I've sold two things in the last two days in Denver, which is a pretty crowded market. In each case, they sold after I "renewed" the ad. That is, each ad got moved back to the top of the first page. Otherwise, in Denver - and I'm sure it's worse elsewhere, your ad goes to page 2 or worse pretty fast (within the first day).
I can't believe I'm not getting any nibbles on my Bandit . . . .
Greg