I want to say you're wrong, but I'm not even sure how you reached this conclusion.
> It's definitely abusive of the Craigslist community.
How so?
It's a big controversy in communities like freecycle that attempt to maintain a certain charitable ethos and actively say that flippers aren't welcome, sometimes with exceptions for people who repair things (it's usually considered okay to take something broken free with the intent to repair and sell it, because that isn't pure flipping). Probably less controversial on Craigslist, which is a bit of a free-for-all.
As long as someone takes care of moving out of my place, I'm happy. If it goes to someone like this guy who flips to make a living and support his family, that's cool with me.
If he wasn't flipping the stuff, he'd be looking for donations. That's why he started doing this in the first place.
1) He retakes clear photos of the merch at a variety of angles - something that many craigslist postings lack
2) He himself has a threshold of quality, and inspects the product before picking it up from the original seller - I would much rather trust a guy who buys 10 cordless drills a week on craigslist to know the drill is bad, than relying on my limited knowledge of cordless drills and their common defects.
I'm willing to pay a few extra bucks for his vetting.
To the seller: I'm going to make probably $100 on this washer in a couple days by Windexing it and taking some good photos. That's your fee for my pickup and selling "service."
To the buyer: I bought this washer a couple days ago for $100 less. That's your fee for my delivery and vetting "service."
I'd like to know how much is e.g. Apple paying Foxconn for each iPhone, doesn't mean I think they're wrong for not telling me.
(Purely hypothetical example, I don't buy stuff from Apple)
Blah blah "price discovery is a service in a free market blah blah" does not apply to Craigslist.
There are a few ways a job like this could be ethical and productive, respecting the hippie community culture of Craigslist but improving efficiency in exchange for a share of the profit, instead of merely siphoning gains out of the system:
* Buy items that fail to sell (perhaps because they are geographically remote), and resell them from a more accessible location. http://craigstruck.com is a variation on this model.
* Buy junk, fix it up, resell it. ("Upcycle"/ "speculative repair work"
* Take good stuff that doesn't sell, and re-market it better.
[0] "spec" is a funny auto-antonym: "Speculative" or "to specifictaion"