Selling on Facebook Marketplace
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Interested in selling some things on Facebook Marketplace? Here’s how to set up a listing, plus my best tips to help you increase your chance of making a sale.
What is Facebook Marketplace?
Facebook Marketplace is a selling platform that’s built into Facebook. It allows you to buy and sell items in your local community without fees. If you want to get your item in front of a larger audience, you can also offer to ship them. Facebook collects a small fee for these types of transactions (currently 5%). In return, they process the payment and offer protection for the buyer and seller. You can use your own shipping label to mail the item, or they’ll create a shipping label and e-mail it to you. As much as credit card processing costs, this is a very reasonable transaction fee.
Please note that Facebook Marketplace is NOT the same things as Facebook Groups. With Facebook Groups, you have to go through the hassle of finding local buying/selling groups in your area and the further hassle of asking to join. With Facebook Marketplace, you just put a free classified listing together, and send it live. Easy!
How Selling on Facebook Marketplace Works
To create a listing on Facebook Marketplace, just click on the little Marketplace icon in the Facebook app, or on the left-hand side of the website. It looks like a little shop.
Then, click on the “Create New Listing” button.
It’ll ask you to choose whether you want to sell an item, sell a vehicle, list a home for rent or list a job opening. Once you’ve selected the appropriate option, upload some photos of the item you’re selling (you can add up to 10), and fill in all the required fields.
It’ll ask you to enter a title, description, price and your location (It just needs your city, not your street address). It’ll also ask you to assign your item to a category, and to list its condition. The “tag” field is optional, but I recommend filling it out. It just wants a list of keywords, or terms, that people might use to search for this particular item. Taking the time to fill this out field will help to put your item in front of more potential byers.
Use the preview pane to double check your work. If you’re happy with the way everything looks, hit “publish.” Local listings are completely free on Facebook Marketplace, so you won’t have to pay any sort of listing or selling fee. Pretty sweet!
As soon as Facebook verifies that your listing meets their guidelines, they’ll send it live.
Your listing will be viewable to anyone within 100 miles of you, and will only show the information that you’ve chosen to make public in your Facebook profile. People will NOT be able to see your address or phone number, unless you’ve chosen to put those things in your profile (don’t do that).
If someone is interested in your listing, they can message you through Facebook to ask questions or check availability.
If you’re viewing Facebook on your computer, you’ll hear a chime, when a message comes in. Then, it’ll pop-up up on your screen.
You’ll hear a similar chime alerting you to an incoming message, if you’re using the Facebook Messenger app on your phone.
All communications will remain on Facebook, unless you choose to take the conversation elsewhere.
My Experience Selling on Facebook Marketplace
This listing received 178 views, and 12 inquiries. It sold 14 days after I listed it, and received close to the full asking price.
I first tried Facebook Marketplace back in 2018, when my friends asked for help selling their Kubota RTV. Since then, I’ve bought, and sold, all sorts of things on Marketplace, including cars, clothes, work equipment and housewares.
It’s proven to be a fairly easy way to find the things I need, and to sell the things I no longer need.
Since the pandemic is currently keeping me from having a yard sale, or participating in a kids’ consignment sale, I’m now using Facebook Marketplace more than ever, and I’ve challenged myself to see if I can earn $1,000 this year, by selling the stuff that I would normally sell in person.
Update: I surpassed my goal! So far, I’ve earned $1,089, and I still have a bunch of stuff to sell. I feel like I’ve learned a ton about what it takes to be successful on Marketplace, by doing this.
How to Increase Your Chance of Making a Sale on Facebook Marketplace
Success on Facebook Marketplace starts with a good listing. Eye-catching photos are a big part of that. Marketplace allows you to upload up to 10 pictures, so be sure to take advantage of that. Take pictures of the item from several angles, so buyers can see what the item looks like, and accurately assess condition.
Don’t copy and paste manufacturer’s promotional photos from another website. Buyers won’t like it, and it’s copyright infringement.
The first picture will be used as the thumbnail picture in search, so make sure it’s a good one. Too many of the photos on Marketplace are blurry, dark or poorly staged. That’s a sales killer. Put a bit of effort into your photos, and your stuff will stand out (in a good way) and sell faster.
Title
Choose a title for your listing that clearly states what you’re selling, and uses keywords that a buyer might use to search for the item. If I’m listing a clothing item, for example, I include the brand, the type of clothing, the size and the gender in the title. Here’s the title I used recently on a listing that sold less than an hour after I posted it:
2 Under Armour Tops – Womens’ Large
Doesn’t that give you a pretty clear idea of what I’m selling, before you even click on the listing?
And when paired with this photo, you probably know whether or not your interested in buying, before you even click through to read my description, or see the other photos.
You have one chance to grab a customer’s attention, before they scroll past your listing, so don’t waste it.
