This great New York Metro article encapsulates many of the changes that Craigslist has wrought on NYC, from escort services to apartment brokers to reality TV to human subjects research:
It Helped Set Off the Vintage-Furniture Craze
Is it coincidence that Craigslist’s ascendancy dovetailed with the rise of midcentury-modern mania? “It’s like a giant yard sale,” says Andrew Eutsler of Cosmo’s Cosmos furniture shop in Brooklyn, whose best finds include six Saarinen tulip chairs for $75. And it’s not just midcentury stuff. An employee at Steven Sclaroff in the West Village tried in vain to snag a mahogany T. H. Robsjohn-Gibbings chest for $15. (A refinished one at the store costs $3,225.) “People don’t know what they’ve got, and then it’s gone,” says Eutsler. But sellers are wising up. A few years ago, he slipped and told some how happy he was to get such a great deal. They raised prices on the spot. Buyers also realized better deals can be had from Eames-era grandmas with DSL. Craigslist’s a “threat,” admits David “Jake” Jacobs, of Two Jakes in Williamsburg. It “probably has blown the bubble on things that we as retailers could’ve gotten more money for.”
(via Kottke)