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Selling on Facebook sites
Azzzaa
Posts: 346 Forumite
No matter where you are in the UK I am pretty sure there will be at least one local buying/selling Facebook group designated to your area and if there isn't one MAKE ONE. You can sell nearly anything you have laying around the house on the groups, without paypal and ebay fees 
Azzzaa's top 10 tips for selling on Facebook
1) Join as many local sales groups as possible
In total I am actively selling on around 15 Facebook selling groups, all are within a 10 mile radios of my home location. I could stick to just the one closest to me which has 2000 members which is fine but your audience and potential buyers are limited to 2000. Combined the 15 groups have a total member count of over 150,000 so it can be very beneficial to join as many as possible to gain the biggest audience. If you're worried about having your timeline spammed with hundreds of people trying to sell you things every hour, on the group settings there will be a button where you can turn off notifications and stop posts being shown on your time timeline, so if you want to browse you have to actually view it in the group.
2) If you have something specific you want to sell and you want to target a certain audience, see if you can find a Facebook selling group specific to that item.
For example, I have a small handful of PS2 games which i know are quite hard to find and are going from between £8-£12 on Ebay, instead of posting them on my local buying and selling group were my audience level would be 2000 I joined a Sales group designated to Uk gamers which had 36000 members, where i managed to sell all but one. If you think about it what are the odds that someone in my local group would be after the exact rare game i'm selling and know that it's worth the price I'm advising it at. The only Downside to this method is you generally have to post the item which requires Paypal and the effort to go to the post office, however if it's going to bring in them extra ££££ then surely it's worth it.
3) Pictures - quality AND quantity
Everyone wants to see what they’re buying, make sure your photo is well lit, in focus and shows exactly what you’re advising. Don't be afraid to take too many photos if you’re selling something as a bulk, take individual photos of it and post them all up, in this case it isn't quality over quantity, it’s QUALITY AND QUANTITY. At the bottom of this post I've given an example of what i think a poor advert looks like and what i see as a good advert.
4) Don't Lie
Don’t lie when describing what you’re selling, be as descriptive as possible, reputation take’s a long time to build and only seconds to destroy so put good thought into how you describe what you’re selling, if it’s seen better days, put it, if it has scratches and could do with a clean, put it.
5) Also remember you are trying to sell it
Contradicting post 4, don't forget you are trying to sell the item, so don’t just put negatives, for example, i sold a very badly scratched Iphone 4, it had a crack on the front screen and a crack on the back. I put that in the description and took photos showing them however i did state that it was in full working order and that if it were put in a case, no one would notice.
6) Give it a clean
I see so many things for sale on Ebay and Facebook that make me think “ If that were cleaned or ironed it would sell so much easier and for a lot more money”. If something is dirty and you’re trying to sell it, put a little bit of effort into cleaning it. It’s the same with clothes, Iron shirts before you photograph them, it makes them look newer for a start and people see them in their full credential not as something which looks like it’s just been pulled out of the back of the wardrobe, as they say “put garbage in, get garbage out”
7) Be realistic in your pricing
Do your research, Ebay and looking up other listings on Facebook is a great way to see how much something should sell for, if you’re selling Games, CEX and Ebay are the best place for valuations. There is no point advertising something that's been used and is a year old for equal too or more than the RRP in a store if bought new!!
8) Read the Rules of the group you're posting in
Read the rules of the groups you’re posting, in my experience Admins can be ruthless, you mess up once, you’re out. It’s best to have a mental note of how often you can bump your posts so you can maximize how many people see them and if you’re selling lots of items, make sure you’re not overdoing it and putting too many things on for sale at once. Some groups have rules such as, Only bump once every 12 hours and no more than 5 posts up at once!
9) Be polite
Be polite. Simple really, you’re trying to get people to give you their money.
10) Don't be put off because it doesn't sell within the first five minutes
Just because something doesn't sell in the first 5 minutes of posting doesn't mean it’s not going to sell. Most people when they join a group disable notifications so they don’t see your post the minute you put it up. The first time a potential buyer may see it might be 48 hours after you posted it because that's the first chance they've had to see it, be patient, keep bumping, sit back and relax.
I don't want to use the word 'bad' so here is an image of an advert which i think could be made better with very little work.:(
Here's a better advert with a better quality picture and more descriptive information :T
Please post your Facebook selling successes here as I'd love to see how well we all do. I've wrote this up in about an hour so if i think of anything else to add or you feel like you may have something to contribute either post it below or drop me a PM and i can put it in this top post!!
GOOD LUCK AND HAPPY SAVING ££££££ :j:j:j
Azzzaa's top 10 tips for selling on Facebook
1) Join as many local sales groups as possible
In total I am actively selling on around 15 Facebook selling groups, all are within a 10 mile radios of my home location. I could stick to just the one closest to me which has 2000 members which is fine but your audience and potential buyers are limited to 2000. Combined the 15 groups have a total member count of over 150,000 so it can be very beneficial to join as many as possible to gain the biggest audience. If you're worried about having your timeline spammed with hundreds of people trying to sell you things every hour, on the group settings there will be a button where you can turn off notifications and stop posts being shown on your time timeline, so if you want to browse you have to actually view it in the group.
2) If you have something specific you want to sell and you want to target a certain audience, see if you can find a Facebook selling group specific to that item.
For example, I have a small handful of PS2 games which i know are quite hard to find and are going from between £8-£12 on Ebay, instead of posting them on my local buying and selling group were my audience level would be 2000 I joined a Sales group designated to Uk gamers which had 36000 members, where i managed to sell all but one. If you think about it what are the odds that someone in my local group would be after the exact rare game i'm selling and know that it's worth the price I'm advising it at. The only Downside to this method is you generally have to post the item which requires Paypal and the effort to go to the post office, however if it's going to bring in them extra ££££ then surely it's worth it.