The Marketplace listing tool suggests categories based on what you put in the title field. If the suggested categories don’t seem like a good fit for your item, it’s probably a pretty good indication that you need to go back and rework your title. If you’re listing a pair of womens’ pants, for example, and it’s suggesting the “mens’ pants” category, go back and add the word “womens'” to your listing.
Description
The description is your chance to tell buyers everything they need to know about the item you’re selling, so try to answer all the questions they’re likely to have. If you do a good job, you’ll field fewer questions via Messenger.
I learned this the hard way, when I listed the Kubota RTV for my friends. Lots of people wanted to know if it was two or four-wheel drive, and whether it was gas or diesel-powered. They were obvious questions that I had failed to answer in my description, so I found myself answering them over and over. If you find you’ve overlooked an important detail, like I did, go back and edit your listing. It’ll save you a bunch of work.
When I write a description, I repeat a lot of the same information from the title, but with more detail. Here are some things I typically mention:
- Brand
- Size – (this could mean listing the clothing size, but it could also mean listing which vehicle(s) or tool(s) a particular part fits
- Color and Style
- Gender – (if it’s gender-specific)
- Condition – Does it work? Is it damaged in any way? Is it dented, scratched, peeling, pilling, or stained? Does it have any holes? Is it missing any parts? Is it new with tags (NWT)? Is it new-without-tags (NWOT)?
- Price
- Special features – Does it come with extra accessories or options? Is it handmade, one-of-a-kind or limited-edition? If you’re selling clothes, is it a hard-to-find size? (slim or husky, for example) Does it have an adjustable waistband?
- Any special terms – Right now I’m only offering contactless porch pick-ups, so I state that in every listing. If you have a set meet spot, you could also mention that. It’ll help you to weed out people who aren’t close by, or willing to meet/pickup at your preferred location.
Here’s the description that I used to sell some of my kids jeans:
2 Pairs of Jeans Juniors Size 00
2 pairs of Juniors size 00 jeans:
(1) pair American Eagle, bootcut
(1) pair Abercrombie Perfect Stretch, skinny jeans
Both in good condition. No holes or wear at the knees. $8 for both. Contactless porch pick-up only.
See how I listed the brands and cut of each pair, so I wouldn’t have to answer those questions over and over? And how I mentioned that the jeans didn’t have any holes or knee wear, so potential buyers would know exactly what I meant by good condition? These details saved me and my potential buyers from countless rounds of messaging.
By the time the jeans sold, the listing had received 174 views, and I had received messages from eight interested buyers. And you know what? No one asked about the cut or condition of the jeans because I had covered those things well in my listing.
Tags
The tags field is optional, but don’t skip it. This important field gives you an opportunity to provide Facebook with a list of all the keywords that you think buyer’s are likely to use to search for the item you’re selling.
Here are the tags I used for a pair of womens’ golf shoes that I’m currently selling:
- womens golf shoes
- golf shoes
- adidas size 9
- golf shoes womens 9
- Adidas golf shoes
This gives buyers a chance to find the shoes by the type, size, gender or brand. You may have noticed that I left some apostrophes out of my tags. I did this intentionally because I think it’s more likely that people are going to search for “womens golf shoes” than “womens’ golf shoes” or “women’s golf shoes.” If you think they might use all three, add them all to your list of tags. It certainly won’t hurt.
Managing Your Live Listings
When someone tells me they’re going to buy an item, I don’t mark it as “pending” or “sold,” until it actually gets picked up. People don’t always follow through, so this allows me to continue to generate sales leads, until I have money in hand. If someone inquires about an item after I’ve lined up a potential sale, I tell them that someone is supposed to pick up the item, and offer to let them know if that falls through. This gives me a built-in back-up plan, and has paid off on several occasions. This approach also allows me to continue to build listing views, so if an item is popular, Facebook will see that, and hopefully rank it higher.
Facebook allows you to renew a listing five times. This brings it back to the top of the pile, and gets it in front of more potential buyers. The interface will start suggesting that you renew your listing after it’s been live for a week, but I don’t typically renew it so soon. My experience has shown that a little patience pays off on Facebook. So, I wait at least a couple weeks before renewing my listings. Some items will sell right away on Marketplace, others may take some time, and that’s okay with me. It’s not like a yard sale or an auction, where I have a limited window of time to sell. I’m okay with sitting on something for a little while, if it allows me to convert it to cash. So, don’t be disheartened, if you don’t sell everything the first week. My husband just sold a car part that he’d had listed for several months, and he got his full asking price.
How to Earn Ratings and Badges
Facebook uses a five-star rating system to rate sellers. Once you’ve received five ratings your ratings will be visible to buyers. Practice good customer service habits, so you earn good ratings.
