Facebook Marketplace fun and games – what’s the next move?

To be fair….if you spend a lot of time at home, and bargain hunt (or that other one where two of them jolly around the UK in a vintage car going to nik nak shops for a week and flipping it at an auction house) ends up on the screen a lot you’d be forgiven to thinking this is how the world works. The only times I’ve ever watched it they always start with a low ball at <50% the asking price.

On the other end, I’m looking for a new toy, either a campervan or a motorbike. Two examples, both with short/vague 3 line adverts that should have bee the first red flag.

Campervan  – ermmm, those numberplates don’t match the .gov records.  Cue some story about them being from his other van.  It’s tax and MOT exempt so it doesn’t even really make any sense to be driving round on the wrong plates!  Surely no ones going to buy it like that?

Motorbike – After a few questions, can I have the reg number to check the mot history? Sorry I’m at work.  Who doesn’t know their own reg number?

I wonder how some people dress themselves in the morning, let alone sell anything.

I was selling a cheap Toyota IQ on FB a few weeks ago, it seemed every curry takeaway and Uber eats in the country was low balling me as well as the usual scammers. If I had a pound for everyone of them I blocked I wouldn’t need to sell it.

I always get, yeah defo take it will come round today.

They never show up.

I once sold a bed and told 9 people they could have it. One of them turned up and tried to haggle. Told him to FO and get out of my house. He then agreed to pay the full price.

Next thing another person said they were setting off and I told them it was sold. She said I thought you said I could have it. I then explained how FB market place is full of idiots who say they defo want it and never then up.

Use eBay every time now.

Expect we all have marketplace stories to tell it makes selling on ebay seem like heaven!

I once sold a table and agreed to drop it round the persons house for free as wasn’t far and their car wasn’t big enough apparently.

Duly called round at the agreed time with the table and they werent in, multiple messages sent – no response. Eventually later in the day they said sorry they’d decide to go out and could I deliver it another day….second word was off!

Take £35 and donate the cash to charity.

I had a guy turn up to buy a 3080 Graphics card. As soon as he got on the drive I thought something was suss. Couldn’t figure out why

1st weird thing in hindsight, he asked if I had a dog. We went to my office and I showed him the card running, but he didn’t really seem interested. Offered to buy the whole PC so we agreed on a price. As I was trying to quickly log out of windows he said he was in a rush and would take the card then come back for the PC next day.

He loads up Metro banking app and puts in my details, pays £600 and he has ref number on screen. I’m stood there with my Bank app open, nothing arriving. I keep refreshing……nothing.

He’s still in a rush, so I should just take the ref number off his phone and let him go with the card. I say nothing’s leaving until the money is in my account. We stand around awkwardly for a while, no payment arrives. I say since he’s coming back for the rest of the PC the next day, he can collect the Graphics card too. He says ok, then scuttles off pretty quickly. His facebook profile disappears and I never hear from him.

Think I swerved a good con there! CCTV and door bell camera went up within a few days of that dodgy dude!

I now never give out my full address. I say get to my postcode and message, I’ll then go out and meet them.

Turns out the person who messaged was a young lad, the guy who turned up was a chubby bloke with a cr*p beard

“I’ve got a Dnepr K-750M motorbike for sale on there for £1250”

swops for red leather sofa mate??? just needs one new leg

just needs one new leg

That’s why he’s selling the bike.

Ohh this just reminded me of this absolute WTF of a conversation

***Take £35 and donate the cash to charity.***
No chance – he’d likely be the sort of person to flog it on and come out of it up on the deal. There is a local bike charity (where we bought a couple of the bikes that I am selling from in the first place) so I’ll just donate it to them and they can get a direct benefit from selling it on (they will get a better price for it from my experience of buying from them).

Edit @jonjones – there was an article on the BBC site just a couple of days ago with a couple that had the exact same experience as you (but they fell for the scam).

No chance – he’d likely be the sort of person to flog it on and come out of it up on the deal. There is a local bike charity (where we bought a couple of the bikes that I am selling from in the first place) so I’ll just donate it to them and they can get a direct benefit from selling it on.

Alternately, this whole exercise has already demonstrated that there’s no profit to be made on it.

