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A half century of local want ads comes to a close.
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Thursday, October 9, 2008
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Dazed, Glazed, and Amazed...
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I was "hearted"
Thanks, Pink Granite!
Zonkaraz
Danelectros
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7 comments:
Sad but expected.
I worked there as a part time job for about a year in 2006. The people working there were a great group of folks, but you could see that the company which was started on a sheet of paper and a basement printing press was S-L-O-W to adapt to the information age.
So long Want Ad!
Done in by CraigsList and Freecycle? That's too bad.
They knew that CL was bringing them under while Neil and I worked there and they were not 100% onboard of moving the company in a different direction. Sad,I enjoyed working there
Back in the 70s, people would get access to the want adverstiser the night before at the printer. I believe that was on the Cape.
They'd scan for the real bargains and swoop in before anyone else.
I was selling old machine tools and got a call the day before the book came out, didn't think much about it, and by 8am the following morning the guy was loading up his truck. (I think a lot of it was junk). Somehow the people at the WA found out about this and demanded I give them the name of the buyer.
The slowness of paper and the ability to post images on craigslist makes the demise of things like the wantadvertiser a fait accompli. The Homes for Sale flyer and the boat seller magazine are next, I think.
dont blame craigslist. plenty of simlar companies survive and are growing. Ebay, Kijji, trader, autohunter, and more.......
Blame the guy with the blinders on who ran his families company into the ground!
Yes, it's sad, but it was due to total ignorance. I had been placing ads with them for years prior to the internet age, then sometime in 1998, I asked them if I could start listing my webpage address in my ad, they said no it was against their policies. For years they kept up with this, not even allowing an e-mail address in your ad, and this was way before SPAM was happening. Finally I pulled all my ads, and advertised solely online, which brought in way more repsonses in 1 day than the WantAD was pulling in a year.
It's obvious they viewed the internet as a threat, so instead embracing it, they went to war with it.
When the WantAD finally put their magazine online, about a year ago, they had already blown the deal. In the beginning, they were still trying to charge you for looking at the ads just as if you would purchase the book. Finally they let you look at the ads for free, but still pay them the rediculous commision if you sold something. The end was clear, when the magazine became useless. Everyone is either on Craigslist for free, or E-bay. If they had only back in 1998 put up their online version and had a 6 year old tell them how to make money from online placement advertising, the magazine could have been saved and become greater than Craigslist. But stupidity ran the family business into the ground. Dad must be rolling over in his grave and puking!
I was creating and hosting web sites in the mid-late 90's and contacted the WantAdv at that time about adding web content. They didn't want to hear about it. What a lost opportunity for both of us...
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