There are also two seller badges that you can earn to boost buyer confidence. One is a “very responsive badge.” To earn it, you need to respond to most messages within an hour. The other badge is the “community recommended badge.” I have that one, but had no idea how I’d earned it, so I did some digging in their Marketplace policies, and found that the only thing they said about it was that it’s not a feature that’s available to everyone. Guess that means I’m in a club that’s so mysterious I don’t know how I got into it. If I had to guess, I would say it’s a hold over from their old rating system.
Why Didn’t Facebook Marketplace Accept My Listing?
Recently when I was listing a bunch of my kids’ clothes, one of my listings wasn’t approved, and I received a message that “This listing may go against our rules for selling.” Yikes that sounded scary. When I clicked on the listing for more information, it said, “This listing goes against our rules on misleading products.” Gulp, now that really sounded scary. And it’s at this point that I should pause and tell you that I was just trying to sell a winter coat from a popular name-brand that rhymes with Bommy Bilfiger.
It suggested that I review their commerce policies, so I did that, and I couldn’t find anything that would make my listing unacceptable. So, I took them up on their suggestion to request a review, if I thought they’d gotten it wrong. I just figured someone had accidentally clicked the wrong button, while they were going through a billion listings. Imagine my surprise then, when less than 24 hours later, I was informed that my appeal had been denied. I was perplexed, and also a little worried about angering the Facebook gods. I have a business account with over 21K followers attached to the my personal Facebook account, so I didn’t want to accidentally misstep, and lose my account, over some outgrown kids’ clothes that I was trying to sell.
I listed some more things, cautiously at first. Then, I got to another item from that brand that rhymes with Bommy Bilfiger, and guess what? That item got denied for the same reason. This at least gave me a clearer picture of what was likely going on. I surmised that they were probably just denying all items from that particular brand because said brand was overly-protective of their trademarked name (which is certainly their right). I took to the interwebs to test this theory, and sure enough, I found lots of people who’d had items from Bommy Bilfiger and other super-namey brands rejected. So, while I can’t conclusively prove that this is why my item was rejected, it seems plausible. If you run into this issue, just put the item aside, and list something else. They’re probably just trying to protect themselves from a legal storm, and who can blame them?
How to Navigate Facebook Marketplace Like a Pro
Facebook has made it very easy to list items for sale, but some of the other seller tools on Marketplace aren’t so intuitive. Here are the hidden features, and tricks, that I’ve uncovered to make selling on Facebook easier:
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- When you click on “You Account” it brings up a list of all the items you’re selling, or have recently sold. The listings don’t look clickable, but if you click on the white background, it’ll open up a menu where you can click to view the listing, delete the listing, grab a shareable link and see all the messages you’ve received pertaining to that item. I use this handy feature to grab links when I have a buyer who’s purchasing a similar item, and I think they may be interested in one of my other listings. I also use it to see who’s next in line for an item when a sale falls through, or to find a message that I accidentally closed.
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- If buyers click on your commerce profile, they can view all of the items that you’re currently selling. This gives you an easy way to point customers to other relevant items, if they’re shopping for a specific brand or size.
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- When you send someone a message via Messenger it puts a little gray circle with a check mark to the right of the message, to show that it’s been delivered. Once the person has viewed it, the circle changes to their profile picture.
- When I’m using the desktop version of Facebook Marketplace, I’ve found that I don’t always get a chime or a pop-up message, when someone sends me a message. So, I also keep an eye on the top navigation bar for any messages or notifications. These bugs don’t seem to be an issue in the Facebook app, so you may want to just use your phone to monitor your listings. There’s a new desktop app version of Facebook Marketplace, but I haven’t tested it yet. That may be another workaround for these bugs.
How to Stay Safe Selling on Facebook Marketplace (and Avoid Getting Scammed)
- Check your Facebook profile to see what information is public. Make any necessary adjustments to your privacy settings, before you list anything.
- Only accept cash for your items. This will help you to stay clear of any check, money order, gift card and PayPal scams. It also doesn’t hurt to get one of those markers that checks for fake bills.
- Only ship items, if Facebook is handling the payment process for you. A popular online scam is to cancel payment, after the item is already in transit.
- Always check out a potential buyer’s profile before you accept a deal. This can help you determine if they really are local, and even if you have mutual friends.
- Meet in a public place. We like to meet at our local police station, and always call to let dispatch know we’re coming. Be sure to bring someone with you, and to arrange your meet-up during daylight hours.
- Don’t give out any personal information that isn’t necessary. Buyers don’t need to know where you live, who you live with or anything else about you.
Why I like Facebook Marketplace Better Than Craigslist
Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist are similar in that they both offer free online classifieds. However, I like Facebook Marketplace better for a couple reasons. First, since all the communications stay on Facebook, you don’t have to deal with a bunch of spammy e-mails in your inbox. And second: since buyers have to be Facebook members to message you, you can look at their profiles to get an idea of whom you’re dealing with (and whether you might have friends in common). This helps to weed out the scammers and weirdos.
