New Moms Sell Excess Breast Milk for Cash on Internet

By JUJU CHANG (@JujuChangABC) and NATASHA SINGH
From: http://abcnews.go.com/

Women all over the country are cashing in on what people are calling a mother's natural liquid gold: human breast milk. (ABC News)

Women all over the country are cashing in on what people are calling a mother's natural liquid gold: human breast milk. A month's supply can cost anywhere from $300 up to $1,200 dollars. In contrast, a month's worth of formula costs an average of $200.

For Kamilla Vainshtok and other women like her, the transactions – all done online – can literally "pump up" their income. "Onlythebreast.com is basically a Craigslist for breast milk," Vainshtok told "Good Morning America." "There's buyers and sellers, there's an opportunity for them to meet each other."

Vainshtok, 25, is now in the unpaid portion of her maternity leave. Four months after her daughter was born she started producing an abundance of milk. It's been a source of extra money for her.

"I Googled breast milk for sale, milk for donation, and I came across onlythebreast.com … within the first week that of my listing, I found a family in Ohio that needed some breast milk and I shipped it out to them," the Brooklyn, N.Y., resident said.

Chang asked Vainshtok of if pumping her milk and putting it in the mail didn't "seem weird" to her.
"It definitely did seem weird to me but I knew I was helping a family in need," she replied. "Their child wasn't responding well to formula, was having a lot of tummy aches and spit-ups. So I figured if I was able to help this child with breast milk because their mother wasn't able to, then I might as well help them out."

Moms Earn Needed Cash

It was a win-win situation for both the buyer and Vainshtok. She shipped 300 ounces to the buyer in packed ice. That one-month supply added several hundred dollars to her bank account.

Allee Kincaid's excess milk has earned her the family nickname "the dairy cow."

"My husband and I just added it up and over the last 9.5 months, we've had about 16,000 ounces," the 26-year-old from Baxter, Iowa, said.

Kincaid is a stay-at-home mom. She also found the niche industry online -- which has been fueled by a slew of medical studies which have concluded that breast milk can boost everything from babies' immune systems to their I.Q.s.

The money Kincaid earns from mothers who're unable to breast feed themselves helps to pay her bills.
"We're a one-income family, my husband works … We actually just bought a new truck that would fit all of us, because my car that I had before was kind of smaller," she said. "So it definitely helped us buy things that we wouldn't be able to afford otherwise." Desiree Espinoza's milk money gave her the wedding of her dreams – including her dress, his tuxedo, the decorations – and even their rings.

"In the first month I made close to $1,200. It was quite a bit … ," Espinoza, 22, said.

The Phoenix woman has used that money to fill lots of needs: a computer, clothes for her growing daughter, wipes, medicine, "anything else that she needed that we didn't have the money for," she said.

But the exchange is not without risk. What little screening there is is all based on the honor system.
That allows for so many unknowns -- such as the donor's medical background, said Dr. Judy Goldstein, a pediatrician with Global Pediatrics in Manhattan. Purchasers also don't know if the donor mother has been on drugs.

"The skin of the mother could be contaminated … then the breast pump has to be sterile…," Goldstein added.

In fact, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration does not recommend buying breast milk on the open market. Such transactions could lead to the transmission of disease. However, it does recommend buying milk from approved milk banks. It may cost more, but the dangers are reduced.

Seller Mom Not Sure She'd Use 'Stranger's' Milk

"I would never do anything to harm anyone else's baby," Kincaid said.

"I feed my baby the same milk that I'm selling … I've had thousands of e-mails, back and forth, between people before they buy milk because they want to make sure it's the best for their baby and I as a mother can understand wanting to be cautious," she added.

Ironically, Vainshtok isn't so sure she could overlook the caveats if the tables were turned.

"Not from a perfect stranger – maybe if I knew the person, I might be willing to do it. But doing it over the Internet from a perfect stranger, just seems a little bit strange to me. And yet you're the perfect stranger. Absolutely and of course I have all good intentions so I'm definitely doing it the proper way. But you never know," she said.

Copyright © 2011 ABC News Internet Ventures

Teen Trades up on Craigslist from Phone to Porsche in 2 Years

by JD Rucker

from: http://www.autointhenews.com/

In a world where many teens seem to lack both patience and common sense, one teen in Glendora, CA, demonstrated both masterfully.

