Last weekend my wife and decided that we needed to upgrade our couch and in our eagerness decided that we wanted it delivered as soon as possible which happened to be Friday (yesterday). This led us to the question of what to do with our existing couch. The pragmatist in me decided that we should list it on Craigslist and NextDoor for $300 and see who would bite but after a few days without any response it became clear that if we wanted it gone soon it would need to be free. So this past Wednesday I relisted as a free and started receiving bites - just under a dozen on Craigslist and one via NextDoor.

Surprisingly enough the couch ended up being picked up through the response on NextDoor. Very few on Craigslist followed up to my question about timing and it seems no one there actually had any incentive to come. NextDoor, on the other hand, has that community element built in which adds a bit of trust to both sides in the transaction. It also makes it easier to follow through on a commitment versus an anonymous email. In this case I got a chance to help a neighbor and we plan on meeting up for a beer over the next few weeks.

Given its prevalence Craigslist is here to stay for a while but NextDoor is doing something special. At lower volumes you have quantity beating quality but once there’s some volume the momentum quickly shifts to quality. NextDoor seems to have gotten to this point and I look forward to seeing where they take it.