Try Appthemes bundle. Back in the day they were rad with their Classipress theme. got it on sale for like $10, might be more expensive nowadays.

There are a few popular classified ads plugins for WordPress:
Advanced Classifieds & Directory Pro
Classifieds WP
AWPCP Classifieds Plugin
Advanced Classifieds & Directory Pro

As far as I know, Advanced Classifieds is another free powerful classifieds plugin for your WordPress website.

if you were going to buy the whole classifieds kit (plugins + theme) anybody got any suggestions?

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I need something that has both the theme & plugin, looks professional and is easy to setup.

any recommendations?

I recommend these
1)Directories Pro
2)Adverts
3)Web 2.0 Directory
4)WPAdverts
5)AWPCP

I ended up going with Web 2.0 Directory. Thanks for all the suggestions!

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