Steven Ortiz, 17, used Craigslist to trade his way up from an old cell phone to a Porsche. It took him 2 years of bartering like mad, but it appears that the effort was worth it. He’s the only student at Charter Oak High School who drives a Porsche to school.

His path from old cell phone to Porsche included working his way up to an iPod, then a MacBook Pro laptop. Eventually, Ortiz traded up from electronics to dirt bikes, then cars and trucks, and an SUV.

“A lot of my friends are jealous,” Ortiz said. “A lot of my friends come up to me and tell me, ‘You want to trade my phone for a car? Try to get me a Ferrari.’ I tell them it’s not that easy. It takes time and patience, definitely.”

Ortiz’s skill at identifying a good deal started years ago when he would buy cell phones off of his friends. At $30 each, he would turn around and sell the used cell phones online for three times the amount he paid. He also picked up a knack for repairing electronics, which enabled him to take something that was almost worthless and get it functioning again.

Eventually, Ortiz discovered bartering. Many people online are looking for ways to exchange something they don’t need in order to get something they do need. These same people often realize that they can get more through bartering than through selling the item for cash.

“A lot of people don’t have money right now, in this economy. So they think, `I really need a new phone, but I don’t have the money. Here I have this CD player lying around that I don’t use anymore, maybe I can trade,”‘ Steven’s father Esteban explained.

Like many Americans, the Ortiz family has been hit hard by the economy. But with his uncanny ability to scour the Web for incredible deals, Steven Ortiz has still managed to get whatever he wants, despite facing economic hardship.

* * *

Find a Sweet Stoner Housemate on 420 Room Search

By Ashley Harrell

Apparent dilemma: Where can San Franciscans find other pot smokers?

​Are you tired of being surrounded by clear-headed people? Do you resent the fact that only every other Craigslist roommate posting includes the phrase "420 friendly"?

Now there's a better place for all you reality-resistant folks to congregate! 420 Room Search will help you "find people you actually want to live with," the Web site explains. "Low key land lords and easy going roommates."

We found 420 Room Search advertised on its competition, Craigslist.org, in a Bernal Heights Housing ad entitled, "alternative roommates situations." Gotta say, it would be more alternative to find a place to live in San Francisco where nobody smoked weed.

Coolest find on Craigslist? Mansion living in Seattle, just $650/month

By: Andrea Chalupa

Wouldn't it be great to live in a mansion on the water, Gatsby-style, with your best friends and make art all day? That was the fantasy of Celene Ramadan, a twentysomething filmmaker and musician living in Seattle, who rented a lake house in Chicago with 17 friends while attending an improv festival. The rental only lasted a week, but it left Ramadan with the idea that her artist collective, Beta Society, should have a "frat house" of its own.

Then a friend forwarded her a Craigslist posting for a 10,000-s.f. mansion on Seattle's Puget Sound, available for rent. The subject line of the e-mail expressed the astonishment of the find: "really, truly, seriously."

The mansion had been languishing on the market for two years until the owner, web entrepreneur and indie-film financier Garr Godfrey, gave up and decided to rent it out at a loss. Ramadan spent months wrangling 10 tenants, enough to cover the rent -- and writing Garr a heartfelt letter expressing her appreciation for his house.

And so it was that Ramadan scored quite possibly one of the best Craigslist finds in history. The housewarming party, celebrating the signing of a two-year lease, lasted days. "I never thought anything like this would exist in Seattle," Ramadan said as she relaxed in her ivy-covered gazebo on a sizzling afternoon last week, during the Pacifc Northwest's mercifully rare triple-digit heat wave.

The mansion, built in 1952, is a gated, multitiered playground. Along with the gazebo, the backyard has its own kitchen with a pizza oven, a playground fit for a well-endowed elementary school, a massive lawn, and a seating area festooned with tiki torches and a telescope for stargazing over tranquil Puget Sound. Just past the palm-tree garden in the front yard is a hot tub and pool with a retractable roof and changing rooms, where the crew has been hanging out every day since moving in in April.

The sprawling interior -- nine bedrooms, 7.5 baths (and three bidets), a home theater (projector, 12 giant leather recliners), and entryway fountain -- gives its tenants plenty of room to roam; they could avoid each other for days if they wanted to. The house's 10 bohemian tenants have made the house a performance space. Last weekend, they hosted an interactive play inspired by MTV's longrunning reality series The Real World, in which the audience/party guests shuffled from room to room, voyeuristically checking out the drama in each. They even wrote and recorded a retro sitcom theme song for their mansion, inspired by the bidets.

