Forum

Facebook Marketplace
 

I have just come to realize the potential of selling on FB marketplace. I had always assumed it was a closed network for local sale of used items.

Does anyone else on the forum move a lot of goods on the platform or just small sales there?

Re: Facebook Marketplace
 

I have moved a few things locally only so my experience is limited for shipping out-of-area purposes

Re: Facebook Marketplace
 

We buy tons of stuff there for around the house. I didn't even know they support shipping orders. Do they have payments built in now?

Re: Facebook Marketplace
 

It is a huge hassle. Their payment system sucks and really easy to get locked out of banned. Secondary is PayPal invoicing and again, a huge hassle.

It CAN be great and it can be a huge burden depending on your personal patience dealing with messages and people.

Re: Facebook Marketplace
 

Care to elaborate?

What kind of system are they using and what makes it so hard to deal with?

I could google but I'm curious about your experience...

Re: Facebook Marketplace
 

It can be very aggravating, from an exposure point of view. I've had popular items get 0 views (because they aren't showing them to people), and less popular items get 100s of views the first day and tons of interest.

Also, local competitors will flag your items to get them taken down. Then you have to meet people in person.. yuck!

Depending what you sell, I wouldn't really mess with it. Unless you have a business location and they can come to you. OR, give them all your tax/bank info and offer shipping. (I'm not giving facebook that shiit)

The good thing, of course, about selling local is zero fees/tax, and it's cash, and you never have to see them again... so no returns. :)

Re: Facebook Marketplace
 

So far, it has been pretty smooth. It is annoying with some customers asking obvious questions and having to haggle, but it can be managed with the assistant feature.

The payment system IS severely delayed. They don't release the funds until I believe 4 days after receipt. Then they batch pay your like MP.

Re: Facebook Marketplace
 

People sell tons of items on Facebook. Marketplace is made very much like ebay and etsy. Do not give up and always find new ways to sell!

Re: Facebook Marketplace
 

Facebook, IMO, is unlike any of the other market places

It can be very very profitable but it needs to be worked

I list on Facebook every 4 weeks. It is an agricultural item - very niche market. I list it on Facebook Marketplace and then share it to over 100 groups that I have joined. 2 weeks later I list a similar but different item

I offer payment by bank transfer or Paypal - it's money for old rope really

The problem is you need to be on top of it all the time. Messages need answering quickly and I send Paypal invoices if that's how they want to pay. After 3 or 4 days sales dry up and after 2 weeks I cancel all listings to make way for the alternative.

It's a good side gig for me and I must admit it's quite useful

I don't buy promotions so my costs are nil

Do your homework first but it costs nothing to try

:ranger:

Re: Facebook Marketplace
 

Facebook marketplace is a pain in the ass imo. In typical facebook fashion nothing works properly, the people who message you will be basically braindead and then one day you will be randomly banned for swearing or some other irrelevant ****. Personally I just avoid it completely

Re: Facebook Marketplace
 

is fb stealth accounts a thing? can we buy those lol

Re: Facebook Marketplace
 

Probably a thing but not offered for sale in the marketplace here by an authorized seller that I know of...beware of random solicitation pms ...

Re: Facebook Marketplace
 

facebook marketplace is still quite inactive one compared to other marketplaces like etsy ebay aliexpress etc. It needs more time to get more active people with flexible rules to do trades.

Re: Facebook Marketplace
 

I made £345 profit today - I posted a listing at 7.30am - it's now 11.20 pm

Tomorrow I will probably make £160 plus - that's profit

So I make a monkey a week with no costs

What's not to like?

:ranger:

Re: Facebook Marketplace
 

Yes I understand but Facebook also banned the accounts very randomly.

Re: Facebook Marketplace
 

Randomly is debatable - likely something tricked the security flag

Re: Facebook Marketplace
 

Don't fail their reviews. And they WILL review a ton of your listings if not 80 percent of them. Sell generic and don't try to trick new item listings with wordplay. If you sell big boy names, be prepared to only be able to sell it used.

Re: Facebook Marketplace
 

They have the weirdest guidelines/algorithms/shadowbans for visibility. I've had super-popular shiit get 0-20 views in weeks, while at the same time some regular shiit will get hundred of views and messages the first day.

Re: Facebook Marketplace
 

Have you had any issues with chargebacks or returns?

Re: Facebook Marketplace
 

Yes like that, it's kinda random unless someone gives you a facebook marketplace stealth guide on how to protect yourself from this.

Re: Facebook Marketplace
 

Nabbed a few bargains myself on the platform.

But when it comes to selling it's really annoying having people haggle you down on price so much or make stupid offers. I also don't like that my profile is on display for potential buyers to see. The anonymity on Etsy and eBay are far better so to speak. You can behave professionally to secure sales.

Not sure how Facebook stealth works.

Re: Facebook Marketplace
 

Use a different profile for buying /selling on fb

Re: Facebook Marketplace
 

There was a thread recently about how someone's account is limited to only $500 on shipping orders.

I don't remember the details, but if you can find it maybe you'll know better than me.