3) Pictures - quality AND quantity
Everyone wants to see what they’re buying, make sure your photo is well lit, in focus and shows exactly what you’re advising. Don't be afraid to take too many photos if you’re selling something as a bulk, take individual photos of it and post them all up, in this case it isn't quality over quantity, it’s QUALITY AND QUANTITY. At the bottom of this post I've given an example of what i think a poor advert looks like and what i see as a good advert.
4) Don't Lie
Don’t lie when describing what you’re selling, be as descriptive as possible, reputation take’s a long time to build and only seconds to destroy so put good thought into how you describe what you’re selling, if it’s seen better days, put it, if it has scratches and could do with a clean, put it.
5) Also remember you are trying to sell it
Contradicting post 4, don't forget you are trying to sell the item, so don’t just put negatives, for example, i sold a very badly scratched Iphone 4, it had a crack on the front screen and a crack on the back. I put that in the description and took photos showing them however i did state that it was in full working order and that if it were put in a case, no one would notice.
6) Give it a clean
I see so many things for sale on Ebay and Facebook that make me think “ If that were cleaned or ironed it would sell so much easier and for a lot more money”. If something is dirty and you’re trying to sell it, put a little bit of effort into cleaning it. It’s the same with clothes, Iron shirts before you photograph them, it makes them look newer for a start and people see them in their full credential not as something which looks like it’s just been pulled out of the back of the wardrobe, as they say “put garbage in, get garbage out”
7) Be realistic in your pricing
Do your research, Ebay and looking up other listings on Facebook is a great way to see how much something should sell for, if you’re selling Games, CEX and Ebay are the best place for valuations. There is no point advertising something that's been used and is a year old for equal too or more than the RRP in a store if bought new!!
8) Read the Rules of the group you're posting in
Read the rules of the groups you’re posting, in my experience Admins can be ruthless, you mess up once, you’re out. It’s best to have a mental note of how often you can bump your posts so you can maximize how many people see them and if you’re selling lots of items, make sure you’re not overdoing it and putting too many things on for sale at once. Some groups have rules such as, Only bump once every 12 hours and no more than 5 posts up at once!
9) Be polite
Be polite. Simple really, you’re trying to get people to give you their money.
10) Don't be put off because it doesn't sell within the first five minutes
Just because something doesn't sell in the first 5 minutes of posting doesn't mean it’s not going to sell. Most people when they join a group disable notifications so they don’t see your post the minute you put it up. The first time a potential buyer may see it might be 48 hours after you posted it because that's the first chance they've had to see it, be patient, keep bumping, sit back and relax.
I don't want to use the word 'bad' so here is an image of an advert which i think could be made better with very little work.:(
Here's a better advert with a better quality picture and more descriptive information :T
Please post your Facebook selling successes here as I'd love to see how well we all do. I've wrote this up in about an hour so if i think of anything else to add or you feel like you may have something to contribute either post it below or drop me a PM and i can put it in this top post!!
GOOD LUCK AND HAPPY SAVING ££££££ :j:j:j
Documenting my journey from full time support worker to full time eBay reseller
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Comments
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Maybe this could help someone boost that little bit of extra income in 2016 Documenting my journey from full time support worker to full time eBay reseller0
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We sold our 40" Samsung lcd tv (only did up to 720p) on FB last year (Feb) and got more than I was expecting £150 I was happy to get just over £100 the tv was about 5 year old too0
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We sold our 40" Samsung lcd tv (only did up to 720p) on FB last year (Feb) and got more than I was expecting £150 I was happy to get just over £100 the tv was about 5 year old too
That's great I find a lot of people who purchase on Facebook impulse buy which is naughty of them from a money saving point of view but great for us income boosters :T Documenting my journey from full time support worker to full time eBay reseller0 -
it might be silly question , but how can I find selling groups on fb? do I have to type 'selling groups' in search ? I am doing crochet things and it is really hard sell them on ebay or etsy plus commission . I was thinking to do that on fb. It might be faster.£2016 in 2016 - £1734.59
£216 in Swagbucks -£45/£216 paypal £25 , tkmaxx vouchers £20
2016: sell £0/£1000 2016: wins 28/52 win £2016 in 2016 - £211.18/£20160 -
it might be silly question , but how can I find selling groups on fb? do I have to type 'selling groups' in search ? I am doing crochet things and it is really hard sell them on ebay or etsy plus commission . I was thinking to do that on fb. It might be faster.
There's no such thing as a silly question if you type in ' your home town' then a keyword like "sale" "selling" or "buy" groups should appear in your search engine hope this helps! Documenting my journey from full time support worker to full time eBay reseller0 -
I've had another £30 Facebook sale today :T:T:TDocumenting my journey from full time support worker to full time eBay reseller0
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Do you mean put that in the main search of facebook sorry i'm totally new here0
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On the main search - where you can also search people by their name, try typing your town and sale and swap etc. I.e. North London Sale & Swap Group.ally.0
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Do you mean put that in the main search of facebook sorry i'm totally new here
Yeah the main Facebook search bar where you would search for names. As an example "Watford buy sell sale " or "things for sale in Colchester" Documenting my journey from full time support worker to full time eBay reseller0 -
I am setting myself a goal for April to make £237 from Facebook sales. My target of £237 is approximately 1% on my loan total.Documenting my journey from full time support worker to full time eBay reseller0
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