"I've never been this popular in my life," says Ramadan. Even better, the high life is saving her money. She's spending $650 a month on rent, less than she was for her old apartment, and she's cut back significantly on bar tabs: her friends would rather meet at her place. But she's already living with most of the people she hangs out with anyway.

"This is the first time I'm excited to go home," says Ross Whippo, 29, a marine-biology student working at the Seattle Aquarium. The giddiness has yet to wear off, and the usual roommate tensions include "fridge wars" -- elaborate espionage games between the two fridges in the kitchen, each used by half of the household. One cunning retaliation included wrapping one fridge like a gift and leaving it on the backyard lawn -- still plugged in, of course.

If you're burning with envy, don't begrudge these people for their good fortune -- follow their example instead. If you know a dozen people you'd like to live with, now's the time to hit up your local high-end realtor to find a mansion for rent. The Wall Street Journal reports that there's no recovery in sight for the luxury housing market: It's still suffering overdevelopment, cash-hoarding jitters, and tight credit for massive mortgages. And the economy has challenged people's notion of how much home is enough.

In some luxury markets, the rich can afford to wait, says Doug Wright, an agent for Century 21 in the Southeast Valley of Phoenix, Arizona. "We're a global market here, unlike Seattle or some area that doesn't have the huge global tourism...We are seeing a number of sales, all cash. We're seeing 8, 10, 15 offers on a house, 50% of what it was 8-10 months ago."

"I'm seeing more flexible owners, willing to do lease options and vacation rentals," says Eric Colona, a realtor for multimillion dollar mansions on San Diego's coastline. As the owner of SDMansions, Colona advises any would-be "group tenants" to show off their responsible side to homeowners, including an academic transcript. "It gives them an idea of what type of lifestyle you have."

That line of thinking worked for Ramadan. To beat a group of what she calls "frat boys," she based her letter to her prospective landlord on two classic films, The Breakfast Club and The Goonies. "On paper we may not look like the best tenants....But we're not the jocks, throwing parties all the time, we're the dorks on the laptops who are going to stay up all night learning editing software. We're the dorks, and this is our time."

That letter, her realtor told her, is what got her the house.

Husband Hired Wife's Rapist off Craigslist for Sexual Fantasy

North Carolina Man Jailed While Police Hunt for Craigslist Rapist

By SARAH NETTER

Police in North Carolina are hunting for a man they believe raped a woman at knifepoint. The assailant, police say, was hired by the woman's husband through Craigslist to feed his sexual fantasy.

"She was definitely not a willing participant," Kannapolis Police Capt. Chuck Adams told ABCNews.com today. "The children were in a bedroom across the hallway, maybe 15 to 20 feet away."

Adams said the woman's husband Travis -- ABCNews.com is withholding his last name to protect his wife's identity because she is a sex crime victim -- responded to two Craigslist sex advertisements asking if the men would be willing to rape his wife, Adams said.

Travis, 25, has been charged with first-degree rape, two counts of first-degree sexual offense and attempted first-degree sexual offense. Adams said that even though Travis did not rape his wife, the laws allow for him to be charged with the crime for allegedly soliciting someone else to carry it out.

The Craigslist ads, Adams said, did not advertise rape-for-hire, but one of the men agreed.

Adams said the advertisements, listed in Craigslist's oft-criticized "adult services" section were "very lewd." Adams declined to detail specifics of Travis' solicitation, but said he requested the would-be rapist to "come in in a way that would use a scare tactic."

"We believe it was part of a fantasy he had," Adams said.

In the early morning hours of May 31, Adams said, the hired assailant woke the 28-year-old mother of two and raped her at knifepoint while Travis watched. She called 911 around 2:34 a.m.

Now police are closing in on their rape suspect. Adams said that with the help of the Charlotte division of Secret Service computer experts, they have a "good lead" on a suspect who lives in the area.

Adams said that other than the emotional trauma of knowing her husband solicited her rape, the woman suffered no physical injuries. Though the rapist threatened to cut her with the knife, he never did, Adams said. The woman was treated and released from an area hospital after a forensic exam.

