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Do you use Craigslist on a regular basis, but are frustrated by the lack of nationwide searching? Are you looking for that hard to find item that could be anywhere in the country. Let’s face it, the Craigslist website isn’t exactly the most functional out there. Luckily there are a variety of ways to search the entire Craigslist database for that special something (or someone). Follow this guide to learn how.
Steps
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Find a Craigslist searching tool. There are several websites will search through all regions of Craigslist. These sites vary in the amount of control they offer, but all will allow you to search Craigslist nationwide. Some of the more popular sites include: [1] X Research source
- Search Tempest
- ad hunt’r
- Search All Junk
- DailyLister
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Enter your search term. Some websites will just provide results for the specific term across all of Craigslist, while others will allow you to specify categories and regions.
- For Search Tempest, enter the postal code and the radius you want your search to encompass. If you’d like, you can use the Preferences section to change to a state, region, or worldwide search. You can choose categories and sub-categories before you begin your search.
- For ad hunt’r, you’ll need to enter your search first. After the results are returned, you will be able to use the filters on the left side of the page to narrow your results to specific areas and categories.
- Search All Junk is a barebones search site. Enter your search, and then use the tabs at the top of your results list to view different regions. You cannot search through specific categories.
- Daily Lister allows you to search and specify the category. Once you have a list of search results, you can use the menu at the top to specify the region. You can also choose to search by just the title or the whole post. DailyLister does not search outside of the US.
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Browse the results. Each service will return results in a different order, and many let your further refine your search. Use the tools available to narrow your search down to something useful for you.
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Use advanced search operators. Google can do way more than just search, and with a little trick, can do a search of Craigslist on a nationwide scale.
- This method also works with Bing, Yahoo, and other search engines.
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Enter your search criteria. In the search field, enter what you're looking for—whether jobs, merchandise, or love—it's all the same to Google!
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Follow your search word or words with "site: craigslist.org" . This will focus the search for information on Craigslist and all of its subdomains.
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Use additional modifiers to narrow your search. You can add additional search criteria by using search operators. Some of the most useful for Craigslist include:
- Price range – Enter in two prices separated by “..” For example: “Panasonic TV $400..$500 site: craigslist.org” will only return results that list a price in that range.
- Zip code – Add a zip code to the end of the search to narrow your results down by location. For example: “Panasonic TV $400..$500 site: craigslist.org 90210” will return results that match the price range and that appear near Beverly Hills, CA.
- Exclude words – You can remove words from your search to exclude results that you don’t need. For example: “Panasonic TV $400..$500 site: craigslist.org 90210 -used” will return results that match the price range in Beverly Hills that aren’t used. [2] X Research source
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Community Q&A
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QuestionHow do I search all of Craigslist for a certain item by owner only?Community AnswerYou can do that with AllofList.com. For example to search all Craigslist cars for sale by owner just select cars/trucks from the drop down menu and search.
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QuestionHow do you find either the phone number or email address when they're not shown in the ad even when you click on REPLY?DIGIBANKSCommunity AnswerSometimes websites have hidden information in their HTML code that isn't visible on the front end. You could try inspecting the website's HTML code (right-click and select "Inspect" on most browsers) to see if there's any contact information buried in there. Some ads might have a contact form that you can fill out instead of directly displaying an email address or phone number. You could try submitting the form and seeing if the ad poster responds.
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