What's so hard about online classifieds that I can't find a decent one

Looking high and low. Everything looks mediocre.

[Webwork]

My lament: It's almost 2005. People have been hawking their wares online for a decade.

Why, then, is it so hard to find a decent classified ads script?

Everytime I find a source and check out their example sites I find something that either looks broken, poorly implemented or half-done.

Why isn't there a decent open source product, like all the BBs and CMSs and blogs? You mean no one has anything they'd care to sell - or facilitate sellling - on their website?

Arrrggghhhh! I'd be pulling my hair out if I had any. :(

Where is a decent online classifieds script and/or one that lends itself to customization?

IF no such software exists - OR, if what is out there requires a lot of "fixing" by coders - THEN how much am I looking at to fix up what's available?

IF it's been "fixed up" then why on earth ain't it for sale somewhere?

Arrgghhhh. Forum software everywhere and not a classifieds ad program to drink . . err, employ.

[rfontaine]

Roll your own. That way you can have it exactly like you want.

[Webwork]

rfontaine, is that the voice of experience I'm reading?

Any guidance on the "roll your own" approach would be most appreciated.

I just don't know which way to turn on this and, as psst posts should have revealed, I am not a programmer. (Though I wish I were. I am a fix-it man at heart.)

[Frequent]

Webwork, have you looked at Noah's classifieds?

For a free classifieds it's pretty powerful. The main draw back is that it lacks a search-engine friendly URL option. I tried and failed to write an .htaccess to clean up the urls and make it spiderable. (Maybe you'd have better luck since I clearly suck at rewrites.)

Freq---

[rfontaine]

Well webwork, its that so often I try using an application someone else has written and either find it does not do what I want, has a too steep learning curve, or all of the above. A simple classifieds ad script would be easy to create.

[rfontaine]

Well webwork, its that so often I try using an application someone else has written and either find it does not do what I want, has a too steep learning curve, or all of the above. A simple classifieds ad script would be easy to create.

[badass101]

I use 68classifieds
It's not too expensive and it's pretty powerful. It's also nice and easy to edit (or hack) to do what you want it to do.