The woman, when reached by phone at her home, declined to comment, saying "I'm not talking to anybody."

Travis, who was employed by a Charlotte-based construction company, is being held at the Cabarrus County Detention Center in Concord, N.C., on a $200,000 bond. Court records do not list an attorney. He is next due in court June 30.

Adams said the couple's children, ages 1 and 4, were asleep at the time of the attack and there is no indication they knew anything was wrong until police showed up. The children are in their mother's custody.

Latest Craigslist Controversy

Travis' alleged rape-for-hire is the latest black mark against Craigslist, one of the world's most popular online collection of classified advertisements.

In the wake of the arrest of Boston med student Philip Markoff for the alleged murder of a woman he met through a Craigslist advertisement, the site agreed to better monitor sex-related ads and change it's "erotic services" category to "adult services."

Markoff, dubbed the so-called "Craigslist Killer," has also been accused of robbing two other women he met through sex ads on Craigslist, one in Boston and one in Rhode Island.

With pressure from as many as 40 state attorneys general, Craigslist also agreed to ban nude or graphic images, but a quick scan of the Charlotte-area listings shows several such listings as well as hourly rates for sexual services.

Jennifer Wilson, program director for Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network's National Sexual Assault Hotline told ABCNews.com that she had never heard of a case where a husband hired someone to rape his wife.

Wilson said consent means the difference between fantasy and crime.

"Getting married does not mean you are consenting to any type of sex for the rest of your life," she said.

Being raped by a spouse or intimate partner, she said, can have serious psychological effects for a woman who enterered marriage with feelings of love and trust.

"When that trust is violated, I think that has some very serious implications," she said.

Women who are raped by their spouses tend to have severe feelings of isolation and depression and tend to be less likely to get help, simply based on their relationship with the attacker.

For more information or for help dealing with sexual assault, contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE.

Copyright © 2009 ABC News Internet Ventures

10 Craigslist Tips for Power Users

More and more people have gotten hip to the power of Craigslist. Here's what you need to know to get the most out of this site, as a buyer or a seller.

Brennon Slattery, PC World

Thursday, March 26, 2009 04:00 PM PDT

Craigslist, the online classifieds site that has all but destroyed its print brethren, has blasted past MySpace to become the number one Web search term in the United States. That means more and more people have gotten hip to the site's expansive resources.

Almost entirely text-based, Craigslist is one of the simplest sites on the Net: Anyone can find what they're looking for with a few clicks of the mouse. But with the help of a few advanced tricks and tools, you can cut through the clutter and discover precisely what's available, all the while avoiding scams and wasteful search software. Follow our advice, and you can use Craigslist with greater efficiency--and with style.

Here are 10 tips that will make your Craigslist experience a more rewarding one.

1. Use Google as the Middleman

One of the best ways to get the most out of Craigslist is to start outside of the site itself. Using Google Advanced Search can narrow down your browsing options in an effective, clean manner. Say you're looking for a couch in Boston, but you don't want to drive 25 miles to pick it up. Using Google Advanced Search, you can put your desired neighborhood in the 'this exact wording or phrase' field and keep "couch" in the generalized search. You can also add other words you'd like to see in the posting, such as "good condition." Specify your city's Craigslist site (boston.craigslist.org, in this example) in the 'Search within a site or domain' field, and tell Google to do its work. You'll see your results, organized how you want them, in Google's easy-to-read format.

2. Search on the Move, With iPhone Apps

CraigSearch

Need to scour listings while you're on the go? A variety of iPhone/iPod Touch apps exist for that express purpose. Craigsphone and CraigSearch are both free and available in the iTunes App Store. Functionally and aesthetically, not much differentiates the two. I found CraigSearch to be superior, however, since it loaded results faster and it lets you e-mail posters directly from the app. Craigsphone, on the other hand, appeared on the edge of crashing at all times, and it failed to show me the results I wanted.

Craigsphone

For those willing to drop some dough, there's CraigsMobileList ($1.99) and Craigster ($0.99). CraigsMobileList uses an interface similar to CraigSearch's but provides more-clear-cut results. Unfortunately, it has some formatting problems: You can't shrink listings with large pictures or massive text using multitouch; instead you must whisk the page back and forth. Craigster, in contrast, has the simplest interface--to a fault. Unlike with the other apps, when I looked for an apartment in Craigster I was unable to make any specifications (such as dogs allowed or maximum rent) to narrow my search. In the end, with free apps available, there isn't much point in paying for one.

