Facebook used to be amazing. When my sales on Poshmark started to noticeably decline I put my entire closet on FBM and sold almost half my listings in just a few weeks. It was insane.

Then I had a few listings pulled for bogus reasons, I appealed and won every time and all my listings were reinstated, but on FBM even the act of having listings flagged and pulled - regardless of whether or not it was valid - will ding your metrics big time and I went from thousands of views per week to maybe 10 if I'm lucky. So I pulled all my listings off and the only time I ever post anything there now is if I have something very large or awkward to ship that I want to sell locally. Otherwise, I don't even log into FB anymore.

I think it's a hit or miss with FBMP, I have items that sold really quickly, but I also ahve a few that has been idle there for a while...

I feel like decent pictures does better and relevant description. If it has more details of the item, it seems to sell faster.

This may be a dumb question, but do you only sell stuff on Facebook marketplace locally, or do you ship?

I’ve started cross listing there. It’s a little different to navigate - people are looking for better deals but I just lost it at my Poshmark price and let them negotiate because I know I can go lower on my minimum since I’m cutting out fees. I don’t know if there’s a true tip that I can give. Some things will sit with no hits and then suddenly someone wants it

I do a decent amount in "bougie" kids clothes on FB marketplace (local pick-up only). There is SO MUCH kids stuff at the bins I can pick-up for so cheap while I'm at the bins anyway. Average about $200-250/month.

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I sell so much more on Fb than eBay simply because I have the best price. eBay wants you to have a high rating,a lot of sells which I don’t have yet, or something of high value. While fb users are more willing to scroll for the best deal. I get thousands of views on Facebook compared to 1-100 on eBay. I may just be doing something wrong lol. If it’s high valuable I would go eBay.

And cash only for local pick up or meet ups, pics are the same as every other platform try and take multiple angles and good lighting,show all defects in photos and make sure to mention them,and shipping only go through facebook ,no venmo or cash app or any of that ,I've had no problems shipping thru fb as of yet ,(probably shouldn't have mentioned that) lol.and gl

Expect time wasters at every turn. And if its electrical, take a video of it working and keep it for insurance.

Be patient. It's a great platform to sell from but a lot of people are going to waste your time and not even care that they did.

For collectible items, eBay is still best. You'll get more there even after the fees.

For other items, though... Marketplace is great. Just be patient.

Price above what you really want, so when the low ballers come-a-knockin you’re able to “meet in the middle” at the price you really want

Be patient and be prepared to have your time wasted. Set meet ups to places you already plan to go

Not to hijack the OP, but is there a way to list items on Marketplace without all your FB 'friends' seeing the stuff you're flipping on their news feed? This is the sole reason I stick to eBay, Craigslist, and LetGo.

Prepare to have your faith in humanity challenged

Profit margins and percentage of flakes are both high.

:-)

I tried it for a while selling plants and cuttings, but got tired of being ghosted. I don't know what it is about Facebook Marketplace that makes people feel it's okay to discuss a listing, set a place and time to meet, and then completely disappear. Now I stick to local buy/sell groups (specifically for plants) because those people are mostly serious about purchasing, and I sell my planters through Etsy.

Also if you want to get really into it, make a Facebook business page and create a Facebook shop. The shop links to your business page and you create listings which appear on marketplace.

It’s worth it, I promise.

I sell my product on fb marketplace and ship the item. It doesn’t “dilute” your brand like the other poster said. If anything it’s name recognition and more sales. I’ve sold between 15,000 and 20,000 items on marketplace. It’s great advertisement for my website as well.

I don’t do pickup because my time is worth more than meeting someone but I’ll gladly ship it. Even if they’re half a mile away.

No, not my Etsy items, but I know someone who does sell their Etsy stuff on FBM. As someone else mentioned, they too now only ship things sold there, as that ensures payment is done and you don’t set meeting times and have people not show up.

If you are looking to meet up, contact your local PD, many now have a spot in their parking lot where in-person transactions can take place, so as to make it as safe as possible.

If they don’t already have this, politely press them to designate a spot. Hell, convince them it will be good PR for them if they are reluctant. It’s best for everyone.

Independently I have sold other things on FBM, like old tools, and kayaks, and what not. I’ve never had an issue, but just remember that if you are meeting the person, you no longer have someone handling the tax removal, and there is no digital paper trail, created by a third party, of the transaction. You will have to be diligent about keeping track of tax related stuff, creating your own receipts for yourself and the buyer, and everything involved there.

I've had better luck on Craigslist. Done about $6k of custom reptile enclosures on Craigslist over 2020 and for the most part went smoothly but if you use PayPal they will get their money back if they charge back and PayPal will deduct from you and pass along the charge back fee. Their seller protection is basically nilch

I know you were asking about Facebook Marketplace but I have had some success with Nextdoor actually. Its very easy to list items for sale on there.

For FBMP, privacy is my biggest concern. I use an alternate profile with an alias name to sell and I always do pick at public location that's nearby me, like a store that's two miles down the road. That way if people flake I'm not out anymore than my time (and I'll only wait 10 minutes past the scheduled meet up time before I leave). Done thousands of local sales this way.

I sell tons on FBM. I do porch pickup at my house and it’s really convenient.

It's the generic first reply option that Facebook gives a potential customer. People whine about it, but it's a free platform and Its easy to sell a lot through it with minimal issues

If you don't mind getting a million, "is this available" messages from people that will never buy from you it's great.

Sold on eBay since 99 and used Facebook marketplace a handful of times in the past year. My experience on Facebook marketplace would be described in one word as nightmarish. There are far more scammers trying to get you to fall for stuff on Facebook than on eBay, by a multitude of 10 or more!

