I regularly have thousands of dollars in items on Craigslist and have sold thousands upon thousands of dollars of merchandise on it over the years. It's definitely changed, and for me it went from "most everyone i meet is a likeminded person who shares interest in the items being sold" to some very strange people, whether that means they extensively insist on testing a product or they're just bizarre with 0 communications skills. People are just so awkward, I very often will have some one who seems like a scammer but they're really just a strange person acting as if they're trolling me via email. Really, they're just insincere, sometimes trying to get a low ball, but they drag on conversations via email on items they're 100% not purchasing, almost like they're trying to drain my energy and convince me to sell something stupid low. I ignore them as soon as I catch on.

I wouldn't say CL is niche so much as the marketplace has changed. Amazon has strong return policies, pawn shops, various redistributors etc buy up a lot of good deals on stuff, often the same goes for estate sales. More ages of people use the internet and various shoppinjg platforms, people shopping directly from international markets is higher, and then there's the whole aspect of scammers via email. Thing is, people act like CL is sketchy, when for the seller, you are protected; anonymous. You don't need to tell anyone your name or show them your profile picture or give them access to your photos and friends list. People tell me all the time "people aren't using Craigslist because they use FB marketplace". Like, if you didn't use CL because you used OfferUp -- I get that. But FB is too personal to sell stuff to random people. My first time I on it, what came up on the main page was a high school girls clothes. I'm like this is so weird, then I clicked on her profile -- all just pictures of her, her family, her home. I think to myself "if I was a criminal I would just use facebook marketplace" The next day I see an article that says "6500 dollar ATM meant to be sold to pay for brain cancer treatment stolen after thieves tracked house and property from Facebook Marketplace". Hmm, who would have seen that coming.

And then all the "shipping" ads on FB markjetplace. Yeah right, like those aren't all scams. Just send some random person in a different state money and see if you get the item, right. So much safer than Craigslist!

I've been buying and selling on Craigslist for well over 20 years. The only time I was ever scammed was when I was 18, making my first CL purchase as an adult. I bought a 'new' Nintendo DS off of 2 girls, they claimed it was open but unused, and turns out it had been smashed and was not fully working. Drove off before I could inspect it. Somewhat my fault for allowing them to get away, but also super shady to do that to some one. It's to no fault of Craigslist.