One thing worth mentioning: CraigSearch does not display erotic or personal ads. But that's not what you're using it for anyway, right?

3. Dig Into Listings With Free Desktop Apps

CraigsList Reader is a free download that provides a deep search of Craigslist and has a friendly (to some) Microsoft Outlook style. The app is intensely thorough: You can search any listing anywhere, set up notifications, change and save parameter options, and more.

The program functions best for people who embark on epic searches of Craigslist's database rather than those who hope to pick out only a few tidbits. It lets you categorize results, and helps you establish a variety of updates and notifications. In my experience, though, the software complicated tasks that should be simple; for example, it incorporated many features that I found unnecessary for the basic search I conducted. Another drawback is that the app requires Microsoft's .Net framework, which takes forever to download. But heavy Craigslist users--and those who are obsessive about categorizing their searches--may find CraigsList Reader helpful.

4. Monitor Posts Through Paid Desktop Apps

CraigsPal is like CraigsList Reader, but pared down and easier to use. The $30 version, which features an Outlook-like appearance, comes chock-full of features. You can set up e-mail or SMS notifications or e-mail digests, create a favorites list, flag posts, and add posts to the 'Best of craigslist' section.

A free version is available, but it's a vicious tease of these great features--you can see, but you can't touch. If you have money to spare and you really want to dig your fingers into Craigslist, go with the $30 program, since the free one functions about as well as the original Web site does. Paying $30 can be hard to justify; but if you're intimidated by CraigsList Reader, spending money could be worth it.

5. Have Listings Sent to You via RSS Feeds

Why continuously check a site for updates when an RSS reader can do that for you? Make Google Reader do the heavy lifting. Simply set up the search you want to run constantly--personal-assistant gigs in Los Angeles, for example--and click the orange RSS button located on the far-right side of the URL bar. Google Reader will do the rest of the work, and all you need to do is check your Reader page, which you can do in any browser and on most mobile devices. If you're really motivated, you can also have RSS results texted to you.

6. Get the Lay of the Land When Apartment Hunting

People who are picky about where they live will love PadMapper, a great tool for apartment hunting. It uses the familiar Google Maps interface to show precise apartment locations. PadMapper works outside of Craigslist but is integrated with the site via Google Maps word balloons that open the respective Craigslist page--using it is like seamlessly flicking between two sites that have the same goal in mind. You can filter your search results, too, so you don't waste your time gaping at $3000 one-bedroom apartments. The one flaw of PadMapper is that it ignores Craigslist apartment postings that do not list an address, which can be a sizable number.

7. Search It All

Not satisfied with Google Advanced Search? Try a dedicated Craigslist search engine such as Search All Craig's, which scours hundreds of thousands of listings and displays them in a Google-style format. You can't specify search terms as categorically as you can with Google Advanced Search; but if your inquiry is general enough, or if you're comfortable using quotation marks to narrow down your desires, it won't matter. Search All Craig's is great for anyone with a devil-may-care attitude as to what city and state in which their results appear--it's especially useful for job hunters unafraid of relocating.

8. Avoid Bulky and Impractical Search Tools

Stay away from sketchy and redundant Craigslist search software. While you have lots of useful methods of navigating Craigslist outside of the actual site, there are also far too many programs that complicate the process rather than help it.

Search Tempest (formerly Craig's Helper) allows you to set a starting point, no matter how many miles away from your actual location, and search from there. This aspect of the free, Web-based Search Tempest is useful, but it's nothing you can't do with a higher-profile tool like CraigsPal. I felt like my computer was being slaughtered by spyware just looking at the site, and it's downright ugly. But you don't need it anyway: Search Tempest is mostly a rehash of other available resources.

Crazedlist.org also presents multicity searches, but it requires dismantling referrers in your browser. I tried to execute the procedure in Firefox, and the browser screamed that I was wandering into treacherous territory that may be harmful to its stability, security, and performance. Definitely not an app you'd want to tinker with if you value your online safety.

The home page of Anthony Damata's Global Craigslist Search Engine announces that it has undergone several crashes and unexplained blocks due to Craigslist interference. Again, I'm far too paranoid a Web surfer to want to play around with something that might harm my computer. Anyway, this search engine acts merely as a direct portal to Craigslist itself, so you might as well just go straight to Craigslist.