FWIW, this is the same bike as the one I am selling. I paid £110 for it in ‘as new’ condition about four years ago and it’s still in much better condition than the Ebay one.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/285781356741?itmmeta=01HTM7EHPKS4NE6WF41Y1DKP00&hash=item4289e570c5:g:nsoAAOSw~yJl~1ix&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA4DEs132j%2FHFy4dUp9YjbebBixpoKN4dTf26RayotJ7Ou6iHUj5Nk2EUDdbOX%2Fqr09mOiigzALtrJ0eyYkht%2F8SoCiUwFZrjdeyb2QvC0WALtqUceiLejpi9PZvht8NkAKn%2BuGTXbaWCccFYSgW7PuZaJuORE5KueL9VwW8t3o27X5vwMTSUEya3LuRYiayt8jFDezttfNL5dGugd3%2B8Chh6%2FMUgDeGdM2bMuVbfRRTmCqlPOjhKFhpcVVxd6gFHaFKNT%2Bsnsy4EIyW0eBcFfqL6xfWZIYOj0i59eL21s8tdg%7Ctkp%3ABFBM0Ju6h9Vj

He loads up Metro banking app and puts in my details, pays £600 and he has ref number on screen. I’m stood there with my Bank app open, nothing arriving. I keep refreshing……nothing.

Sounds suspiciously like this

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cermdkj009mo

FWIW, this is the same bike as the one I am selling. I paid £110 for it in ‘as new’ condition about four years ago and it’s still in much better condition than the Ebay one.

Four years ago would have been the peak of the lockdown bike price boom (blimey, that doesn’t feel like 4 years!)

I don’t disagree it’s “worth” more, but I just doubt anyone will value it more.

Facebook marketplace – At best you end up in several conversations with absolute morons before making a very small amount of money, at worse you invite a criminal into your home.

The general selling pages are just not worth using anymore. Only specialist stuff in a closed group like windsurfing kit, kayaking kit etc is worth the time.

***Four years ago would have been the peak of the lockdown bike price boom (blimey, that doesn’t feel like 4 years!)***
Good point – it was longer than four years ago then – in fact it was about five years ago as I was commuting daily at the time.

Update! Just got this message from another interested party….

We’re going to make it simple. I will send postmen to your address for collection. These are the DPD factors.

That is to say, DPD agents will come to your home to give you your money and when you have verified all the money, you will give them the item and they will come and deliver it to my address

Payment will be made in cash at the time of collection.

I told them to do one (besides, I sold it on Saturday – for £50). TBF, I am not sure how this scam would work on Facebook Marketplace, it’s not like Ebay where they could claim a refund.

Use eBay every time now

I’m currently doing that with a bike (check the classifieds!). Put the size in the title, first line of the body of the ad and then again with the geometry table.  Auction goes live and within an hour I’ve got “wot size is it m8”.

Swiftly followed by someone else asking what the lowest price I’d accept is. I want to reply and ask them the highest price they’d pay instead.

I told them to do one (besides, I sold it on Saturday – for £50). TBF, I am not sure how this scam would work on Facebook Marketplace, it’s not like Ebay where they could claim a refund.

At the last minute they’ll change and ask to do it via bank transfer.

Indeed, sit tight and wait.

Am I unusual in not having any trouble with FB? But I do only post in relevant groups (Retrobike, Hope buy&sell, Bike packing gear, etc) and just immediately block anyone who sounds a bit odd.

I find eBay to be loads more hassle, their returns thing is increasingly becoming a system where I send it to them, they decide they don’t want it any more (paintwork isn’t good (did you not look at the pictures?) it’s the wrong size (it’s the size I said it was in the description)) and then i have to pay return postage as they’ve not read it properly. FB cash on collection is much less agro, and a surprising number are happy with pp gift/bank transfer and then I post it to them, I prefer that as once it’s sold it stays sold

FB market place is equally as crap when you are trying to buy stuff. I’m not the person who would haggle the price down unless the add says open to reasonable offers. So when an add say the price is ‘X’ then I’ll say I’ll pay that. but when you don’t get a response, that annoys me too. Just plain rude.

The last time I tried to sell a bike on FB marketplace was an experience I don’t want to repeat. Had one guy desperate, I’ve got the money now, I can be there in 20 seconds etc etc. So I thought I’d take a look at his profile (the one good thing about FB) and bejesus…it was like seeing the cast of “Snatch” on a bad day! I looked at his fathers profile and it got worse…The Hill have eyes meet Shrek! I had no idea these people were real ? He must have messaged me twice a day for two weeks….five times after I’d deleted the advert and put it on ebay. I used to dread opening Facebook.

