Use searchtempest.com. It crawls through Craigslist listings based on your search criteria...object, distance, etc.
Once your results are collected, you are then provided an opportunity to click on each result by CL area as a new window, or to display all results.
I scored a McCoy .40 this way...completely by accident. It came from the midwest..my search terms were "within 750 miles, model, engine." There were lots of results (some.useless), but there it was "FREE" for shipping.
My next big hit was for a fiberglass trunk lid for the TR6.
It will get easier as you use it, like anything else, practice practice practice.