I'm hypothesizing that you can tell something about a city by the gear they sell on CL. E.g, Los Angeles CL has a lot of desirable gear and naturally, more qty compared to
Fairbanks Alaska--hyperbolic but you understand.
so the thought is, if you can shop in another city & talk the seller into shipping a product at your expense you could possibly save some money. + a geeky study on supply/demand
Detroit
vs
Austin
vs
TwinCities