On the Net you can find many similar programs that all promise advanced Craigslist navigation, but you must weigh the negatives against the positives and craft an educated assessment of your situation. Personally, I found these programs more dangerous than helpful.

9. Sidestep Scams and Useless Add-Ons

A lot of people out there are seeking to take advantage of insecure and unknowledgeable Craigslist users. Make sure you're not one of them by watching out for methods commonly employed to grab your money, waste your time, and make you look foolish.

It sounds like common sense, but one of the first things you need to do is make certain that you're at the right site. A lot of sites try to make themselves look like Craigslist, so double-check, and ensure that ".org" is at the end of the URL.

Keep an eye out for messages that are longer than necessary. If someone responds to your Craigslist post with too much information, it could be a scam. For example, if you're selling your iPhone and someone in Kentucky wants you to send it to his niece but he's paying for it, sell it to the guy down the street instead.

Approach e-mail from Nigeria and other parts of Africa skeptically, as many scams originate from those places. Con artists typically offer more money than your advertised price, claiming that they want to cover the shipping or something along those lines. Remember: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Payment options also present dilemmas. Money orders pose a particular threat to unwary people. Although scammers may use a trusted source such as Western Union, they have also devised ways to create fake money orders that will slap you with fees. As always, whether you're dealing with checks or money orders, make sure the payment clears before you send any goods. Try to conduct all sales in cash.

The best way to avoid being ripped off is to deal exclusively with local buyers and sellers, approach all offers with caution, avoid people who want you to ship items to addresses that aren't their own (or who ask you to deal with "business partners"), and use common sense.

You might also encounter paid services that "train" you how to sell items on Craigslist. Avoid these. Not only will they inundate you with boring information readily found elsewhere, but you may find yourself digging further into debt rather than scuffling your way out. In my travels around the Web, I also found another paid service that promises to help create eye-catching advertisements. Craigslist functions on basic HTML, folks. With a few good photographs and detailed product descriptions, you won't need neon signs to become a successful seller.

Craigslist provides a run-through of the most common rip-offs and how to report them, and Fraud Guides has another detailed list.

10. Get There First

The best way to get the job, MP3 player, or apartment you have your eye on is to be the first in line. Using the tips above, you can easily organize your Craigslist hunt, scope it out while you're on the go, and sell like a pro. In a world where information whizzes past in the blink of an eye, it's critical to maintain the focus that will get you what you want.

Craigsphone brings Craigslist to the iPhone

by Mike Schramm on Jan 2nd 2009

Craigslist is one of my absolute favorite sites on the 'net -- it's been around for years, but kept the same simple look and feel, perfectly fulfilling the service of classifieds without ever once going off that course. Sure, there are issues with spam, but Craig and his minions have worked overtime to make the thing work, and it works well (in fact, if you see any weightlifing dumbells for sale in Chicago, let me know, I need some).

There are quite a few iPhone apps featuring Craig and his list out there (including a few with prices on them), but one that caught our eye as a useful free app is Craigsphone, made by Next Mobile Web (they make the very useful Dial Zero app as well). As you can see from the video above, it's all the features of Craigslist made mobile, and then some -- you can see your history, post and call directly from the phone, and even use the iPhone's location to see craigslist entries nearby (though unfortunately, the Nearby features only work in San Fransisco and Manhattan -- no Chicago?). NMW claims they're still working on the app, too -- they want to "take the best local site in the world and make it truly local." Who knows what that means, but it sounds good, right?

If you spend lot of time on Craiglist, or just want to while you're out and about, Craigsphone seems like a good way to do it. We're interested to see what else they've got planned, too.

10 Most Ridiculous Craigslist Posts of All Time

• By Offbeat Mog
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When you think about places to post advertisements, rants, and just general ridiculousness, Craigslist should be at the top of the list. Each and every day, hundreds of thousands of people flock to Craigslist to buy things, look for love or sex, and look for jobs. With so many people coming together in one place, you can bet that hilarity will ensue.

Thankfully, the Craigslist Gods foresaw such a possibility, and the Best of Craigslist was born. Essentially, the Best of Craigslist consists of numerous posts about many different things, having been nominated for a prize.

