+1

I have had one really bad Craigslist experience, and it was all my fault -- I was searching for a bike for my son, and we wanted to do a bit of restoration work together, and we saw a likely candidate posted on CL for $65 (an old Trek 400). We went across town to a pretty bad neighborhood, and found a guy, reeking of alcohol and unsteady on his feet, selling a bunch of stuff out of his garage. I was a little uneasy about sticking around for long, so we paid the $65 for the bike and left .

When we got home, I realized that the only reason the Trek appeared to fit is because it had an absurdly long seatpost and stem -- but that the basic frame and many of the parts were in good condition under a bunch of grime. We decided in a few minutes that it wasn't worth our time to fix up a bike that wouldn't fit, so we cleaned it up and donated it to a local bike co-op.

We felt good about the donation, and learned a good lesson that cost us only $65 and some time.