Think of it as a non-anonymous Craigslist for sale section.

You message the person and negotiate a price.

You message the seller and work out the details with them.

You reach out to the seller and make a plan to meet. Once you see the item and decide you want it you pay, typically in cash but some accept Venmo, PayPal, cash app, etc

Facebook actually uses Paypal (in the background) to process payments.

If the item is never delivered to you, the seller will never get paid. If they were to not acknowledge the order at all (and never mark it as shipped), it'll just be a temp charge and it'll drop once the transaction cancels out.

Facebook support generally sucks, but you could always open a dispute if they send an empty package.

Most of your questions are probably answered here:

https://www.facebook.com/policies/purchase_protection/disputes_and_refunds?_rdr

If you're that intent on buying stuff on Facebook for shipping, maybe reach out to the seller first and ask a question or two, just to confirm they're real, responsive, and care about the sale. Otherwise, I'd avoid it entirely.

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Ultimately you can’t always be 100% sure if the person is legit or not as occasionally, a scam would get through. But you can easily weed out a good chunk of them by:

1 - do not ever try to meet at night. There is no reason why you need to do this at night.

2 - Ask to meet at a very public area. Mall, Starbucks or other very popular coffee place, etc. Also go with a friend if you felt you want to.

3 - If their account has a lot of bad rating, avoid it at all cost. I’m talking about like 1~2/5 star rating and some are telling us that this seller is a scammer or flake or whatnot.

4 - If there’s no real pictures of the actual product or has very poor quality pictures + description is either non-existent or lacking, this might be red flags. Not 100% guaranteed this is a bad sign, but you’d assume that if someone really wants to sell it, they’d at least make some form of attempt at pithing what they’re selling, no?

5 - Please, do every seller a favour and ACTUALLY TELL THE SELLER YOU HAD CHANGED YOUR MIND AHEAD OF TIME!!! Don’t just say nothing or decided you don’t owe them a response if any crucial change to the plan has been made. Also when the seller asks a question, please respond ASAP and don’t be crying to the seller that they had sold it right from under you if you are slow to respond. <— All of this had been one of the common issues with buyers who doesn’t care about the seller’s schedules and had the nerve to rate negatively.

6 - also please don’t send the “Is it still available?’. While many don’t really have an issue with this question,most have an issue with the lack of responses right after. Add a tiny bit of extra to let them know you are actually legit interested and didn’t just pressed it by accident.

7 - the morning of the day where you are scheduled to meet with them, ask them politely a few hours before the meetup to confirm the meetup to prevent them from suddenly “FoRgEtTiNg” to tell you something popped up or they are already selling it to someone else.

8 - Its best to deal with cash only. You should really only do e-transfers or any digital payments with someone you buy or sell things to very regularly. Just my 2 cents.

I've started using it recently as well, in fact just had my first sale. 100% not worth the hassle. People on FBM are nuts. You have to weed out the nutjobs and the weirdos with liberal use of the block button. Don't be afraid to block people that give you a weird vibe.

You can rate people there after exchanging a few messages, even if you don't do a transaction, which is really odd to me. So if I'm having a convo with someone and it doesn't go anywhere, I block them so they can't give me a bad rating. Even if they were nice/friendly/cool, whatever. A couple of people gave me bad ratings before I figured that out. You didn't accept my lowball offer, so you get a bad rating!

Tons of low ball offers from ppl trying to resell whatever you have or they want you to deliver your $20 item 40 miles away because my car got flooded lol and nonsense like that.

In short, like every other aspect of Facebook, the Marketplace sucks bad. Thank you for coming to my TED talk

When selling always confirm the date and time. Meet the buyer in a public area near you. I meet buyers at grocery store parking lot within 1 mile from my home. If it's a very expensive item, or a high risk item like an Apple product, PS5, watch, etc I will only meet buyers inside a police station lobby near my home.

I only accept exact cash - no exceptions.

I allow the buyer to inspect the item and I ask if they have any questions. I go over any issues the item may have (I would have listed these in my ad but I do it again so there are no issues after the sale)

After the sale. I block the buyer and DELETE the listing. That way the seller doesn't message me back 45 days later with buyers remorse or any problems they might experience after the sale.

I set the meet-ups after my work day when I'm on the way home, or on the weekends.

I never deliver.

I always send the buyer a google maps link to the meet up location AND ask they message me when they leave their house with an ETA.

I don't meet anyone after 7 pm nor do I wait more than 15 minutes unless I hear back from the buyer promptly.

If I get weird vibes from the seller, or I feel that the buyer will be a problem I block them ASAP.

I will not "hold" an item. That seldom works well

If the sale wont produce a $25 sale I wont list it.

I donate lesser items to my local community store.

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I do not use FB either but do sell on it. Commented below on the sell side. As a buyer, look at what else they are selling and have sold, look at their ratings, look at their profile both FBMP and FB. I like to see where people are coming from. If out of state/country, I ask how they will be meeting me and then they go radio silent. Since your purchases are not heavy items, meet in a public place like a bank lobby, library, etc, during daylight. After you agree day/time, reconfirm a couple hours ahead of time. Carefully look at the item. If it is too cheap there is likely a reason. If you have a question ask it in the nicest way as some sellers are not responsive or receptive to questions. The most polite people have been the easiest. If in doubt do not buy it. I was and continued to be shocked how many nuts are in FBMP. There are lots of great posts in various Reddit Subs that are super helpful. Good Luck!

I have multiple accounts. I tell the same story every time. Bought it last year secondhand. So happy with it, I upgraded to the newer model. Which is true, because I also flip the newer model 🤣

When I travel an hour or more away from my home town I’ll have a quick look on marketplace while I’m there. Then sell in my hometown. I’ve had an angry person victimise me once and I’ll never buy locally to flip on marketplace again, I don’t need the angst. Of course if I’m gonna sell it on eBay I don’t mind sourcing it locally. As a female I’m probably more aware of implied threats than some men?

I have been called out and it is usually people that were going to do the same. Someone that actually wants it will pay market value

Block button is your BFF, along with hide from friends. New photos.

I buy and resell on FBMP and OfferUp. The only etiquette I can think of is to not use the same pics from the original seller. For goodness sakes take your own pictures of the item you are selling and write your own ad post.

same, i also checked with the rest of my family, and theirs dont show different either. facebook marketplace has been broken for a while for me

Yes no fix that I know of

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Did your payment method expire?

Same issue. Wife can buy things but I cannot.

DM I'll send a link a guide to contact them

Try to check after 24hours sometime algorithm do that. It can even hide your listings based on your activity

I am having the same exact issue. I am glad found this post this issue was making me go crazy smh.

Any update? Same issue here

Remember to check our discord where you can get faster responses! https://discord.gg/6dR6XU6 If you are trying to find a price for your computer, r/PC_Pricing is our recommended source for finding out how much your PC is worth!

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Make sure the seller shows you that the item turns on and works in person.

Full of scams

Try https://www.facebook.com/help/contact/380441852833393

This is happening to lots of people for no good reason, search this thread. Just click Request Review and wait 24 hours to 7 days.

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