craigslist

craigslist 4 Everyone
$19.99
If you aren't using craiglist to sell, buy or promote, your event, your business or yourself, I think you maybe missing out on one of the most effective, inexpensive tools on the Web...and this book is one of the best resources to tell you how to most efficiently leverage your energy on craigslist.

Ironically, while I think craiglist is one of the most effective, inexpensive ways to sell or buy items on the Web, find employees or employment, get updates on events, or find people of like interests, in addition to promoting your business or commercial endeavors, there are very few good "How To" books on the subject. Lloyd's book is the best I've found as a well written, informational guide on how to get the most from the international phenomena that is craigslist. The book is created in a unique way so as not to intimidate the beginner, but also to "fill in the blanks" or suggest new ideas for those who have some experience using craigslist. With all of the visibility and buzz about social media and networking, which usually promotes Facebook, LinkedIn and other clearly commercial type services, I think craiglist is still one of the most underrated, cost effective [usually free or very close to free in all cases] online communities for participating and transacting personal and business activities, and Ms. Lloyd's book is, quite simply, the best beginner/intermediate primer on how to get the most out of, and leverage visibility on, this overwhelming popular and effective craiglist community.

Estate Sale Prospecting for Fun and Profit with craigslist and eBay
$19.95
I enjoyed the antecdotal bits dealing with the author's 'finds' and how he was able to turn them into profit on eBay. Plus it was helpful to hear his experiences on what didn't work.

HOWEVER - for upwards of $19 (incl shipping), this book simply does not offer the value to match it's pricetag. I was hoping for much more information/experiences about the culture of yard/estate/garage sales. Something perhaps like the highlights of a journal he created to chronicle his experiences at these events.

There just simply wasn't enough meat on these bones and I did not come away with any new insights, really.

Plus there were some pretty egregious problems with the editing.

If the cost was in the less then $10 range, I'd say okay. But you can go out and buy a "Dummies" book (unfortunately, not specifically on this topic that I know of) and see easily tenfold the content.

The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations
$15.00
From a philosophical perspective I think the books potential "lack of depth" serves as a benefit to the overall message. Had the authors thoroughly examined any one of the given examples the entire philosophical message would have been lost in the superfluity of facts.

In my eyes, the book serves to link communal endeavors to an age old principle of decentralization. The more an organization, army, or nation etc. becomes focused on a single person, on a single ideal, or on a singular vision the more that organization becomes susceptible to human ignorance. In that sense, this book has religion written into every page. Religion, that is, not according to a secular perspective, but, rather, that God is, accordingly, absolute truth of which man cannot obtain. Therefore, the Starfish is man's best effort to form an organization of diversity; reflecting the absolute diversity of God to its furthest worldly degree. Hence the success of such organizations, you see. Well that perspective may be true according to the vague perspective given in this book, however, that is why we have more than one book to read; diversity. If you want more "meat", go and read another book. I personally believe that this book deserves five stars.

Selling Online 2.0: Migrating from eBay to Amazon, craigslist, and Your Own E-Commerce Website
$21.99
This book was of interest to me because I am always looking for new ways to expand my small eBay business and my website. It helped on both fronts - it was informative, up-to-date, and encouraging. It also covered some of the other sites you can potentially use to sell products - Amazon Marketplace, Yahoo, online classified (i.e. Craigslist) and several others. There are pros/cons given for each, and the fee structure(s) associated with selling on various sites. I found the fee tables particularly helpful when grouped together, because you could see the real difference between the sites' costs. The book is quite reader-friendly - it's easy to understand an implement. It would be best suited for people who are already on eBay and actively selling; it didn't seem like a good introduction to the web/eBay/ecommerce and was for slightly more advanced users. I wish the author would have expanded a bit more beyond the big three (eBay/Amazon/Yahoo) and maybe delved deeper into alternative sites (i.e. Etsy, iOffer, etc) so we could know a bit about these smaller alternatives.