Craigslist acts as a digital classifieds listing, allowing people to browse a list of available or desired jobs, services and items in an area. To make browsing the list of available postings easier, a user can search the database by using a number of specific parameters, such as searching by keyword, city or price. Although less common, it is also possible to locate an item by the sale number, officially referred to as the Posting ID, though with a few limitations.
Posting ID
When creating an advertisement on Craigslist, the person who creates the advertisement is given a 10-digit number used to identify their specific advertisement on the website within a database, such as the for sale database. This number is generated as a means to allow the Craigslist server to efficiently organize all posts in their data system. The 10-digit number is different from post to post, and can never be changed by the creator of the post or anyone else.
Finding Posting ID
The Posting ID can be found in the URL for any given posting on Craigslist, regardless of the section the post is located in. To find the Posting ID for a given post, simply navigate to the post and look for the 10-digit combination in the URL at the top of your page. It's also possible to request the Posting ID number from a post creator, though this usually is not necessary.
Using Posting ID
To locate an item by Posting ID, navigate to the subsection that the item is contained within. For example, if the posting you're trying to relocate is for the sale of a used laptop, you will want to navigate to the "For Sale" section. From here just enter the Posting ID into the search window, and press search. The post with the correlating ID will then show up by itself in a list format.
Limitations
When searching for an item by Posting ID always make sure that you're searching in the correct category. This is because Posting IDs in each section are generated independently of one another. The result of this is that each section contains different posts and Posting ID numbers, so it would not be possible to look up a for sale laptop in any database other than the "For Sale" section, even if you search using the correct Posting ID number. Typing the correct Posting ID number into a different section -- say the jobs section -- would retrieve an entirely different post.