Since you can also list yard sales on Facebook Marketplace, it’s safe to say that my husband and I are done with trying to sell things on Craigslist.
Have You Bought or Sold Anything on Facebook Marketplace?
I’d love to hear about your experience, plus how you think Marketplace compares to other online selling options.
i used to sell on ebay for a few years and made good money from it,,now the fees are so high that you cant make a profit if your just a regular person buying n selling,,you have to be a business or have plenty of merchandise,,since i started selling on marketplace,,ive seen a great increase in my sales and return customers,,so now i do the online auctions and have a good bit of clientele that i buy for,,so now everything is just about sold before i make a bid,,i would recommend selling on fb marketplace to everyone trying to sell for a living or just for extra money,,nomatter what you are selling it usually will sell,,ive found out the things that dont sell,,just keep notes,,
Hello. I am new to Marketplace and ran into something I didn’t expect. I listed and item for sale and a potential buyer sent me a message on Messenger interested in buying the item. He then created a group with the listing header using a photo from my listing. Why did he do this and should I be concerned?
Good question. Facebook automatically creates a group and uses the picture from your listing when someone sends you a message about an item you’re selling. I think it’s really confusing and weird. Hopefully Facebook will change this practice or the wording around it.
I’m now having a hard time finding the profile of the potential buyer who has responded to my ad. I see their name, but it is not linked to a profile from the messenger app. How could that be? I’m not seeing that Facebook is making that connection now.
Am I missing something? I’ve done this a bunch of times, and this is the first time I’ve had issues – is this a new issue?
I think this is a relatively new change that Facebook made, and frankly it drives me a little nuts. You would expect to be able to click on someone’s name and then be brought to their profile, but as you found, names aren’t linked any more. Hopefully they’ll change this. But in the meantime, if you go to the top of a message that someone has sent you about your listing and click the little drop down where it has the person’s name followed by the title of your listing, it’ll open a menu. From that menu, click on “members.” Then, click on the person’s name to view their profile. Facebook has recently introduced “Commerce Profiles” that are used for buying and selling on Facebook Marketplace, so you probably aren’t going to have access to nearly as much information about the person as you used to. It just depends on how the potential buyer has set up their privacy settings. It’s still worth a peek, though.
Hi, I recently put a lift chair on sale on Marketplace, and I seem to be getting alot of scammers. This has never happened before. I try to see their profile, and there is no three iii buttons to see their info. but I click on my name and everything pops open. How can I better secure my account, and is there a way to see their profile? Any help appreciated.
Hi Julie. Not too long ago, Facebook shifted to having a separate profile for Facebook Marketplace. Unfortunately, that separate “Commerce Profile” doesn’t give you access to much information about potential buyers, and Facebook users can easily lock down their profiles to a point where you get almost no info at all. This definitely makes it harder to know who you’re dealing with. To weed out the scammers, I don’t accept anything but cash for items and I don’t ship.
If you want to limit the information people have access to about you, click on your commerce profile; then, click on “go to settings,” or just click on settings at the top of any Facebook page. Then, make any adjustments you’d like to make. I don’t give Marketplace users any access to my information. They get my commerce profile and that’s it.
You could even update your listing to reflect that you’re only offering local pick-up and will only accept cash. Sometimes it helps to set the terms up front.
Curious if your thoughts on this are different during the pandemic? Would you still follow the same rules or I see a lot of “contactless payments” (would you use a specific method?) and porch pick ups (I would probably first try our neighborhood group, but not sure) or just get everything in order and do a garage sale when herd immunity has been established? Thank you.
Funny you should ask … This week I listed 52 clothing lots on Facebook Marketplace. It’s all stuff that I had set aside for the next kids’ consignment sale, but since we’ve now missed two sales due to COVID and won’t be able to have a yard sale for the forseeable future, I decided it was time to find another way to move this stuff out of our house. I’ve been listing everything as contactless porch pick-up only. I stick things out on the porch in a bag with the buyer’s name on it, and there’s a metal box for them to leave the money. I collect the money with gloved hands, and plan to let it quarantine for a week or longer before I touch it with bare hands. So far this is working well.
Oh, I should also mention that my girls created Instagram closet accounts during quarantine. They’ve basically sold enough stuff to give them the money that they need to support their closet account habit 🙂 Since we can’t thrift store or yard sale right now, this satisfies that itch for them.
Yes, my house is bursting too;) Have you had any problems with people NOT paying you what with just using a cash box? Also, when dealing with garage sales, you have the luxury of putting items out for a dime etc, but I don’t anticipate this would be productive, what is the smallest denomination you would try to sell an item using this platform? My son also buys and sells clothing online, so cool;) As usual, thank you so much for your valuable advice.