When perusing the oodles of entries, you can tell that some not-so-funny ones were selected by people who just decided to be idiots and nominate worthless posts. Such people clearly have lives that they are ashamed of, and if they aren’t, well, they should be!

However, there are some true pearls of mediocrity on Best of Craigslist. These posts have made their way to the surface of the oozing amounts of crap exuded by numerous other posts.

That is why, the following posts (in no particular order, mind you) should be thought of as “The Top 10 Most Ridiculous Craigslist Posts of All Time”:

1. Let us frolic in my totally dope blanket fort

Obviously, the post title gets one’s attention, and is the epitome of ridiculous. Then, of course, it only gets better when you check out the pictures of this guy’s “totally dope” blanket fort. Clearly, this guy went to all the trouble of building a fabulously crappy blanket fort in the feeble attempt to prove that he could do so.

At least he admits that it’s crappy, calling it just a “prototype.” Um, hello? If you want to impress the ladies, oh Blanket Fort Man, you should have built an impressive blanket fort in the first place.

Don’t you know that women only want guys who can build AMAZING blanket forts?!

Nevertheless, let’s hope that, if this guy didn’t find love, he at least found better blankets.

2.Haunted toaster

It’s hard enough selling things on Craigslist, so people have resorted to selling things with a bit of extra provenance. Take this woman, who claims that the haunted toaster hates her and burns her toast. If that is the case, well then, they’re a lot of haunted toasters.

Or maybe, just MAYBE, there are a lot of ridiculously stupid people out there who can’t figure out how to use a toaster! If nothing else, though, it would have been very amusing to watch her drop the toaster off the roof, which is probably what ended up happening.

3. My Casual Encounters Experience

Oh yes, the seedy side of Craigslist is exposed here. It’s funny to read the disclaimer when entering these more sinister parts of Craigslist, in which they advise people to practice safe sex. Yeah, like that happens.

The people who are desperate enough to post an advertisement looking for NSA (No Strings Attached for all you virgins out there) aren’t thinking about that, They want to get it on, and get it on quickly.

Clearly, this ridiculous post shows the rantings of a very sexually frustrated and overall bitter woman.

She wasted her time ranting on good ‘ol Craigslist, when she could have, say, gone out into the real world and possibly met a well-endowed, normal guy. On the other hand, with all of the trouble she went to, she might as well have just purchased a vibrator.

4. Space Ship for Sale $3500.00 or best offer

Upon first reading the title to this classically ridiculous post, you might think that it was some sort of a joke, that a person was drunk and just put up an advertisement for kicks. Not this time, and there is ridiculously amazing photographic evidence to prove it. Yes, this person really did build a spaceship.

Or, one could call it a cosmically themed sculpture of some sort, since (well, hopefully) it doesn’t actually run, landing sensors or not. If it DID happen to be in working order, I think you’d agree that $3500.00 is quite a reasonable price.

5. Large Glass Jar (possibly containing a ghost)

Why is it that people are resorting to selling haunted things on Craigslist? Really now, enough is enough.

However, if you’re ridiculously stupid like this poster, you too can buy a foggy glass (or is it plastic?) jar and pretend that the ghost of George Harrison is inside!

6. Trying to have a missed connection - m4w

One of the most interesting sections of Craigslist is the “Missed Connections” section. There, people who gazed lustily at a total stranger from afar can post to see if that same stranger noticed them too. How romantic.

Let’s face it, who wouldn’t want to have a missed connection? So, be ridiculous like this guy, and post an advertisement in which you actually want to coordinate a missed connection. Um, part of the fun of a missed connection is that it’s completely, totally missed! Maybe this guy was confused, and was just awkwardly asking for a date.

Well, for his sake, and any of those who actually were silly enough to respond to his advertisement, let’s hope so.

7. No taxation without representation

This post is not just ridiculous in the amount of time and angered effort (note the aggressive use of the Caps Lock key!) that was put into creating it, it’s also ridiculously true. Clearly, it took tax season for these truths to become self-evident to this angry person.

One can just imagine Mr. or Mrs. Angry Person standing on a soapbox, screaming about taxation atrocities. Only, these screams will probably be falling on deaf ears; everyone else will be too busy doing something that this person clearly doesn’t do enough of: WORKING.

