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Is Craigslist hurting the economy?
10 years ago if you had an old bicycle you might sell it to a friend or donate it to Goodwill. It would cost $20 or more to buy an ad in the local paper so selling it to the general public didn't make sense.
Fast forward to today. If you want to sell your old bike you put up an ad on Craigslist with a couple of pics and before long someone shows up with cash.
The key detail is that 10 years ago the person who needed to BUY a bike had limited choices. Most likely they went to their local bike shop or retail store to buy a new bike as there wasn't a ready market of used goods.
This same theory applies to electronics, appliances, sporting goods, etc. Previously it wasn't cost effective to advertise small items for sale and, therefor, consumers were faced with buying new. How much is this increased turnover in used goods hurting the economy?
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Lee
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