Facebook Selling - guide discussion

soolin

Irony wrote: »

I've joined a local group,I've not posted on it yet though.
I was wondering, does I put collection only as I've seen post from 50+miles away from the local area.
So many diet"ads" to bypass.

Always always read the rules of the groups you join, they are all different. It may be that your group allows distance sales using couriers , or even that they consider 50 miles radius 'local'.

Some of the sites I use are post and paypal only, some allow both collection and offers to post - but all warn against buyers using bank transfers. Some are strictly collection only with your postcode showing clearly, and if you dare post from outside their deemed local area you get banned.

piglet25

Wow they are harsh groups Soolin! Most of the local ones to me are cash on collection, or courier posting which is track able if paying with paypal. I have a facebook group I set up with over 9000 members and the times I have to repeat the safe payment methods is unreal! I am also in a group admins group (!) and we share details of known scammers between ourselves so they can be banned from groups. Its a case of using common sense alot of the time.

soolin

piglet25 wrote: »

Wow they are harsh groups Soolin! Most of the local ones to me are cash on collection, or courier posting which is track able if paying with paypal. I have a facebook group I set up with over 9000 members and the times I have to repeat the safe payment methods is unreal! I am also in a group admins group (!) and we share details of known scammers between ourselves so they can be banned from groups. Its a case of using common sense alot of the time.

They do vary depending on the input from admin some are very casual and some are very very strict. I belong to about 20 groups now, including postal only ones, and some of those are approaching 30,000 members.

I sell very very little though as a number of the groups are completely over run with fake Raybans and Michael Kors handbags. Nearly every week there is a thread about being conned, usually the 'send me £30 deposit by bank transfer and pay the rest in cash when I deliver' type of low level scam.

soolin

thriftymanc wrote: »

Do people find it better to join groups with a high number or a small number of members? Been having a look at some local groups and they have so many members (tens of thousands) that it just seems to be ten posts of spam every minute, can't see how any genuine sales get made.

I sell virtually nothing at all, but I seem to sell better on the 'by post only' sites. As for collection items it seems split between those with very high numbers, and those very small very local groups.

Approx 3 out of 4 collection sales that I make are never collected though, and that is a real annoyance especially if you stay in, or come home early to wait for someone and they just don't bother showing up.

FairTrial

soolin wrote: »

Approx 3 out of 4 collection sales that I make are never collected though, and that is a real annoyance especially if you stay in, or come home early to wait for someone and they just don't bother showing up.

Soolin,

Aren't your 'buyer no-show' cases perfect examples of where payment through escrow would have saved both buyer and seller a lot of grief ?

soolin

FairTrial wrote: »

Soolin,

Aren't your 'buyer no-show' cases perfect examples of where payment through escrow would have saved both buyer and seller a lot of grief ?

It is not used at all on any of the groups I use, these are all Informal groups set up around either a locality or a type of sale. Despite what the MSE article says I have never ever seen it in use at all . I am also not really interested in paying a lot of fees if I don't have to.

Frankly if it started getting complicated then I'd just stick with ebay , I use the local sites just as another sales place that generates a few sales.

piglet25

Might be worth a try but only if you have the time to deliver your goods locally. I charge a couple of quid to deliver and have only had one person not be in out of a high number of sales. My products sell very well on facebook because they meet the criteria of well priced, attractive, suitable for gifts or treats for ones self,and they are a line where people can buy additional items in the range. Last year in December I had three people out delivering every evening for approx three weeks and still had to turn orders down, so my point is that once people have sent their address its a bit more of a commitment on their part as they don't want someone knocking on their door and having to explain that they are time wasters

thebestnameshavegone

I've found that my local facebook selling group (I'm in a small market town so there are hundreds rather than thousands of members) is far more suited to selling unwanted clothes, toys, etc very cheaply than it is for selling new stuff. It also very much depends on when you post your ad - in the evenings there are so many people posting (or bumping old posts) that a listing is only visible for about ten minutes before it disappears somewhere where only the most devoted screen scrollers will find it!

Having said that, I've had some success with new 'gift-type' items in the run up to Christmas, Mother's Day and Father's day - I always offer to deliver (partly as I don't want a parade of strangers knocking on my door every evening), and so far haven't had anyone fail to be in at the arranged time.

As for the nationwide paypal/postal groups, unfortunately my search skills must be off as I can never find any suitable for me! Are they usually quite niche?

Eco_Child

I've only just learnt about Facebook selling...... I have used Ebay in the past ....
I live in a ~Very rural part of Wales, is it likely that I will still be able to join a selling group ?
Either fairly locally or,perhaps, not so locally ? I have a fair bit of bric a brac I would like to sell ....to unclutter my life a bit ! Any feedback on this would be most welcome ! ....:)

soolin

Eco_Child wrote: »

I've only just learnt about Facebook selling...... I have used Ebay in the past ....
I live in a ~Very rural part of Wales, is it likely that I will still be able to join a selling group ?
Either fairly locally or,perhaps, not so locally ? I have a fair bit of bric a brac I would like to sell ....to unclutter my life a bit ! Any feedback on this would be most welcome ! ....:)

The easiest way to find out is to search for sites, my experience in greater London is unlikely to be the same as for you in a more rural location.

Be prepared for time wasters though, I have listed a lot this week, had about 10 offers but only 2 people have actually bothered to turn up. I've even picked up a stalker