8. Rant: Person with a wooden leg that lives above me

Everyone at some point has had an annoying neighbor. However, this person actually was ridiculous enough to write a letter to a neighbor who quite possibly has a wooden leg. Or, as this person muses, might like wearing stilts. Um, hello?

First of all, the person is far too busy walking around and being noisy to read your rant. Second of all, ever heard of that marvelous little invention called high heels?

9. Things I’d like to tell students that would probably get me fired

Probably the most ridiculous thing about this post is that this neurotic person tells off his or her imaginary students in really not-so-blunt ways, mixed in with jokes that are horribly bad. C’mon now, stop being such a coward! Be like Morgan Freeman in the movie Lean On Me.

Okay, so he was a principal, not a professor, but the man got his point across with a bat! The key thing here is he commanded respect without ever having to use it. In the case of this ridiculous professor, this whiny rant gets an F.

10. Autographed Copy of Plato’s Republic

Finally, someone’s selling something that isn’t haunted! How refreshing. Obviously, the ridiculousness of this post is self-explanatory. Alas, there’s no price mentioned in this advertisement.

Surely such a gem would be priceless, at least to someone who actually cares about philosophy. This begs the question: what does it mean to truly care? Does philosophy truly have one definition? Oh, shut up.

There you have it, the 10 most ridiculous posts on Craigslist. Of course, there are hundreds of other posts to read on there and laugh at.

So, the next time you’re on a boring lunch break, why not check them out? Or, better yet, post one yourself. Just make sure it’s ridiculous.

Drug dealers doing roaring trade on craigslist, say city investigators

BY PATRICE O'SHAUGHNESSY
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Drug dealing on craigslist has become so rampant that the city's special narcotics prosecutor has asked the online trading post to curb the ads, the Daily News has learned.

Bridget Brennan's undercover investigators have bought drugs offered on craigslist personals from dealers ranging from a Citigroup banker to an Ivy Leaguer to a violent felon using a halfway house computer. In the past four years, her office has prosecuted dozens of dealers.

"Ski lift tickets are here for sale ... Tina Turner tickets ... best seats around!" Offers like these appear virtually every day on craigslist, and they are thinly veiled ads posted by people hawking cocaine (ski) or crystal meth (cristina or tina).

"Despite devoting considerable resources to prosecuting these cases, drug dealing is still thriving on craigslist," Brennan wrote craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster. Brennan said she was inspired to act by a recent agreement between craigslist and attorneys general from 40 states to curb prostitution ads.

"It's like shooting fish in a barrel," Brennan said of how easy it is to find dealers on craigslist.

One undercover said he just types "ski" in the search field and up pops ad after ad with offers.

"We respond to the ad, but it must lead to a meeting where the drug is exchanged for money, like any regular drug deal," the investigator said.

Ten days ago, craigslist unveiled sweeping new measures, in partnership with law enforcement and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, to stop its ads from being used for prostitution, child exploitation and other illegal activities.

Craigslist will require "erotic services" providers to pay $10 for each listing and pay with a credit card, which the police will be able to subpoena.

Brennan says the idea could be applied to drug ads.

"I would like members of my staff who have an expertise in prosecuting Internet drug sales to meet with you and explore ways to curb drug dealing on your Web site," her letter says.

In an interview, Brennan said the best course is "to work with them to screen out sellers. They would have to focus on commonly used terms and develop screening mechanisms.

"They'll offer ski tickets in July in New York, and Tina Turner tickets when she's not performing in town." Marijuana ads are more, er, blunt. It is usually referred to by name or as "420."

"We see lots of professionals, people with good jobs, doing it," Brennan said. "They are shocked to get caught."

One case involved a Citigroup vice president, Mark Rayner, 33, who was selling Ecstasy.

"Anyone want to go to roxy and get high and enjoy hex hector? E., K, Snow, tina, its all good," he wrote on craigslist.

He did the deal near his midtown office, giving an undercover agent 50 Ecstasy pills and 7 grams of cocaine for $1,200. He pleaded guilty to sale of a controlled substance and got five years' probation.

At the other end of the spectrum is Albert Rivera, aka Ray Rivera, 32, who was on parole for an armed robbery on a G train in 1994. While in a halfway house in Brooklyn, he engaged the undercover through craigslist.

He pleaded guilty and got a sentence of three to six months.

Craigslist did not respond to requests for comment.

poshaughnessy@nydailynews.com