There's a lot of funny business on any public want-ad board. I appreciate one that doesn't want to know the intimate details of my life for their financial benefit. I have to laugh at calling Craigslist the cynical ones in this case...
What? Did you want your money back for your first ad? Oh right it was free and completely un monetized. Can you say the same for your fb marketplace ad? I bet you saw ads at every step in the process.
I’ve found in my travels that local buy/sell tools are very localized. I.e. in some cities craigslist is the only game in town. In others, it’s barely used. It sounds like you live somewhere where cl is not the best way to sell. I live somewhere where it is definitely still the best way to sell. I worry about fb fragmenting the market, but for now cl is still king here.
Maybe your product was bad? Do you live in an area devoid of people? I'm sure I also got about 10% of people trying to scam me somehow, like convincing me to come out and then claiming they didn't bring the money, but eh, I didn't feel like going through the trouble of putting it on eBay