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Has anyone actually sold anything on Facebook Marketplace?

2

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  • steviebabes
    steviebabes Posts: 2,060 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    I sold my ride on mower 2 weeks ago. Sold within 1 week and no time wasters. I put 'If you can see this ad it is still available' also 'I cannot deliver this mower so please make sure you have suitable transport before asking to view'. I also but on 10 clear photos and a concise description.
  • Exodi
    Exodi Posts: 3,306 Forumite
    Seventh Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    edited 7 May at 9:26AM
    Sold (and bought) heaps of stuff on Facebook Marketplace, the absolute best place to pick up bargains, bar none.

    Most the expensive electronics I own in the house are courtesy of fb marketplace, often bought in new condition for a fraction of their retail price (patience is the game). A brand new nest doorbell for £25 (retailed at the time around £150-200), a barely used sage creatista pro for £150 (retails for around £500-£750), a galaxy flip 3 for £500 new in box (only a month or so after releasing for £1k), nest cameras, wifi, etc all new for well under 50% of retail, I could go on...

    (but one thing I'd add is to avoid commonly faked goods - e.g. Dyson Airwraps, Apple AirPods, luxury designer goods, etc. People regularly buy counterfeits and try to pass them off as authentic).

    On the selling side, as an example we sold all the stuff we bought from China for our wedding and basically made our money back on everything (we made a profit on some items!)

    Sorry, went off topic. Yes Facebook marketplace is absolutely inundated with divs. You have to be extremelyyyyy patient (when buying or selling).

    As someone said above, consider an item as only sold when it is collected - as far too many people ask if things are available, or even discuss collection, and ghost you. My wife had one item where someone re-arranged collection three different times before ghosting her.

    I feel you also need to price things with it in the back of your mind you might get knocked down.

    If you want £20 for something, list it for £25 or £30. If you get no messages at that price, reduce it on marketplace to £20 (so it shows you've reduced the price) - you can then mention this in a negotiation.

    If a listing has been active for more than a week take it down and put it back up again - most people (including myself) might assume that an item that is showing as 'more than a week' old has been sold and the seller has forgot to take it down (happens all the time) and not bother messaging, or send the hated 'is this available' default message. It also means you don't get absolute mickey mouse offers with the justification "well you're clearly struggling to sell it."

    If it's a bigger item, consider offering delivery to the local area (and make that clear in the description). A lot of people are unable to collect large items (but that doesn't stop them messaging you for days about the item before mentioning that!)

    With Facebook Marketplace, expect the worst in everyone, and you won't be disappointed :smile: but as long as you don't take everyone on their word, have realistic expectations and don't fall for scams, it's a fantastic way to sell.
    Nebbit said:
    I am not prepared to give out my address unless to someone who stated a specific time they will visit, but no-one wanted to do that. What is the secret of selling with this method?
    I think this is actually you being unreasonable here. When someone asks for the address, I usually give the town or postcode (and people generally do the same for me) - obviously someone would need to know where the item is before they can realistically commit to collecting it... Someone who doesn't drive might think twice about agreeing to collect a lawnmower that is a 10 minute walk away compared to 45 minutes by bus at the other side of town.
    Know what you don't
  • GadgetGuru
    GadgetGuru Posts: 771 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary 500 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    I have in the past, but its not without issue. Once you weed through the scammers and find someone who is legitimately interested (which is hard enough in itself these days) you then get the endless "will you take XX" or "but I've seen it for XX elsewhere" questions, and haggling down more the half the price!

    Either way, I try to meet at the local station, which is covered by CCTV, or will provide my postcode and ask them to message me when they are on the road for further instruction. 

    Saying that, I have had one successful sale a few weeks back - it was for an expensive 3D printer and wanted to demonstrate it working etc since many issues with 3D printers can be end user errors, and I didn't want to start educating the buyer after purchase - so in this case I had to give my address (once he was on my road). It was a student who didn't haggle at all, just came down, took a look, tested, and bank transferred the full amount, before ordering an Uber and leaving! That was a very rare occurrence though!

    What you should NEVER do is say something like "any issues, just give me a shout". Once the sale is done, it's done. 
    Ive had a case in the past where I sold an item and said just that, and the buyer didn't properly know how to use it so would keep emailing me and I'd have to keep taking him through things and in effect 'teach' him with free tuition! Won't make that mistake again!
  • Exodi
    Exodi Posts: 3,306 Forumite
    Seventh Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    edited 7 May at 10:02AM
    Either way, I try to meet at the local station, which is covered by CCTV, or will provide my postcode and ask them to message me when they are on the road for further instruction. 
    Respectfully, I would never buy from you.

    It is a gigantic red flag when a seller refuses to provide their address, and/or instead suggests to hand over the item in public. This is an absolute trademark scammer move - what do you suppose a buyer is supposed to do when they get home, open the box and realise they've been sold a fake item or that the item ends up being defective in a non-obvious way (e.g. battery)? Oh would you look at that, blocked. Providing an address at least provides some illusion of consequence to the seller.

