There's
http://uk.freecycle.org for the UK but it doesn't seem to have taken off as much in the UK as it has in the US. Part of that ( for me anyway ) is how it works via mailing lists and on a generally local basis.
I'd like to see a 'freeBay' run in the same style as eBay but as an altruistic service ( I guess that's similar to the free Craig's List side of things ). It's an upside-down-business though, 'sellers' shouldn't have to pay to advertise what they are giving away ( goods, services, advice, help, loan of tools ), and I don't see that 'buyers' have to be local, but must be prepared to foot the shipping costs. I cannot see any real reason sellers shouldn't be able to offer stuff in return for 'fair payment'. It's annoying, expensive and wasteful when each of us has to buy something like a forty-foot ladder for a particular job - or to pay someone who has one to do the job - and there must be many people who did buy such a ladder, now languishing in the garden, and would be only too glad to lend out and possibly recoup a bit of the outlay. It seems hard though to marry up 'those who have' with 'those who want'.
I can't think of a better project for someone who wants to set up a free Web service, and it could even make their fortune if they can insert advertising or finance it in some way without destroying its free nature.