be willing to go get it asap. So Far I have gotten for free:

Honda 5hp propelled mower (guy didnt know there's a thing called carb cleaning)

Troy bilt 7hp propelled mower (handle broke, engine ran great, quick weld and its good to go)

3 chainsaws and a trimmer (guy was moving to an apt)

Chest freezer (only 2 years old, came with a house that someone bought and didnt want)

Sears cargo carrier (lock was stuck. 5 seconds and a can of wd40 and its good to go!)

Honda Power washer (relief valve got stuck, works great)

Craftsman 2 stage sbowblower. (had a broken drive cable, $15.00 repair)


People just dont know how to fix stuff these days, but I guess thats better for me !