I haven’t had any problems with people not paying, but there are plenty of people who fail to follow through. They’ll say they’re coming for something, then never show. I started with stuff that I had in my consignment sale pile, and have mostly been grouping things into lots to make it worthwhile for someone to pick up/minimize the work of listing. I’m keeping a running total of what I’ve sold. If I glean anything interesting from this experiment, I’ll update this post.
What are your thoughts on accepting payments through Zelle or Venmo? I am also listing a lot on marketplace and I’ve recently had multiple people ask if I take those instead of cash. I don’t really see an issue doing it on my end as the only info they have on me is my phone number, but just curious on your opinion with these methods?
I’ve had people ask about Venmo, but I haven’t accepted any Venmo payments. I know there’s a PayPal scam, where people will pull the money back after they’ve gotten the item, so I’ve steered clear of that. I did some digging around on Venmo’s website, and their terms of service state that their service is for sending/receiving money to/from people you know, or authorized merchants. So, selling on Facebook definitely falls outside of that. They even go on to say that Venmo is not for sending/receiving money from strangers. They have a whole page about common Venmo scams. One scam they mentioned was someone paying with a stolen credit card. Then, once the theft is detected the money gets pulled from your account. Here’s a link to their scams page: https://help.venmo.com/hc/en-us/articles/360048404533-Common-Scams-on-Venmo
I used to be able to view a buyer’s profile to see if they were local before I responded to them but now I cannot. Any ideas?
Also, I find it easier to navigate my listings on my laptop rather than my phone but I also find the laptop doesn’t have some features like the iPhone does such as Hide Listing from my Friends. Let us know what you think! Thanks.
At some point in recent history Facebook created separate “commerce profiles.” Now, you can’t see a seller/buyer’s regular profile, unless they have it set to allow this. The info on the commerce profile is very limited. You might be able to see where they live, work and went to school — assuming they have allowed you access to that info. And it can be hard to access this profile because the person’s name no longer clicks through to their profile. If you’re in a message with the person, you can click on the persons name at the top of the message. Then, select “members;” then click on the person’s name to view their commerce profile, which is tedious and not at all obvious. I’m all for privacy, but I don’t understand the thinking behind these changes. Like you, I liked being able to vet a person before responding.
As to what you said about the desktop vs. app version — I too favor the desktop version. Probably b/c I’m not big on cellphones 🙂 Overall, I think the notification system is less buggy in the app version, so sometimes, I’ll turn the wifi on my phone just for the notifications. I did discover this week that the review feature is only functional in the app. If you buy something through the desktop, it doesn’t ask you to rate the seller, which is probably why it’s so hard to earn reviews. I love selling on Facebook, but there are still plenty of bugs that they need to work out of the interface.
Thanks for the reply, Erin! Agree with all. Keep selling!
Would you recommend deleting old listings after they have sold? I’m not certain if they are still visible to others or if it’s just there for your records.
I believe they’re only visible to you once they’re sold. I leave them for record-keeping purposes, as you mentioned. Sometimes it’s nice to be able to go back and see how I described or tagged a similar item.
Hi I listed several items weeks ago and had people who wanted to buy them I contacted them via messenger and explained what’s the current restrictions lifted they could come and collect and even though I can still see the conversations in messenger when I go to Facebook marketplace I can’t find any of my listed items?
Do they drop off after a particular period of time or am I doing something wrong?
I can see other peoples listing broken down into categories But above that the only two tab options are “sell & categories”?
Hmmm … It sounds like the UK version of Facebook Marketplace must be laid out a bit differently. On the US version there’s a “Your Account” option, and if you click on it, it shows you all the items you’re current selling/have sold. I haven’t seen anywhere were Facebook clearly states how long listings stay live. I know you can renew a listing five times to bring it back to the top of the pile. But I recently had a listing that sold several months after I posted it.
Just wanted to mention that as an Admin for several local sales groups on FB, all items that a seller marks as SOLD are still available to shoppers IF they are looking for it. For example: a seller marks a table as SOLD. A buyer enters “table” into the search field and both available AND sold tables show up. It’s incredibly annoying. I prefer to delete all sold items, never even using the sold button.
I like to mark my stuff as sold because I think it’s an opportunity to show FB that you’re listing things that people are interested in. I think that’s the sort of thing that could factor into their algorithm.
Good morning Erin, I am just checking to see if my questions from yesterday came through if not, I will repost. Thank you
Ok, that went through so yesterdays must not have.
1.Regarding the Bilfiger situation (I have a few items that may meet this threshold) do you recommend a website to use in these situations?
2. At what dollar amount would you not have the person use the cash box but would either want cash in hand or meet at the police department?
