Free Classifieds going the way of the Do-Do Bird!??

[TomLandin]

A recent reply on the 'AXIS eBay' classified ad has prompted me to make an observation on the state of internet 'free' classified's, and would appreciate your comments and opinions.

It seems that all the previous 'free' internet services are slowly converting to 'pay' services. For example - Personnals. All the major players (Yahoo, MSN, Excite, Lycos, etc.) have converted their 'free' Personnals to second-party providers - which charge you to use thier services. Major bummer for use lurkers....

@HOME.com (Excite) just changed ownership, and the previous 'classifieds2000' has been totally revamped (very poorly in my opinion). I use to be able to easily post articles for sale, look up gigs, reply to all sorts of ads, etc., etc. Now it looks like it will soon become a 'pay' classified service in the near future.

I feel lost not being able to quickly and easily view classifieds and personnals without getting gouged in the process. And I'm way too cheap to pay for second-rate service.

It's a wonder this site (and ddrums.com) remains free (knock on wood). I highly encourage anyone to use this Classifieds section to help draw attention to their product, even if it is on eBay.

Anyhow - that's my 2 cents for now. Let's hear from the rest of you all.

[Stoovey]

This site is free because it's owned by a private individual who is also an e-drummer. At least I think so. At any rate, it's not high-profile like Exicte, Yahoo, and the like.

I share your sentiments regarding classifieds. While there is a market for a certain number of well-done pay sites, I'm sick of the other sites switching to pay sites. And the quality almost always goes down, not up. I guess I wouldn't have a problem if the rates were fair. But $20 for a single month?!

[Schmunk]

Well, for the UK there's musicmart.co.uk, but no bugger uses it...

Schmunk