I have made some sales, and follow a very strict safety protocol. They never get anywhere near my home and I never give out my home phone number to anyone for any reason. I only meet in a public place, one which is right around the corner and convenient for me, a Wawa gas station parking lot. I meet right only in daylight and right under the cameras and it has been safe that way. I would never ever ever let anyone from Facebook come to my home for any reason, way too dangerous.

For your items you may consider it being more worth your while if you do lots of multiple items, grouping girls clothing of a certain age range together, etc. That will allow you to have a higher price and make the hassles worth your while. We all have to decide what that amount is to be worth what has been a real pain in the ass for me trying to sell on Facebook marketplace.

Last year I sold my wife's old car there. It was priced very low as I wanted it to move quickly. Unfortunately, the car flippers were like piranha trying to get it for much much less than even the ridiculously low price I had it at. The other thing that happened was a lot of them were from areas that were extremely high in crime nearby and their profiles showed obvious gang members with guns and stacks of cash pictures! It got so bad that I finally put right in the ad that we'll meet in the local police department parking lot only for inspection and purchase. That seemed to cut the gang members out for the most part, but I was terrified of getting robbed from anyone who came to look at that car. My worst car selling experience for decades of selling personal used cars. Just be careful, very careful, and use common sense. I only take cash, never an electronic payment because they'll reverse that before you get home, and I use a counterfeit money pin from office Depot to check all cash as they're paying. Good luck out there!

Would you accept $3?

Source: fb marketplace!

But it's actually hard to get $15 even for adult clothing in a garage sale/local pickup kind of situation.

Thanks for voice of reason. I really don't understand why people think they'll get hundreds of dollars for kids stuff, family clothes, and other well worn house items.

I think they have that confused with people who resell high end stuff thats been gifted to their kids.

3. Block lowballers. These people will never result in a sale. Remove them from the pool, so you don't ever have to read one of their messages again.

4. Who you sell to is very category dependent. Selling video game systems? Prepare for a lot of kids that don't have money. Prepare for scammers and thieves. They aren't prevalent, but are much more likely with this category. Kitchen appliance? Almost never have to worry about this.

5. Avoid your house at all costs. Drive two minutes down the street to a local coffee shop. Why give out any personal information unnecessarily just to save 10 minutes? The majority of people will never cause a problem, but that one person that seemed friendly and nice now making threats will make you wish you drove down the street. Also, don't overestimate how well you think you can read someone from a few messages on FBM.

Where to source products? I’m very poor and therefore need an additional income stream!

Precisely. What’s even worse is that when someone you thought were the real deal turned out to be a real asshole.

What I might also add to this list of yours is:

11. If anyone took too long to respond, especially towards a direct question (say 12 hours or so, especially if they kept you at read), then block them. Best not to call them out on it because some might have an attitude and try to BS themselves out of taking responsibility.

12. In terms of high value items if by some chance someone did want to buy it from you, its best to deal with it at a police station to make sure you weed out any scammers and idiots that’s going to waste your time. If they aren’t interested and kept trying to make excuses why that ain’t going to work for them, immediately end the chat right there.

13. Take good quality pictures. I’ve seen so many asshats that had taken such a poor set of pictures that you can’t even what they are trying to sell or perhaps you can but that it can take literally no more then an additional 10 seconds to take slightly better ones… yet they’re too lazy worthless sack to do anything about it. And don’t just post Google Image pictures and nothing else. It is not our problem you don’t have a camera (Go get one as one that can take 720p or 1080p camera can be bought for less than $50. That or borrow one), it is not our problem you are lazy, it is not our problem that you think it wouldn’t matter.

14. Actually be very descriptive. Same concept as the pictures, I’ve literally seen so many who are so lazy they can’t be bothered to explain what they’re selling or that they decided to just copy and paste what someone else had said. They don’t bother explaining if there’s any defects or whatnot, they don’t bother telling us where the pickup is or if he or she is willing to deliver or ship it, or their availabilities are, or any details we should know. Nothing. Like they know what they have but still don’t bother to say anything in the descriptive.

15. Don’t type the “I kNoW wHaT i HaVe” just because you are annoyed with lowballers. Yes they are annoying, but instead of saying shit like that and possibly sounding like an asshat, EXPLAIN what you have and price accordingly and tell people you are not interested with providing discounts, especially if the price is already pretty fair.

Good advice but i don’t agree with disqualifying buyers immediately at any suspicion… usually they still buy. i’ll sell 1.5x the items you will by taking them

This is actually a huge advantage of you're buying. It's the same reason no-one matches with men who are actually quite decent in real life on dating apps. Bad photos will turn people off but is only representative of the photographer, not the item.

I pissed a woman off one time that was trying to sell a 10" sliding miter saw from Harbor Freight for 250 dollars. I pointed out to her with a link to the site you could buy them all day long new on sale for $90.

I've sold for YEARS on FB marketplace and never once had a no show. Unless the item is really big, (a smoker or gas grill), I never meet at my home. And if I do meet at my home, I screen the buyer exceptionally well.

I love it thank u Master, how much u put on Boost ? U SEE any Change between putting $1 or putting $5

Boost listings. A lot of people don’t take advantage of this cause they worried about their profit margins. I guarantee you, as long you price your item correctly. Spending those $1-$5 on boosting listings..won’t hurt your profits & you get messages fairly quickly.

Another thing is meet ups. Its better to get cash so you don’t have to worry about refunds & usually people will meet up that day or the next which you can make a buck right away. ( Still be very cautious! ) A lot of people miss out on potential profits because everyone wants to post online & ship out to customers cause their not comfortable or its easier which makes it’s competitive.

It's like Ebay but local and sometimes way sketchier. Meta also provides no seller protection but will do charge backs [if payment is via online] if the customer complains. I used to do meet up Marketplace but started getting no shows. Decided I'd rather just not deal with the headache.