Ebay seems to be going downhill a bit. However, I did sell a treadmill on Ebay last week and they were great. Came on time, had the pick up code, polite, So there are still normal people on there…I think.

That is to say, DPD agents will come to your home to give you your money and when you have verified all the money, you will give them the item and they will come and deliver it to my address

Payment will be made in cash at the time of collection.

I told them to do one

Shame, would be more fun to give them a fake address and see how it goes 🙂

I’m selling my daughters bike and I’ve agreed to meet a female buyer just down the road at a public car park. She’s bringing her daughter to check for sizing.

All seems legit. Have had one bloke trying to pull the “dpd will come pick up and pay cash”. He’s been ignored.

I’ll update tomorrow!

@cobrakai – if it doesn’t fit her daughter, let her know I have a couple of 24″ wheel girls bikes on Marketplace for a very good price 😉

I have a couple of 24″ wheel girls bikes on Marketplace for a very good price

Hi m8 do u no if itll fit my lad? Do U de-liver?

/Endless

Having seen this thread go through the motions, I approached giving away a slightly broken telly recently with some trepidation. (Pickup only, free, pics of screen in advert)

Title: Philips Ambilight 58″ LED television FAULTY

First enquiry:

Hi did you say the tv works?

Me:

Hi. Yes it does, but it’s faulty. Have a look at the pics in the listing.

Him:

Would do a first timer my son

I mean, is it just me? What on earth is he on about?

There followed two other buyers who both made arrangements to pick it up, both no-showed.

I just took it down the tip. 🤷

Had a pretty good run on FB to be fair. Ebike went for more than I thought to a guy that drove 80 miles each way. Leather chair went in an afternoon this week for full asking price. Sold a couple of job lots of Duplo this week as well. Same advice as above. Ignore obvious time wasters and see how the person profile links to your wider contact group. Selling baby stuff is usually safe as parents will link to baby groups/ nurseries etc. Some stuff is more fraught as it attracts scammers. Phones/ computers/ cars/ bikes. And always ask for 1/3 more than you want. Get full asking and it’s a bonus.

Shame, would be more fun to give them a fake address and see how it goes 🙂

Except unless you’ve pre-invested the effort in creating a completely fake facebook profile, they’re probably only 5 minutes effort away from getting your address anyway.

Hah – he’s just responded again, saying he’ll give me £45 if I will wait until Saturday.

100% timewaster.

There is satisfaction to be had in just declining and wishing him good luck with his search.

I was selling my son’s Hoy track bike during lockdown, it was £260 new and I was asking £90, one berk came on and offered £40, when I said no he replied that there was a pandemic on and I wouldn’t get a penny more for it from anyone, so I just told him to F off and gave it to my son’s cycling club, I got a lot more pleasure from that than I would from £40.

Sold a turbo trainer for £70 recently on FB. The first person to contact me offered to put £200 in my bank account which was nice of them. Sadly they disappeared before I was able to report them.

You know you’ll end up swapping it for fishing tackle, it’s just a question of time

I had this plus ‘and a REALLY good torch’ on Gumtree years ago when selling a Trek MTB. I asked loads of utterly inane and downright mad questions about the torch and tackle until they got angry and left me alone. Wish I’d have saved it all. Top fun!

Bike sold!

Lovely family came and looked at it. The little girl had a test ride round the car park and was giggling her head off.

Now to find more crap in the loft to try and sell.

We came to sell my wife’s Specialized MTB on Marketplace. To be honest it was a nice bike in good nick. We wanted £100. Cheap but we wanted rid of it and the space.

We got a couple of time wasters, then a call from a relatively local woman who wanted it for her young son.

She turned up in a beat up car, and the lad, absolutely loved the bike. It was obviously his dream machine.

Mum, obviously a single mum, probably with not much if any spare cash was delighted that he liked the bike and at £100 it was probably too expensive but it was what he wanted.

She got out the £100, no negotiation and handed it over.

I couldn’t do it, I couldn’t take it. he was so happy, I just gave it her back. Here was a man with his Titanium bike in the garage, the tyres cost as much as this lads bike. I didn’t want the money. His smile was worth it.

Off they went. Bike, and their money. I went back in the house very happy.

Thank the lord I’m not the only soft shite in this world👍

Well done that man.

Good stuff.

Ahh that’s a nice story @yosemite – well done.