Thank you for all your help…
I really enjoyed this post! I just began selling on marketplace a few days ago and don’t know why I haven’t done this sooner. My only question is this: what exactly is the commerce profile? I am still hazy on this detail. I created one, so does that mean ppl on marketplace don’t see my personal Facebook account? Are you able to shed some light on this? And how to best use your commerce profile. Thank you!
Hi Maria, Like you guessed, Your commerce profile is a separate profile that you can use on Facebook Marketplace. If you go into settings on your Facebook account, you can set it so that people on Facebook Marketplace are only able to see your commerce profile, and not anything else that you post. That’s the way I have mine set up. The commerce profile has couple other handy features. It’s where people can go to see your reviews (they aren’t visible to anyone but you, until you’ve received five reviews). It also where people can go to see a list of everything you’re selling, which gives shoppers a handy way to see if you’re selling anything else they might be interested in. I’m hoping that they will eventually add the option to follow a particular seller because I think that could help you gain repeat customers.
Hi please help when I ask someone for an item on marketplace and they don’t come back to me for a while when they do I forget what it was and used to be able to click black left too and it would take me to the item but now I don’t know how to get back on it to show Hubbie the item ect??
Yep, I think they’ve overcomplicated some things that used to be easy. Here are a couple options: 1. There’s a little save button on every listing, so you may want to just get in the habit of clicking on that button when you’re interested in something. This will put it in your “saved” folder, so it’s easy to find again. 2. When a seller responds to you, if you double click on the listing title at the top of the message, it’ll open the listing in a new window. Hope this helps.
I have been selling items on their new platform for 26 days now with a pending balance of over $700 and I have yet to receive a payout, everything has been delivered and my bank account is linked, worst experience every, now I’m facing eviction because I was under the impression I could sell some things to cover the rent, I sent over 15 emails and to no avail I’m still without help and about to be homeless come Friday. Really bad experience with Facebook market
Hi Christopher, according to Facebook’s policies, payments are supposed to be made five days after an item you sold via Facebook checkout has been delivered. They have specific steps to take to contact them about payouts, it’s outlined here: https://www.facebook.com/help/449101635835192?helpref=faq_content
Just sending you the link, in case you were using a different method of contact. It says they’ll respond via email within two days.
I’ve only sold locally and accepted cash, so I don’t have any experience with Facebook Pay or Facebook checkout.
Hi,
Please help! I’m having issues requesting seller ratings on Marketplace. I’ve sold lots of items that people have been pleased with but there is no happy or sad face for sellers to rate me. I only have 1 seller rating which I managed to request through my commerce profile but that just limited me to a few items I sold ages ago not the recent ones. It’s really frustrating as I’d like to build up a good reputation to help me sell future items.
Yep, I have the same frustration at the moment. I think the rating system must work a bit differently on the US version of Marketplace (because the US version is star-based), but I’ve noticed that you only get asked to rate a seller on the mobile version of Marketplace, and it’s really easy to skip past this step. If you’re using the desktop version, you don’t ever seem to be asked for a review. I wish they would send buyers an automated message asking them to review a seller after a transaction is complete. As it stands, I don’t think there’s even a way to go back and review a transaction, if you don’t do it at the time the sale is made. That being the case, I think the only option is to mention that you’d appreciate a review when you’re working out the details of the meet because once the transaction is complete, they won’t have a way to do it. I’m hoping Facebook will rework the review process over time. Because like you, I’ve sold a bunch of stuff, but only managed to get two reviews.
Im a big seller on Mercari but their fees went up alot so i recently found FB marketplace. The only thing i dont like is when i hit “view listing” it only shows the 1st pic. I can’t view my listing without clicking the edit tab.
Is there a way to see what items have actually sold for? Planning to post items and it would be helpful to be able to see what similar items have actually sold for.
I wish. Ebay has that feature, and it’s a big help. When I’m pricing items on Facebook, I try to set the price according to what I’d expect to pay at a thrift store or consignment sale. That’ll make you more than you’d get at a yard sale, but increase your chances of making a sale. In my opinion, a lot of people overprice their items on Facebook Marketplace. Then, they just end up sitting there.
Before I list an item, I usually do a quick search to see what other people in my area are asking for the same thing. Then, I try to price my item in the middle.
Do you have any instructions on using your own shipping label with Facebook Marketplace?
I’ve mostly been listing small items and using the prepaid shipping labels, but now I am attempting to sell some heavier items in the 20lb range and it suggests that I create my own shipping label, but I don’t understand how I am supposed to calculate the rate when I don’t know where it is shipping to yet…??
And the highest weight it lets me choose under UPS is 8+ lbs and that comes up as $18 shipping rate.
That can’t be accurate…?? If I am shipping something 20 lbs to Los Angeles CA, I think the shipping might be in the $50-$70 range being that the item is 20 lbs.
