Search smarter at craigslist.com and save money

Craigslist.com is a person-to-person classified ad service, with city-specific websites for most large cities in the U.S. There's a ton of great bargains to be had there, but many people have trouble locating the item they are looking for. And, they aren't aware that craigslists' search facility is a little more full-featured than it appears. Here's a few helpful tips that will help you find what you are looking for:

1. Use the "-" operator in your searches on craigslist. For example, if you want an electric oven, searching for "oven -gas" will bring back more results than "electric oven", potentially showing you the deal you were looking for.
2. Also have a look at the "|" operator. It stands for "or". So, if you are looking for either a Honda Civic or Accord, search for "civic | accord"
3. Finally, you can group items together with parenthesis. So, if you want a red truck that's either a ford or a dodge, but not a chevy: "red ( ford | dodge ) -chevy -chevrolet"

When you combine this with craigslists' ability to search by min and max price, model years for cars, number of bedrooms for apartments, etc...it becomes pretty powerful. Craigslist can also be easier than eBay in some cases, since you have the option of seeing the item before you buy it. Also great for items where shipping is prohibitively expensive, like furniture, cars, etc.