The Joys of FB Marketplace

tod osier said:
Selling our Tundra in the fall was another level from what I've experienced before. The line of stupid questions that were already in the ad - often in the title of the ad (like is the truck a 4x4?). Who buys a 20K truck and doesn't take the time to read an ad?

The thing that amazed me was that hardly anyone said thanks... They ask a question, I respond with details and then crickets...

My experiences are similar. On top of that I frequently get offers before they've even seen the item. My policy is pretty much no haggling unless face-to-face and even then I'm usually upfront that my asking price isn't negotiable.
 
Eric Patterson said:
tod osier said:
Selling our Tundra in the fall was another level from what I've experienced before. The line of stupid questions that were already in the ad - often in the title of the ad (like is the truck a 4x4?). Who buys a 20K truck and doesn't take the time to read an ad?

The thing that amazed me was that hardly anyone said thanks... They ask a question, I respond with details and then crickets...

My experiences are similar. On top of that I frequently get offers before they've even seen the item. My policy is pretty much no haggling unless face-to-face and even then I'm usually upfront that my asking price isn't negotiable.

Yes, the 5K lowball sight unseen was really common. I just ignored those guys.
 
I experienced the same today. Listed a set of tires that said $xxx firm and first message was an offer 50% below my stated price. Second message asked the bolt pattern despite me stating the bolt pattern in the advertisement. Can?t wait til I get to actually meet a buyer.
 
Brad

They will keep rolling in. Automobile parts brings out folks who don't bother to read and love to lowball with no real intention of buying. They're just annoyingly curious of what they might be able to buy your item for.

Speaking of FB MP I'm about to give up using it to find shop tools/machines. The search engine no longer gives hits on your exact search terms. It gives anything and everything under the sun that might be somehow remotely related. Waste of time when you have a specific item in mind to. At least Craigslist had a really good search engine and allowed search syntax like quotes, AND, OR, etc.. Not FB MP, they just want clicks and don't care if the items match what you are looking for. Craigslist died in my area. I can't comprehend how MP is an improvement.

Eric
 
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I've never used any of them Eric, but the stuff is accumulating and doesn't seem to sell without advertising. Maybe I'll try Craigslist as well.
 
Richard Lathrop said:
I have noticed the same thing on Marketplace. How a drill press or hand tools qualify as a milling machine I don't know.

Rick

To them if it is a tool, or ladies undergarments, it must qualify as close enough.

Eric
 
My brother and I have made a game of screen shotting what comes up in FB MP searches and sending them to each other. Our searches are typically for old chevy trucks and hunting equipment/decoys. The things that come up are often hard to believe are things that are really for sale!
 
Brad Bortner said:
I've never used any of them Eric, but the stuff is accumulating and doesn't seem to sell without advertising. Maybe I'll try Craigslist as well.

Same here, we're thinking about retiring and cleaning stuff out. Being the ultimate consumer, every square foot of space is piled with pretty much one of everything, which I now have to get rid of. [:/] I may qualify as a hoarder. [;)] I tell myself on a regular basis to get on it, then I read about the headaches of selling and I procrastinate. My latest is to promise myself "when it gets warm" and "after ice out fishing" I'll attempt to sell a couple of generators. Time's up the first week of May. I think I'll try Craigslist first. I don't care for FB, but will sully myself if I have to.
 
I am a fine consumer of both Craiglist and FB Marketplace, and for selling, I much prefer Marketplace. Both will find the idiots, but with Marketplace, at least I can screen them some. Being able to see someone's profile/page indicates if I want to deal with them.

Marketplace also allows you to target your items to people interested in what you have, while CL is simply geographic.

I use both when ever I am headed to an area to vacation or visit. Last week I was in FL for the week, found a real sweet deal on a pair of poke boats and paddles for the wife and I. Bought the pair for less than half of what one goes for up this way.
 
Dave Diefenderfer said:
Marketplace also allows you to target your items to people interested in what you have, while CL is simply geographic.

How so? CL has more sensical descriptive categories to list items. MP's categories make little sense to me. I've bought and sold on both and you are correct about screening folks before you deal with them, but in my experiences the number of annoying/ludicrous/scamming responses on MP is an order of magnitude greater.

Congrats on the Poke boat score.

Eric
 
Eric, I follow pages that are topic specific, so when I post boats, or decoys, I post them to specific pages and they are seen by anyone following those pages. I usually also list them local too.
 
Ok. But that first part is not really MP, sounds like you are posting to FB Groups. In the groups I follow the participants are very geo dispersed so buying/selling is problematic. As for posting to local groups I've not found any good ones for the stuff I deal in. They are more yard sale type of stuff, not machinery/woodworking shop supplies. At least the last time I researched it. Might have changed since then so I need to take another look. But that is sort of another frustration with FB. Too many places to keep up with, MP and the hundreds of groups where something of interest might be isn't very efficient. Not enough time in the day to track it all and the search engine lacks specificity to return hits on the terms I'm searching for. That's why CL was vastly superior for my needs. The search engine actually produced results on my exact inputs, as opposed to some FB algorithm trying to generate something for me that it thinks I might like. I know what I'm after, I just want those results. FB is actually quite maddening when that is your desire because it doesn't work that way at all and I hate spending time wading through shit I didn't ask to see.

Eric
 
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