Facebook Selling pages

ALittleInLove

I've been thinking about selling some larger items on ebay but i'm aware that the postage will make them much more expensive.

I've seen the local selling pages on facebook and was considering listing it on there for local collection. Has anyone had any good/bad experiences of selling this way? Any tips?

Thanks in advance

Mindless_Clone

My own experience of those Facebook pages are they can be hit and miss. Sometimes they are so busy that your post just gets pushed down too quickly for anyone to see it. Unless people specifically go looking in the gallery and want your stuff, that is. There's also a lot of small businesses on there selling services and such which I don't really like.
The other issue is that everyone wants things at stupidly low prices on there. You could list something at £20 and it be perfectly reasonable and very cheap at that, but some idiots will post and ask you if you'd take a fiver for it. There are some triers out there!

But I have sold a few things on them - baby stuff seems to go quite well, and furniture too.

If you are worried about the postage, why not list them collection only but put in the listing that you will send further if the buyer arranges the courier or is prepared to pay the postage? If anyone expresses an interest you could always calculate what postage would cost for them and add it on at invoice stage.

sarahw89

I have sold quite a few little bits on facebook nothing expensive though because people want something for nothing even if you are selling something in perfect condition hardly used and its worth £20 and you sell it for £5 you will get somebody offering you £3

markwilkinson

I got 'removed' from my local selling group on FB. I didn't really find it useful, lots of ads from local businesses etc, which I didn't really mind. However, I saw a post on there in which someone was trying to sell a smartphone, which was quite new. They didn't get any response, so re posted the following night. No responses again, so re posted. This went on for about a week and then they started re posting every 6 hours or so, then it became nearly every hour. I responded suggesting that she might asking too much (which she was, in my view) and that by re posting so often wasn't doing her any favours. Needless to see it turned into an argument.....

danlojo

I agreed to go and buy an item. I told her I would be there between 9.30 - 10am last week as it was a 40 min drive for me. She sent me a text at 9.25am just before I got there to say that she was going out and wouldn't be in to sell me the item. :mad:

I was livid :mad:

Although this could have happened on e bay at least I could have vented my anger with feedback.

I have had no apology text or fb message from the horrid woman.

Mindless_Clone

:eek: I'd be mad too danlojo.

I freecycled an old sofa a while back - it was a bit tatty and not really good enough condition to sell but still plenty of life in it. A women replied, said she wanted it, turned up with a fella and they stood there 10 minutes trying to decide if it went with their colour scheme (I wouldn't mind but I'd put pictures up because it wasn't a standard black or brown). In the end, she decided it "wasn't quite right"... I was so annoyed! It's flipping free, what more do you want. Luckily some students took it and it's no doubt enjoying a nice new beery life in their digs right now.

markwilkinson wrote: »

They didn't get any response, so re posted the following night. No responses again, so re posted. This went on for about a week and then they started re posting every 6 hours or so, then it became nearly every hour.

Urgh, see that's what drives me insane about them. My facebook wall cluttered up with the same stuff the seller couldn't shift yesterday, the day before or the day before that.
I ended up removing myself from all mine and setting up a secondary FB account I use only for browsing the selling pages and playing games.

soolin

Mindless_Clone wrote: »

:eek:


Urgh, see that's what drives me insane about them. My facebook wall cluttered up with the same stuff the seller couldn't shift yesterday, the day before or the day before that.
I ended up removing myself from all mine and setting up a secondary FB account I use only for browsing the selling pages and playing games.

I've had to do that as well, the pages and pages of dodgy Gucci or Armani sunglasses was getting me down. At least with a dedicated facebook account I can ignore them.

Mind you I sold something yesterday, the lady collected exactly when she said she would- to the minute. So it can work very well.

soolin

Sorry to bump an old thread, I just want a moan.

So far this week I have sold 3 things on Facebook, not one of the buyers has actually bothered to turn up to collect. One re arranged the time (only after she failed to arrive) and missed the second time as well and is now ignoring me. another one is also ignoring me and a third has just rescheduled having already missed her collection time as well.

I have also sold 2 collection only things on ebay this week one buyer collected on day 3 and one on day 5 exactly as arranged.

Getting a bit fed up of Facebook selling.

Strapped

OTOH, I had a result today - two big, heavy things listed and snapped up, one of which was collected within the hour! (Especially surprising as I live in the middle of nowhere).

soolin

Strapped wrote: »

OTOH, I had a result today - two big, heavy things listed and snapped up, one of which was collected within the hour! (Especially surprising as I live in the middle of nowhere).

I'm glad your buyer turned up, I've potentially got two more tomorrow evening, so fingers crossed.

bananachip

I've had mixed success on my local Facebook selling page, it helps that it is well moderated so no business sellers allowed (they set up a separate business page group) and you must wait at least 12 hours between bumping your album. There was some scam with branded trainers going on which some people fell for and I saw someone else was scammed with fake GHDsbut if you are savvy then you can avoid these.

I have sold a few items ranging from £1 for a book to £15 for a wii game. The only hassle i have had is someone moaning about the condition of a coat they came and collected the day after (it was mint condition and laundered) and problems arranging collection/delivery of some ink cartridges after my old printer died.

It might help that I live in a fairly rural area so the site is not too busy, maybe in a city the same sites would have too many posts.

There are greedy sellers out there who bump their posts often and also buyers who try and take the proverbial (i tried to sell £100 M&S vouchers I got for switching to Sky and had some joker offer me £45!)

I have also bought a few nice items and got myself some real bargains.

Furniture seems to sell well and if there is a business page there are often men with vans advertising cheap pick ups and delivery of large items sold.