Like searching Craig’s List “cars & trucks” category but hate seeing any listings “by Dealers?”  If so, here’s a quick tip for “manually” narrowing your search to listings “by Owner” only.

Start with the standard “all” cars and trucks view

1. Open a web browser and head over to Craig’s List
2. From the Craig’s List home page navigate to your specific geographical region
3. Now, click on the Cars & Trucks category

Normally, selecting this category link displays “all” the cars and trucks for sale in your selected region.  At this point, take a close look at the how the URL appears in your browser’s address bar.

Notice the “cta” near the end of the URL.  That acronym translates to “cars & trucks – all.”

Make a simple change to view cars and trucks by owner — only

If you want to just see the “cars & trucks – by owner,” do the following:

1. Click your mouse once in your browser’s address bar
2. If the entire address is suddenly highlighted, press the right arrow key to remove the highlight
3. Backspace over the “/” and letter “a” and replace them with a single letter “o” and press enter

Notice how the “cars & trucks” category only displays items for sale “by owner.”

Find the cars and trucks view right for you

From here you can refine your search to your specific needs such as price range, included images, and other details.  If you prefer to search all items in this category, or items offered “by dealer”, then just change the URL in the address bar according to what you want.

• cta = Cars & Trucks – All
• ctd = Cars & Trucks – by Dealer
• cto = Cars & Trucks – by Owner

You can, of course, select any one of these 3 sub-categories from drop down list shown on this page.  But unfortunately, you have to navigate to this level of Craig’s List before that option is available.  In my next post I’ll show how you can use this specific URL and create a desktop shortcut so you can quickly get right to this level.

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Filed under: How-To & Tech Tips