Your website is the ONLY website that I have found very informative and useful thus far! You are amazing! 🙂
Hi Billie-Jo, When you first start using Facebook Checkout, it creates a default shipping profile that it uses for all of your items, but you can create additional shipping profiles for a single item, a certain type of item, etc. So, you could go in and create a separate profile for these heavy items, where you set the weight, shipping cost, etc. This will allow you to enter the actual weight of the item.
To make sure you don’t undercharge for shipping, and end of eating the cost, a lot of people look up the cost to ship to the furthest place from their home; then, set that as the shipping cost. It’s clunky, and leads to overcharging customers, but that’s how most companies handle it.
If you set up additional shipping profiles, you should even be able to continue using Facebook prepaid labels, if you want.
Here’s info about how to set up additional profiles: https://www.facebook.com/business/help/211403042968780?id=353836851981351
Hi there.
I have recently returned to sell some items on Marketplace from at least 2 years ago. The platform is completely different, which is pretty easy to navigate minus this one issue – I received an offer for an item but was not able to view the offered amount. I tried double clicking, looking on the posting, right clicking, etc. but still couldn’t find how much the person was offering to pay. I accepted and then saw that the offered amount was ridiculously low. Can you advise as to how to view the offer amount?
Thank you for any insight.
Hi Jennifer,
Usually when someone makes you an offer, in the Messenger window it says, “such and such offered you X.” And then, there are accept and decline buttons underneath it. I’m wondering if you just experienced a glitch, since you weren’t able to see the amount. One good thing to note is that clicking “accept” does not trigger any sort of payment process, so you definitely don’t have to go through with their low ball offer.
Whenever someone makes me an offer, I just ignore the whole accept/decline thing, and continue the conversation in Messenger because far too often it’s someone who wants you to ship the item, hasn’t bothered to read where you’re located, read the description, etc. I don’t want to accept an offer until we’ve worked all that stuff out. Hope that helps.
Good morning,
I had an item damaged/ruined via shipping ($12) which is priority USPS. The kind customer messaged me photos of proof. How much are priority items insured for on Marketplace and how do you receive payment claim of insurance? Mercari priority labels for instance automatically comes with $100. I sent in an inquiry with the photos. I’m very upset over this because, online USPS state you must prove you paid for the label to file claim. That would place handling the claim out of my hands. I’m worried I’m going to get cheated. Please help. Thank you in advance for your reply
Regards,
Tabitha
Hi Tabitha,
I dug deep through all the Facebook Marketplace help info, and I couldn’t find a single mention of how much packages are insured for, or how they handle claims about lost or damaged packages. USPS Priority Mail is ensured for $50 or $100, depending on how you purchase your label. I recommend reporting the issue to Facebook. I’m sure they’re used to getting these sorts of claims, and have a set way of dealing with them. Please come back and let us know how they handled it.
2 questions.
I’ve bought & sold tons of stuff on fb and have a good rating. Recently, when I’m posting, it automatically only goes to marketplace and it doesn’t give me the option to post to my local groups/pages and I’m not getting any views. Why & how do I fix?
Also, apparently there is an option to “bump” for a small fee as I found out from a friend of mine & I don’t have this option. I updated fb on my phone & it still isn’t there. Is there a way to get this option?
Hi Traci,
I think they’re testing a lot of new features right now because Marketplace seems to change every couple days. It’s possible they’re also A B testing some features, meaning your friend is seeing a different interface than you are. Just a guess.
Here’s what I do know: As of a few days ago, when I list an item, there’s an extra “page” before I can hit publish, that shows groups you can list your item in. I don’t belong to any selling groups, so for me it’s a list of groups that they recommend I join. You may want to see if the groups you belong to are listed on this extra page/step.
If you’re looking at your listings, you should see the option to “boost listing” under each item that you’re selling. I’ve never done this because it isn’t cheap. If you want to get your listing back to the top of the pile, I think a better option is to renew your listing. You can do this a total of five times, and it’s free. You can do this once a week, but I don’t usually do it that frequently.
Hi I have a listing for furniture items on marketplace. I have sold half the items on the listing but other half they didn’t want to purchase. Do i put sold on the whole listing and then repost the items that didn’t sell?
You could do it either way, but it might work best to edit your existing post with a new price and an updated description that mentions which pieces have sold and which are still available. Facebook will put an “X” through the original price and list the new price next to it, so the slashed price is likely to attract more potential customers. Updating the existing listing will also allow you to keep whatever momentum the listing has picked up since you posted it.
Hello, I need your advice!!
I’m selling on FB for a living and after I mark a few listings as ‘sold’, when I list a new one it doesn’t have exposure, views and messages as much.
I wonder is it because I’ve sold a few items so FB wants to prioritize other people’s listings?
