Craigslist

You most likely know about the beauty of Craigslist. You, like me, might look for cheap-o vendors in the "services" section. You might scroll through the "for sale" section to see if there's anything that strikes your fancy -- vases, decorations, wedding dresses, or unwanted wedding/engagement rings. Or, you might just type "wedding" into the search box and see what pops up. It's fun; I'm sure you know.

But what if you're looking for a particular item, and you've exhausted all of your local search options (Craigslist, consignment shops, yard sales, etc) with no luck? You're pretty sure someone, somewhere, is selling what you're looking for, but you don't know how to find them, short of hitting every single Craigslist site out there.

Enter: Google.

I love you, Google.

First, Google "craigslist." The first link it returns is the one you want. Below it, you'll see hotlinks to some of the biggest/most popular Craigslist locations. Below that, you'll see another search box, that says, "Search craigslist.org."


Use that search box to type in your query. Say, for instance, you're looking for paper lanterns; they're light, they're cheap to ship, and they're likely to be resold after other brides use them in their weddings (yes, they're very trendy right now, but that's not stopping me from using them). Just type in "paper lantern" -- everything that comes back will be from a Craigslist posting. And if, for some reason, you are picky about where it comes from, the first part of each URL it returns will be the host city. I got 148 hits back.

Not bad!

And if you're a Google fiend and like search shortcuts, here's the one you want:

search term site:craigslist.org (italics not necessary, of course)

A Craigslist-specific search every time!