Spending and Saving
Frugal Obsession: Listia
You know you have it. Stuff you don’t want and don’t use, but that seems too valuable to throw or give away. The nearly-full bottle of hair product that’s taking up space in the bathroom. That promotional glass paperweight. The television cables you bought and forgot to return after you realized they didn’t work with your set.
Okay, you might not have those exact things–but I did. And frankly, they were causing me the tiniest bit of angst until TechCrunch wrote about Listia, a new website that’s a cross between eBay and Freecycle.
At Listia, you give away things you don’t want anymore in exchange for points, which you can use to bid on other things on Listia, or give to charity. This eliminates the mess of emails you’d get if you listed your stuff on Craigslist and comes with other perks for these penny-pinching times.
Pros
- Get credits for junk that someone might not be wiling to buy outright
- Get stuff for free! (Sort of–with your points.)
- Keep stuff out of landfills
- Help charity
- Some of the free things are actually good–right now there are Prada glasses and a Paul Frank tee-shirt listed
- Since the site is new, they’re offering bonus points just for signing up, checking in, and listing items
Cons
- The site is new, so there aren’t a ton of listings yet
- A lot of the free things are pretty crap. Expect to see a fair number of Christmas pins.
- The great things they seed the site with–like iPods, can cost a lot of points
Listia can be weirdly addictive. I find myself eying the most random things, wondering just how much someone would be willing to bid for a travel-sized bottle of body lotion or a CD from the W Hotel. (Uh, the answers are nothing and one point. Who knew?) Plus, Listia helps me avoid becoming like my grandparents. I swear the Depression is why they hoarded 20-year-old boxes of band-aids.
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3 comments for “Frugal Obsession: Listia”
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if you buy from some people on listia you may get more than you bargained for ACTIVEPATRIOT on lista will harass you to the ends of the earth and send you nasty emails calling you a physcopath .. over a free listing free yes but you may be getting more than you have asked for .
Really, really, really avoid this site. There are some real crazies trying to get free stuff on here who really have boundary issues. One threatened to come to my home if I didn’t refund their shipping costs, and then proceeded to call my place of business and bad mouth me. I had to have my lawyer write her a cease and desist letter. Absolutely crazy. Just overall a bunch of crazies. You give them something free and then they bitch about it. Really, seriously, stay away.
just try it before criticizing. Really listia is great. You can look ar people’s feedbacks before bidding. I am planning my wedding and I found almost everything in listia. To start out copy/paste this link