How do you guys search craigslist?

Jasta 11

Well-known Member
When searching for drums I find it a pain in the neck to input every different title i can think of in the search bar. If i put "Drum Kit" , people who list there kit as "Drums", dont show up in my search. I find myself search separately for Drum set, Drumset, Drums, Drum, drum kit etc to find all of the listings. and forget about cymbals, or cymbols or symbals....ugh!!! I admit searching Drums brings a lot of other stuff like barrels and rear brake drums but i hate to not see a listing. I randomly searched Weatherking and scored a blackrolite one time. Am i missing a good short cut?
 
I search by manufacturer, as I'm usually looking for something specific. The problem with Gretsch (which is what I usually search) is that they make guitars and amps as well as drums, so I get a ton of unwanted search results. However you can add a minus sign in front of a term you want to exclude from your search, such as "-guitar" or "-amp", but that doesn't help if they're listing (for example) a "Gretsch G2420 Hollow Body Electric".

If I'm not looking for something specific, I'll do one search for "drums" and another for "drum set" and leave it at that. You can also limit your search to only the Musical Instrument category, which will eliminate drum barrels, drum brakes, etc.
 
I search "drums" or "cymbals", and only in the Musical Instrument section of For Sale. I am not interested in drum brakes, drum magazines, etc. I only search "cymbals" because if they cant be bothered to even spell the thing right, they probably want $800 for some cracked ZBTs, and I have no time or interest in that mess.
 
I usually go into the Musical Instruments subsection and search “drum” and then “drums”, but I don’t know if that catches everything.

I haven’t checked, but can you search CL ads posted within a specific time period?
 
There used to be a daily lister that would look at all craigslist sites, along with ebay and reverbnation. Oh, hear it is (rather than tell you to go google it, which is such a rude thing to say to a fellow musician):

 
I haven’t checked, but can you search CL ads posted within a specific time period?
I dont know the answer to this, but I do know you can blanket search CL using Google. For example, " craigslist" + "drum" will search every CL for the word drum. Anything it finds will pop up in your Google browser. I'm not sure if adding + "california" will keep it in California. If it does, you can blanket search by state also.

EDIT: @rhumbagirl has a faster way it looks like
 
I’ve never bought from Craigslist because I assume that is where they sell the drums that they stole from your house and try to sell them to me. Of course not all are that way but I don’t know which sellers are legit.

That is just my personal feeling on Craigslist.

The sketchy sellers/buyers are noticeable from a mile away. I just ignore them and move on.
 
I just search musical Instruments and work my way through about two days worth. I go there enough. I do the same for Materials.
 
I go to musical instrument and put in "Rogers" or "Yamaha Drums"..

Problem is in my area (detroit) there is a guy that buys EVERYTHING that's half way decently priced and then re-lists it... so i gave up on CL...
 
I’ve never bought from Craigslist because I assume that is where they sell the drums that they stole from your house and try to sell them to me. Of course not all are that way but I don’t know which sellers are legit.

That is just my personal feeling on Craigslist.
I got a nice rack and nice setups from them, I don't know if they were stolen or not, but I don't think so and I don't live anywhere near where I bought either so that should never be a problem, the second thing is that neither one of the sellers seemed shady or in a hurry to sell, they basically were downsizing and that was that.
 
Doesn’t the app allow one to search for an item in multiple cities?
 
How do you guys search craigslist?
First thing I do is put on my "readers" so I can distinguish the letters. Then go to the musical instruments category in my area. I then type in what I'm specifically interested in. By now I usually take a sip of coffee and work my way through the listings. Depending on how many there are and how much coffee I've had, I can usually make it through without a restroom break. As I'm finishing up my browsing, I'm thinking "Most of these folks are asking way too much for what they're selling. Others are just selling junk that may or may not be salvageable. Some actually sell good stuff for decent prices." By then I'm pretty much done and asking myself "Why did I even bother?" That's about it.
 
I just search the musical instruments section, and look at the drums, guitars, basses, PA equipment, studio gear, and horns. Occasionally, I find a deal worth buying, but mostly I'm on there looking for oddball stuff.

When I started looking on craigslist, a dozen years ago or so, there were 6 guys that were called the "Big 6" by me and some musicians I know. Any time a deal appeared on craigslist, you could bet that within an hour one of the Big 6 would snag it and relist it within a few days. I used to keep track of them and their shenanigans,
like a detective or something. Now, there's, like, a "Big 13" or so out there, and drum deals are near impossible to come by, unless you catch the ad *right* when it gets listed.
 
I just search the musical instruments section, and look at the drums, guitars, basses, PA equipment, studio gear, and horns. Occasionally, I find a deal worth buying, but mostly I'm on there looking for oddball stuff.

When I started looking on craigslist, a dozen years ago or so, there were 6 guys that were called the "Big 6" by me and some musicians I know. Any time a deal appeared on craigslist, you could bet that within an hour one of the Big 6 would snag it and relist it within a few days. I used to keep track of them and their shenanigans,
like a detective or something. Now, there's, like, a "Big 13" or so out there, and drum deals are near impossible to come by, unless you catch the ad *right* when it gets listed.

That’s the problem with living in a major city. The upside is that good gear gets posted regularly in a big city. Out here in Southwest Virginia, you might see something cool every month or two, at most, and the price is often sky-high lol
 
I just search the musical instruments section, and look at the drums, guitars, basses, PA equipment, studio gear, and horns. Occasionally, I find a deal worth buying, but mostly I'm on there looking for oddball stuff.

When I started looking on craigslist, a dozen years ago or so, there were 6 guys that were called the "Big 6" by me and some musicians I know. Any time a deal appeared on craigslist, you could bet that within an hour one of the Big 6 would snag it and relist it within a few days. I used to keep track of them and their shenanigans,
like a detective or something. Now, there's, like, a "Big 13" or so out there, and drum deals are near impossible to come by, unless you catch the ad *right* when it gets listed.
There is a guy around here that has the typical Wanted old drums post. he is the typical scammer/ poster that is hoping someone will sell grandpas round badge Gretsch kit for 50 bucks. He has about 5 ads running at all times to buy, i have NEVER seen him sell.
 
How do you guys search craigslist?
First thing I do is put on my "readers" so I can distinguish the letters. Then go to the musical instruments category in my area. I then type in what I'm specifically interested in. By now I usually take a sip of coffee and work my way through the listings. Depending on how many there are and how much coffee I've had, I can usually make it through without a restroom break. As I'm finishing up my browsing, I'm thinking "Most of these folks are asking way too much for what they're selling. Others are just selling junk that may or may not be salvageable. Some actually sell good stuff for decent prices." By then I'm pretty much done and asking myself "Why did I even bother?" That's about it.
hahaha all of the above as i sit here with my coffee and readers on!
 
Never saw much in music department but once finding nuttin I’d start looking around then find the “personal” seeking relationship stuff ,they use to have before policy changes , where I saw more than I wanted to LOL. That was just a Wild West of crazy.
 
I search in "all for sale" because shockingly a lot of people aren't very smart and will list drums in the general for sale or they'll put electronic drums in the "electronics" section. I also search the word "moving", I used to flip gear as a side hustle and found numerous great deals where people are moving and just want something gone. I've also gotten deals where people don't put up a picture but will send one via text/email, the ads normally get looked over but there's occasionally some diamonds in the rough!
 
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