Frugal Friday, for the Craigslist Scouter!

I've, of course, preached on the amazing finds one can get for themselves on craigslist, but sometimes scouting for those items can be a challenge. Let's say for instance that you're looking for a bedside table, but you're looking for a vintage one, maybe from the 40's or 50's because you love the look of the smaller size and the original pulls on the drawers. You may think that you can just type in "vintage night stand" or something to that effect and find, well, what you searched for. Think again! Sometimes your search criteria will yield exactly what you've searched for, sometimes you'll find something like this: an actual search find. This my friends, is not vintage.

There was recently a post on Apartment Therapy that made me laugh, and finally feel validated in this irritation I've found with craigslister's definitions, that was about just this!

"Do You Suffer from Craigslist Elitist Syndrome?

I, Sarah Rae Trover am a Craigslist elitist. I can't help it. After buying everything from pets to houses and selling more home goods than I could pretend to recall, it just seems to come with the territory. It's not something I'm proud of, but I feel the green monster trying to hulk out inside of me when someone labels or tags something incorrectly just because they want it to sell and they read a home decor blog once (and obviously didn't learn anything). Now you might be thinking, wow, she's such a jerk, but more so, I'd like to consider myself honest. I can't lie, if I read the phrase "rot (or rod) iron" one more time I might scream or do more than grumble under my breath. Although spelling errors mean you have to comb

through the entire furniture section instead of searching for what you want, more annoying are home design buzz words. Now, I can no longer set my Google Reader to follow key phrases (hopefully allowing me to get the jump on those who work in an office during the day). It would seem that anything made before 1990 is considered "vintage" or "retro" and don't get me started on the word "modern." All you'll find there are horribly over-stuffed furniture that would swallow even the largest human whole.

Now one might ask why I would highlight this horrible trait, after all it's not exactly something one strives to be. To be quite honest, I still haven't decided if I'm seeking company in my annoyance or looking for a 12 step program of some sort. I'm tired of keeping a list of designers next to me because no longer can I hope to stumble upon a find where someone doesn't really know what they have, instead I'm left looking for pieces from those sellers who know exactly how much their Eames Lounger is worth.

Is it just me? Does it seem to be getting more difficult to find what you want on Craigslist without spending more and more time sifting through items that are listed incorrectly? As Walter Cronkite would say, "That's the way the cookie crumbles," and although that holds true in this situation, I still haven't learned how to deal. Have you?"

I, obviously suffer from Craigslist Elitist Syndrome as well, as least I have a diagnosis now!