If you’re starting a new business, hiring on a shoestring budget, or simply sprucing up your home office, you’ll need some new office gear, and you probably won’t want to spend much. Believe it or not, Craigslist isn’t just for used couches and one-night stands; it’s also exceptionally good for finding standard office furniture (cubicles, desks, chairs, and so on) at unusually low prices. However, Craigslisting is an art in itself, so we’ve got some tricks that will help you seal the deal on whatever used gear your new office needs.
The Budget
Buying a basic, no-frills office chair and desk at OfficeMax will run you at least $170, a phone/fax machine will cost another $60, and brand-new cubicle units may be tagged at anything from $500 to $3000 apiece, depending on configuration, wall height, and filing options. Spend a few minutes on Craigslist, however, and you’ll find plenty of office furniture that sellers need to get rid of for cheap–or even free.
The Search
Let’s start with searching. Unless you have all the time in the world, you shouldn’t begin by aimlessly browsing the ‘For Sale’ sections; instead, zero in on the relevant categories (‘Furniture’, ‘Business’, and ‘Free Stuff’ are sensible choices) and then start searching. Try entering a general query (“office furniture”) in ‘Free Stuff’ just to see what’s available at the lowest price of all.
If nothing comes up, move on to ‘Furniture’ and ‘Business’. In those three categories in the San Francisco Bay Area, I got 600 results for “office furniture,” so I decided to pare down the search results by checking the ‘has image’ tag; I figured that if the seller couldn’t be bothered to post an image, I probably wouldn’t want the item anyway. I also set the minimum price to $2 because I didn’t want to see ads from furniture dealers submit their listings with a tagged price of $1 but don’t actually list any prices in the ad. Generally speaking, furniture dealers charge higher prices than furniture owners do–you can check them out for yourself in the ‘Furniture by Owner’ and ‘Furniture by Dealer’ categories.
On the other hand, services like Craiglook and Search Tempest offer alternative Craigslist search functions that cater to power users, like slightly more refined search options (search terms to exclude, for example) and the option to search other nearby Craigslist portals. If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area and are willing to drive 250 miles, for example, Search Tempest will include Craigslist search results for the region stretching from Stockton to Sacramento.
Post an Item Wanted Ad
Closing the Deal
Once you discover it, you need to buy it–and doing so isn’t a simple matter of clicking ‘Buy It Now’. Fortunately, we’ve assembled a few tips that will help you seal the deal and get to work in your new office.
1. Speed it up. Most people on Craigslist want to move their stuff as quickly as possible–within minutes or hours, not days. If they provide a phone number in the posting, it’s because they want you to call it rather than send them an e-mail note. If you have to use e-mail, include your phone number in your contact information so the seller can contact you immediately. To minimize the odds of having the ideal office chair pulled out from under you, you need to buy that chair as quickly as possible. Also, dithering over transportation arrangements can cost you time and money: If you need a truck, line it up before you start the Craigslist search process, so it’ll be ready to go when you need to pounce.
2. Indicate interest. People are busy and don’t want to wade through a dozen diffident potential buyers to find one who will follow through. Asking plenty of questions during your initial phone call is a good way to get detailed information about the goods in question and show the seller that you’re more interested in buying them than whoever else has called. In certain circumstances, establishing a clear interest in the item can be more important than speed; after all, if I’m using my valuable after-work free time to sell this thing, I want to deal with someone who won’t waste my time.
Hopefully these tips will help you get your office up and running on time and under budget. For more budget-friendly business tips, check out “How to Start an Online Business for $100.”