Re: Facebook Marketplace
 

Provide more details for analysis on account setup and operation

Re: Facebook Marketplace
 

Here's my experience with Facebook marketplace (I got the idea to try it after reading this thread last month)
The hurdle for Facebook marketplace was $600 for me. That's when they hide your listings until you provide a SSN.
After that, brisk sales continued until I reached $1000 in sales, then they shadow banned my listings. (No notifications, just greyed out the buy button on all of my listings so nobody could purchase).
After a few days went by without a single sale, I deleted every listing. I waited a week, then started listing one item per day, very slowly.
Sales, clicks on listings, customer questions are all very slow these days, so they clearly don't like something about me. Maybe I started to fast (I had 34 sales over my first week), now I'm averaging just 2 a week.
Either way I'm hoping it gets better as I think this is a viable addition to Ebay. A different crowd of eyes buying your goods is always welcome.
Facebook marketplace pros:
Fees of 5% total less than half of Ebay's.
Virtually no chance of scammers since you see people's facebook profiles...too personal for a scammer I suppose.
Easy format to list. You can hide listings from friends, set to ship only and label printing is a breeze.
Cons of Facebook marketplace:
Your payouts are issued days after delivery. You will wait a week or longer in some cases.
Facebook users are a chatty bunch. They message you often, very personal stuff about how much their mother will enjoy this or that, etc. Very nice people, but time consuming to message everyone back.
Shadowbanning, uneven sales, never a communication from Facebook and absolutely nobody to call with concerns. They don't seem to care if you sell or not.
I don't think they make any real money as the 5% fee covers the credit card processing, buyer protection program, etc.

Re: Facebook Marketplace
 

Does facebook marketplace hold funds until tracking number states item has arrived, or is it released to seller immediately after payment?

Re: Facebook Marketplace
 

fb marketplace can be a gold rush if you list something that is trending

Re: Facebook Marketplace
 

There's no set pattern to when those dumbasses pay out. It can be a month sometimes. It's ridiculous...

Re: Facebook Marketplace
 

So far I've had two accounts get locked up for no reason but their own stupid paranoia algorithm. The first one locked while I was editing some items ��*♂️. Second one I had to confirm login credentials from parent device. I don't offer shipping only sell locally. Going on 4th month and really experiencing rock bottom item performance selling new Milwaukee DeWalt. Went to FB jail a few times for something said in a group.

NEVER ever mix your marketplace business with other parts of Facebook. And ALWAYS block time wasters and low ballers right away.

Re: Facebook Marketplace
 

Does the user name have to match the PP associated?

Thanks!!
S4L

Re: Facebook Marketplace
 

No, You cannot use the Facebook marketplace without a Facebook account. Facebook marketplace is a service provided by Facebook itselfTo access Facebook Marketplace, click the Marketplace icon in the main menu on the Facebook website or app.
If you don't see Marketplace when logged into Facebook, try logging out and back in, or reinstalling the app.
Facebook Marketplace is only available to users 18 and older in supported countries.

Re: Facebook Marketplace
 

Nice explanation :thumb:

Re: Facebook Marketplace
 

why not just buy an existing sales venue and get it over with.

Re: Facebook Marketplace
 

I agree it sucks. Started and hot shipping approved for 1 week. Then woke up stripe had banned me. It sucks

Re: Facebook Marketplace
 

What is it you do exxactly to have stripe ban you?

I don't think stripe is known to be a pain unless you are doing something you're not supposed to?

Re: Facebook Marketplace
 

Facebook is huge but profits are less then eBay. I’ve been selling on Facebook since the start of the year after losing my eBay account. If it wasn’t for Facebook then I would of lost my entire business.

I’m back on eBay now after finally learning how to create stealth accounts with managed payments but if you find the right product to sell then theirs good profit to be made.

To be successful you need delivery option on. You have to accept facebooks payment system they use I can’t remember the name of the payment processor now.

I had few orders but I cancelled them as I didn’t want to use their payment system and now they don’t allow me to use their payment processor which is good as I always used PayPal anyway views and clicks were still not effected because of this or sales.

Pick a hot a product in demand and your get messages and sales on Facebook. Trick is to use multiple PayPal accounts as well. Don’t carry your eggs in one basket.

Re: Facebook Marketplace
 

Right on - backups.

Re: Facebook Marketplace
 

Are these local pick ups or are you shipping?

Re: Facebook Marketplace
 

Same I make around £80-£100 profit per item profit should increase when I sell new versions when they come out no fees apart from PayPal fees. Love the odd cash in hand job. Got £560 cash last week for 2 items £200 profit in one day.

Another good thing about Facebook is you can get same buyer who wants to buy again and re sell this has happened to me a few times and I’ve become a supplier to some buyers.

Re: Facebook Marketplace
 

Made a few thousand on FB last year but it was non-stop selling to people through messages, leads came from ads, that helped alot.

I made my first #500 on FB payments fast so they killed my FB Pay until I added a social, which I did, but it took months for them to verify...

So, I continued selling under the radar by aggressively selling to interested people through messages and taking payments via Zelle, Cashapp, PP and Venmo (waay against FB ToS) and made about 4000 until it was too much work talking the money out of customers since I couldnt take PP or FB Pay, tire-kicking and scammy competitors and crap..but I would do it again, that $4600 really helped me out.

FB was so dumb that even items that shipped by the time my account got banned from marketplace, were paid out to me a day or two after adding tracking. I couldve shipped rocks and gotten paid.. hahaaa

But, If i was able to take FB Pay and PP the whole time, might have made triple that.

Edit - 100% shipped physical items