How to Sell a Board on Craigslist
Photo: Van Swae
Craigslist has quickly become the ideal venue for selling a used surfboard. The site doesn’t extract the high commissions surf shops do, it provides your board a greater audience, and if the board doesn’t sell right away, you have the ability to drop the price, change the photos or modify your sales pitch.
1. Pricing—Research what boards like the one you plan to sell are going for on both the used board racks at your local shop, as well as on Craigslist. Then price your board according to how fast you want to sell it. If you’re willing to wait, post a higher price. If you need to sell fast, price the board a bit under the average.
2. Pictures—Pictures are key. Remember how you like to hold and eye the curves of a board before buying and try to recreate this experience with the images you take. Color is big a consideration: you want the background that will make that board pop. For example, shoot a yellowed board against a lawn—the primary yellow in the green lawn will make your old gun look white in comparison.
3. Text—Telling a brief story about this board’s background, or even the best wave you every rode with this board, will help the buyer to picture themselves on the blade as well. Any connection this particular board has to a celebrity or important event will also help pull it to the front of the pack (Use web links to validate, or illustrate that connection). Be honest in descriptions of damage, etc. The surf world is a small place.
