If someone asks for your phone number so they can send a code, block them. Common scam on FB marketplace to try to hijack your account.
Is Facebook Marketplace the new Craigslist?
- Thread starter supton
- Start date
When I sell things, I only do it on a few "local" groups I belong to, not the global "Marketplace". You have to avoid the large "local" groups too, for example, "Smalltown OH buy and sell" that has 45k members when the town only has 4000 people living there. Post an item there and you'll be inundated with spam bots.
When people complain about the "Is this still available" messages, blame FB. They make that one of the automatic message options for a potential buyer. Bots use this too. What you can do is put in your listing to NOT use that option or you'll ignore their messages.
I don't play back and forth with messages either. Get to the point (buyer). I won't leave work early to meet someone 'cause most lookers never show. I tell people I get home by 6pm and they can come anytime up to 9-10pm. I don't meet people anywhere either - you come to my house, at my convenience.
Last year I had to sell a few things and listed on FB Marketplace, Kijiji and CL.
Sold through FB Mktplace & Kijiji, from CL I got 1 enquiry from a scammer.
Now I don't even bother with CL which is also not as easy to navigate as FB
Sold through FB Mktplace & Kijiji, from CL I got 1 enquiry from a scammer.
Now I don't even bother with CL which is also not as easy to navigate as FB
I use offerup, have never had a FB account.
I don't ever want people coming to my house, if they're crazy or the transaction goes sideways I don't want them knowing where I live. I always meet people somewhere, although I make it somewhere that is convenient to ME as in, public place that is as close to my house as possible.
Exception was when we sold a farily new dining room set recently. It's not practical to drag that somewhere. But the people ended up being nice, which was a relief, and they followed through on their interest and picked it up the next day with a Uhaul.
I understand that too but I'm still not inconveniencing myself by taking the item(s) somewhere, waiting and they don't show.
Odd how FB which is a great tool if used to your advantage is thrown out. I got my professional job earning into six figures not by LinkedIn, recruiter or job posting services it was Facebook connection of old friend I worked with once 15 years back. I rarely post except updated profile picture . Also interest groups are pretty good on it.
Most of the anti-Facebook pundits are simply misinformed or not tech-savvy enough.
I hate all things facebook/meta. Use it if you want to. Offerup is good enough.
- Joined
- Dec 4, 2021
- Messages
- 772
I have a FB account but rarely go on, and have no interest in marketplace.
I only ever buy used items from eBay, and that's only when I am looking for some really specific old item or replacement part. It has pretty good buyer protection.
We never sell anything anymore, just don't want the hassle and there are too many criminals and scammers. Plus I detest haggling. If we don't want it anymore, it's either donated or goes to the dump.
I only ever buy used items from eBay, and that's only when I am looking for some really specific old item or replacement part. It has pretty good buyer protection.
We never sell anything anymore, just don't want the hassle and there are too many criminals and scammers. Plus I detest haggling. If we don't want it anymore, it's either donated or goes to the dump.
I use Marketplace frequently, but some good deals are still to be found on CL. Marketplace gets way more traffic, but unfortunately that also means more time wasters and tire kickers. If you buy on Marketplace, it is a good idea for your first message to a seller to be that you have the cash in hand and can pick up the item whenever they give you a convenient meeting time/place. Providing a phone number helps too. I've been able to score deals on things because the sellers were tired of people asking a million questions right off the bat, and I was the only one they were confident would show up with the cash.
Where did you get that from? Anyone using the messenger service on FB MP or not, and whether on a phone or computer, can include a frown face or even a smiley face in their message. I think it's called an emoji.
I ain't hauling stuff out of my basement, loading up my car with it, driving 20 minutes to some public location, just to sell some $20 or $50 item and HOPE they actually show up. 50% of the people that SAY they will be at my house at such and such a time, never bother to show up or even message me they aren't coming, so no way am I going to waste time and gas meeting them someplace. I did have one exception to this last month selling my '95 Olds. I think I can read most people ok and this was an older guy that lived an hour away. He didn't even negotiate on the price so that was a good motivator, so I drove all the way to his place to sell it, and it worked out fine.
I tend not to sell too much stuff. Not a hoarder (at least in my opinion), I just buy stuff and use it up. Usually it's junk when I'm done.
I've done a few sells on things. My camper I did give a home address, might have been the only time. The snows off my Tundra, those I drove over to the laundromat. Come to think of it, I think that those are the only two things I've sold on CL...
Trying to decide if I want to make a burner email account and go incognito, or just go as me. For some reason it feels wrong to the former (while the latter is basically what I've done on every forum I've ever been on, that is to say, relatively anonymously).
I've done a few sells on things. My camper I did give a home address, might have been the only time. The snows off my Tundra, those I drove over to the laundromat. Come to think of it, I think that those are the only two things I've sold on CL...
Trying to decide if I want to make a burner email account and go incognito, or just go as me. For some reason it feels wrong to the former (while the latter is basically what I've done on every forum I've ever been on, that is to say, relatively anonymously).
I wasn't talking about emojis. I was talking about FB's secondary rating system. (This isn't the public 1-5 star rating on a seller's profile.) People could rate each other after merely sending one chat message. I'm not sure if it even exists anymore since I don't use the app, but here's part of an article from 2018:
Sellers can rate buyers if the buyer sent at least one message. A buyer can only rate a seller if the two parties have sent a message back and forth.
- Tap the conversation with the seller or buyer.
- Tap “Rate Buyer” or “Rate Seller” in the top right.
- Select a happy face or a sad face.
I’ve never sold something really big. It’s no big deal for me to load up whatever it is and meet them someplace public rather than hoping they can find our house.
The last two vehicles I have bought were from FB Marketplace, one in October 2020 and one in July 2021. One from a used car dealer that flipped large numbers of auction cars, and one from an individual. Would do it again, but obviously use judgement. Most of the time it's fairly obvious when the seller is shady or just too much of an idiot to deal with.
Is Facebook Marketplace the new Craigslist?
Yes.
Been keeping an eye on CL all the same. Today I decided to make it easier to search--use the filters. Before I'd put in a limit of $10k and just scan what was left. But, I'm not really interested in anything over 150kmiles, so today I put in 150,000 for max miles. That then revealed a few dealers who enter "174" for miles, so I had to put a min miles of 1,000. Then you get the jokers who put a price of $200 when it's $200 per month, or $1. What the heck, remove 1998 and older.
Grand total of 35 vehicles in NH. [Edit: 5 of them are motorcycles. I guess that counts, just not for me..]
Going to FB and trying to use similar filters I get 228 in a 40 mile radius of me, and that's with removing SUV, truck and other. Of course, only about 5 are worth looking at... maybe.
Edit: dope. Missed a zero, 15kmiles isn't that much. Just shy of 500 vehicles now on CL, so that puts it ahead of FB by a factor of 2.
Grand total of 35 vehicles in NH. [Edit: 5 of them are motorcycles. I guess that counts, just not for me..]
Going to FB and trying to use similar filters I get 228 in a 40 mile radius of me, and that's with removing SUV, truck and other. Of course, only about 5 are worth looking at... maybe.
Edit: dope. Missed a zero, 15kmiles isn't that much. Just shy of 500 vehicles now on CL, so that puts it ahead of FB by a factor of 2.
Last edited:
