Fb Buy And Sell
If you're looking for holiday-gift bargains, or perhaps considering selling some of your old stuff to fund a shopping spree, the Facebook Marketplace is an appealing alternative to yard sales and flea markets.
fb buy and sell
Facebook introduced the Marketplace in October 2016, and by May 2017, more than 18 million items were listed for sale in the U.S. alone. The service has since expanded to other countries, and Facebook reports that search volume in the Marketplace tab has grown three times globally since the start of 2017, with more than 550 million people active in buy and sell groups on a monthly basis.
Using Marketplace is easy. Click the Marketplace button at the bottom of the Facebook smartphone app or in the left column of your Facebook homepage. You'll see an array of photos of items for sale, with prices attached. Browse away, or use the filters to narrow the search by item category, price, etc. If you have an item to sell, click the blue "Sell Something" button and fill in the form. Selling via the smartphone app can save you time by letting you snap a photo of your item and attach it to the listing without having to save and upload photos.
When you do business over Facebook Marketplace, you're no more (or less) likely to run into shady characters than you are in the real world, or when you buy and sell items over services such as eBay and Craigslist. Stay vigilant, and walk away if something doesn't feel right.
How this scam works: A scammer contacts a seller on Facebook Marketplace, expresses interest in their product and asks the seller to provide a phone number to prove that they are a real person. Using that phone number, the scammer opens a Google Voice account, sends the seller the verification code from Google and asks them for the code to verify that they are legitimate. Once the seller gives them the code, the scammer now owns a new Google Voice number that they can use for other nefarious purposes like phone call scams and doxxing attacks.
How to identify it: Legitimate sellers on Facebook Marketplace will not request any additional payment beyond the cost of the item and possible shipping fees. If someone asks you to send money for unexpected charges, cancel the transaction immediately.
Finally, Facebook offers an online guide for buying and selling on Facebook Marketplace safely and responsibly. It covers many of the best practices that buyers and sellers should consider to protect themselves online, including meeting in person, watching out for counterfeit products and using secure payment methods. Make sure to check out these other Facebook scams to steer clear of.
To report a seller on Facebook Marketplace, click the Marketplace icon in the left-hand corner of your computer screen, click the listing from the seller you want to report and then click on the name of the seller. From there, click the three-dot icon and select Report Seller; then follow the on-screen instructions.
In this guide, we go over how to access Facebook Marketplace on a browser or the mobile app, some troubleshooting tips, reasons why Marketplace may not be available to you, and how to sell items on Facebook Marketplace.
Open your online brokerage platform, then enter the Facebook ticker symbol, the number of shares or dollar value of what you want to sell and choose a sell order type. They work more or less the same way as the purchase order types we covered above.
Unless the item is completely not what you expected (very terrible condition when they said it was okay, but still useful for your needs), do not try to get a lower price in person. Lower offers should be discussed immediately when you are interested. Be open, honest, and up-front with the seller.
This comment thread helped me so much. I had the same thing happen today and I was at a loss. I ended up telling her she could use my stylized photos to resell it to get her money back or even more as my item was priced to move before the house sells. Thank you for the article and the excellent response to the original question of how to handle attempted returns.
I am an individual who sells random items of mine and not a business. I list items to sell, but some of the items I will not go down on for various reasons, and that is okay, as noted above. People like me treat Marketplace as a yard sale. You list items to sell, you be honest about them, and you price accordingly. You can price for more, but it may not sell.
The other over-pricing issue that is tacky and untruthful is when someone lists something at a very different, intentional price (like the used cars being listed for $5000 when you know they are all worth $17,500) and you contact that person with an inquiry and they tell you the *real* price, instead of just listing it for that price honestly, that is what I was calling out above. That is not okay, not honest, and not a way to sell something. It also is a red flag that this person may be a scammer.
There have been hundreds of items I have sold through Marketplace over the years. I am happy with what I get for those items, and I have turned down some lower offers because I felt the item was worth more (like the list price or a small amount below), so I am not sure how my advice is unfair to sellers.
While I do agree that older posts have a hard time selling, it is not always possible to sell things quickly. Facebook Marketplace has now changed how many times you can refresh the listing and will not show your listing to people without you buying in to paying for promoting it (which I will not, personally, do). Many items do not sell as quickly these days, especially if they are harder sells like building supplies, specific books, or furniture, but patience will allow just the right person to reach out eventually. I do wish Facebook let you refresh as many times as they used to, rather than deleting and re-listing, because that made a huge difference when waiting for that right person to see your listing.
Lots of info but just one crucial rule missing:Should the seller post item prior to receiving payment or should seller await payment prior to posting item?I had one person suggest that I should send pic of package then send to her prior to posting.We could agree so I lost the sale.
I agree I was rude. But, did I break a rule by increasing the price of an item after I received 8 messages within minutes of posting it? I realized it was priced too low. So I edited the price. Shortly after I got a notification that I could no longer buy or sell on fb marketplace.
I hope you are able to figure it out and try selling on Marketplace again, but yes, I would recommend doing research on it ahead of time and not increasing the price after listing, because that will cause potential people to report seller and Facebook will see it as a scam without having a discussion with you first.
I have personally skipped a buyer who had to travel a little, but only because they offered me significantly lower saying I needed to reduce the price for them because of their need to travel. I did not agree to that. I usually have no issues with buyers traveling, as long as they are very good at communicating, genuine, and keep me updated during their travels so I know they will, in fact, show up. Some people are all about speed of selling; sometimes they have a good reason for that, and sometimes not, which can definitely be frustrating as the buyer.
Hi Alyssa, thank you for sharing your knowledge, you have been a phenomenal help to a Facebook Marketplace novice. My question is about Facebook Marketplace rating. I have sold ten items, and have no ratings. (I think due to only using my PC, and have never seen rate buyer/seller option.) I have archived each chat with a person I have sold to, and all are very happy to rate. Is it possible to obtain a rating from them? Thank you
Ratings is something that I have not personally focused on a lot, but I did for some time so I tried to look back into it on my account. The device you use to access Marketplace (mobile or PC) does make a difference. There are very limited options on PC for you as the seller, as well as for buyers. However, there are things you can do if you use your mobile device, and I believe buyers should be able to complete a review regardless of you, as the seller, use Marketplace.
This last bit is something that I cannot test right now to see if it is still available, but I do believe it still is. After selling an item and listing it as sold, Facebook will likely prompt you to say where you sold the item. If you say you sold it on Marketplace, it should ask who you sold it to. If you do this, it may still ask that buyer to leave a review (I know it did in the past, but I stopped marking my listings after selling them, so I cannot verify this at the moment.). It will not send a review request without you manually doing it if it does not know who actually purchased the item. I believe this is how I got many of my ratings initially when I was not even trying to get ratings.
If you have any extra pictures of this purse that you might be able to use to show that it did not have this claimed damage before selling, keep those or send them in as evidence. I would also personally send an apology note to the buyer saying this issue did not show up when the purse was still in your possession or you would have disclosed it, though you already included that this was used, and send a link to the info saying you have researched this and found more information and/or a solution online.
Depending on your account, you should be able to add a handful to a lot of search keywords; my account lets me add 20 keywords. Use these keywords to describe what you are selling in generic terms then add a few terms for specific items that may be searched for more frequently.
The encounter you have that involves sending a courier, however, would be iffy, though you would need to look into more details to see if it is legitimate and they just need to have a way to get it to them if it is a large item they really want and live far away. You can usually tell by the wording and how accurate, consistent, and real the messages are back and forth (i.e. it will not look like a bot or have things that make you question). If you feel iffy about it, you are always welcome to pass, because it is your item and you need to feel comfortable with who you are selling to. Just politely let them know that you cannot do the sale that way. 041b061a72