    "Message me when you are on the road for further instruction" made me laugh. It sounds like I'm a secret agent going to end up down a dark alley losing my organs... there's no way you'd be happy with this if the shoe was on the other foot. If you're steering them to a specific location (which I'd assume is probably not your house), why waste their time feeding them cryptic clues throughout the journey so they have to keep stopping. If I did a journey like that and it ended up with you suggesting we meet in public outside a pub or something, I would be quite p***ed off for the wasted journey (and still not exchange the item for the reasons above - especially since it sounds like you deal in electronics).
    Know what you don't
  • Nebulous2
    Nebulous2 Posts: 5,377 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    We have some local Facebook buy sell and swap groups, that work well in a relatively small community. People often wont know me, but they'll know someone who does. We landed up getting 2 TVs in a very short period - one of them free, for an elderly relative who was determined they didn't want a smart TV. The choice was good, prices were modest, people were helpful. Then my daughter tried to get one in a city and it was a jungle - ducking and diving, higher prices, getting scammed - a completely different scenario. 

    I've sold bikes, tools, household stuff as well - but again priced to sell.

    Strangely I've found things go much more readily asking a low price than giving them away. Advertising stuff as free has had far more messing about with people not turning up, asking for delivery etc than selling the same thing for £10 which tends to be quick and business-like. 
  • GDB2222
    GDB2222 Posts: 25,285 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    400ixl said:
    Nebbit said:
    I have been trying to sell a lawnmower and I thought I would sell it easily when my phone started pinging with messages. How wrong I was! Endless 'is it still available?', silly offers, and vague queries. I am not prepared to give out my address unless to someone who stated a specific time they will visit, but no-one wanted to do that. What is the secret of selling with this method?
    Likely you are asking too much for it then. Never had any issues selling at the right price. Speak to neighbours who complain they get initial contact or sill offers, when I look at what they are asking its not surprise given what they are asking.
    We were having a clear-out, and I was happy to give stuff away for nothing. I still got loads of people messing me about.


    No reliance should be placed on the above! Absolutely none, do you hear?
  • Spoonie_Turtle
    Spoonie_Turtle Posts: 9,197 Forumite
    Fifth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    I buy much more than I've ever sold on Fb marketplace and I do expect people to give me their rough location when I ask before committing - road name, or postcode, because the Facebook location map isn't always correct and sometimes doesn't work at all - but people don't tend to give house numbers until you message them to say I'm on the way or about to leave.  I learned about it from soolin posting about doing that on here and it's just common sense when you stop and think about it.
  • GadgetGuru
    GadgetGuru Posts: 771 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary 500 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    Exodi said:
    Either way, I try to meet at the local station, which is covered by CCTV, or will provide my postcode and ask them to message me when they are on the road for further instruction. 
    Respectfully, I would never buy from you.

    It is a gigantic red flag when a seller refuses to provide their address, and/or instead suggests to hand over the item in public. This is an absolute trademark scammer move - what do you suppose a buyer is supposed to do when they get home, open the box and realise they've been sold a fake item or that the item ends up being defective in a non-obvious way (e.g. battery)? Oh would you look at that, blocked. Providing an address at least provides some illusion of consequence to the seller.

    "Message me when you are on the road for further instruction" made me laugh. It sounds like I'm a secret agent going to end up down a dark alley losing my organs... there's no way you'd be happy with this if the shoe was on the other foot. If you're steering them to a specific location (which I'd assume is probably not your house), why waste their time feeding them cryptic clues throughout the journey so they have to keep stopping. If I did a journey like that and it ended up with you suggesting we meet in public outside a pub or something, I would be quite p***ed off for the wasted journey (and still not exchange the item for the reasons above - especially since it sounds like you deal in electronics).
    Maybe I wasn't clear. 
    I would never hand my address details over to someone on Facebook - half the time they either don't turn up anyways, or they come at an odd random time instead. An old school friend of mine lost his life selling a jacket via Facebook, when a group of thugs turned up at his house and forced their way in, then ended up stabbing him in a struggle. Sorry, but my family and my safety comes first. I know nothing about the buyer so why should I divulge such information. I would rather the buyer think I am a scammer and refuse the item then get into any issues like this. 

    Once the buyer is on my road I am happy to take them to my address - why would I send any buyer anywhere else and waste my time waiting around? Especially if it's an item that needs testing beforehand - or the buyer opens the item in front of me and checks everything beforehand. Ive had cases where the buyer doesn't even want to open the box, but I always insist they do and check everything beforehand. If the buyer wasn't happy they wouldn't take it, period. 

    I don't care whether people think I could be a scammer or not. I think of safety first. 
  • GadgetGuru
    GadgetGuru Posts: 771 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary 500 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    I buy much more than I've ever sold on Fb marketplace and I do expect people to give me their rough location when I ask before committing - road name, or postcode, because the Facebook location map isn't always correct and sometimes doesn't work at all - but people don't tend to give house numbers until you message them to say I'm on the way or about to leave.  I learned about it from soolin posting about doing that on here and it's just common sense when you stop and think about it.
    Exactly - precisely what I do. And I wouldn't do it any other way. 
  • GrubbyGirl_2
    GrubbyGirl_2 Posts: 825 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary 500 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    I give postcode then ask them to message me when they are on their way for house number.  Another thing I sometimes do (especially for popular things) is to ask for a phone number so I can text the address.  Timewasters do not want to give you their phone number!
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