Next time after I sell an item do I mark it as ‘sold’ or just delete it?
And how often do you post a listing?
Any tip to remain a high rank in FB marketplace so when I post a listing I will have more views and messages?
I appreciate you answering these questions. Thank you.
Hi, I’ve marked lots of listings as “sold,” and I’ve never seen it affect the metrics on my other listings. In fact, I think marking things as “sold” could actually improve your views and rank because it’s a way to show Facebook that people are interested in the things that you’re selling. So, I would definitely mark things as sold, rather than delete them.
Since you’re selling on FB for a living, I would try to see if you can figure out what’s making some listings do well and not others. Is it the type of item you’re selling, the time of day you’re posting your stuff, the price point? I’ve noticed that when I post items at a time of day when lots of people are likely to be shopping, those items tend to do better. So, this has led me to theorize that FB may be using the initial interest in an item to gauge how it should be ranked. This is just a guess, though.
I just try to show Facebook that I’m a good seller, by selling lots of stuff and responding to customers quickly. Their algorithm is a mystery, but it’s bound to reward people who are following the best selling practices.
My wife claims that if you are likely to be denied a posting due to name brand issues to just create the posting without the brand name wait till it is approved and then go back and edit the posting to include the brand name.
If the brand name is even visible in your photos, they’ll reject it. I put together a lot of bath and beauty stuff with some super name-y perfume samples; didn’t mention the brands in my description at all; and it was still rejected.
Hello, Is it acceptable for a seller not to give out a phone number to communicate with a potential buyer? I’m trying to sell a vehicle and am leery of scams or trolling. I prefer to stick to Fb messenger. A potential buyer is pressing me for a phone number. I don’t have either Fb or Messsenger on my phone so arranging a meeting is more complicated but I’m OK with that. Am I hurting my potential sale by doing that? This involves a chunk of money and is my first time selling so I’m being extra cautious.
Hi Sue,
I think it’s fine to keep the conversation on FB. When people ask for my number, I just tell them I’m not comfortable giving it out. Reasonable people should understand that. That being said, I do tend to make an exception when I’m buying/selling something large, or when I’ll be traveling a considerable distance for an item. It can be reassuring to know you have a direct line of contact in those instances. It’s 100% a personal preference, though, so do what makes you comfortable. If one potential buyer walks away over not giving a phone number, another will come along. Do things on your terms.
You can download the app “TextNow” and it’ll give you a temporary phone number where you can message people. The cool thing is you can change that number in the future so if a buyer/seller keeps spamming you, just change the number and then they can’t reach you anymore.
Excellent suggestion. Thanks for taking the time to share it.
Great information. Thank you! When you relist your item on Marketplace, does it
relist and bump it to the top of the groups you’ve listed in?
Yes, relisting moves it back to the top of the pile, and changes the listing date, so it looks fresh to shoppers.
When I list an item on Facebook Marketplace, it allows me to automatically include certain groups by click on a button. But, some of my groups that I would like to automatically list on do not show up on this list of groups.
Why are some on the list of groups and not others?
Thanks
John
The ability to add listings to groups is a relatively new feature, and they seem to be doing lots of testing around it, so it could be the result of bugginess. Another possibility is that those groups weren’t set up as buying/selling groups when they were created, and as a result Facebook isn’t recognizing them as such. Pure speculation on my part, but those are two possibilities that came to my mind.
Great information this afternoon I was recently blocked for a week. I have been told by some that its because I am listing to many listings everyday? Also that I use caps in my listings do you know if there is any truth to that? I was going full steam and selling quite well then Boom I have just came back up so I will start slowly again. if a customer reports you for something they don’t like can you be blocked from this also? Thanks and Keep up the good work very very informative stuff girl thanks…..
I’ve heard from several people who had their accounts temporarily suspended after listing a bunch of items back to back. I don’t think it’s that they care if you’re posting a lot, I just think they’re watching for activity that falls outside what’s normal for you, as that could be a sign that your account has been hacked. If you want to increase your listing frequency, I would ease into it. so it doesn’t seem like unusual activity for you. To answer your other question about whether you could be blocked for complaints, that’s definitely a possibility. They have a seller rating system in place, and their help information makes it clear they will take measures against shady sellers.
Thank you for this article! The “help” section on FB marketplace seems to be lacking – it appears this platform is still a work in progress!
I recently had a lady purchase 4 of my items listed, which made the shipping for her unreasonable (in my opinion.) Since there’s not yet an option to combine shipping for multiple purchases, I cancelled all 4 orders and put the reason of “Facebook would not allow for orders to be combined” as the reason and created 2 new listings for the lady. I also lowered the price. The canceling of the 4 listings then caused my seller metrics to be flagged because my cancel rate was outside of the acceptable parameters.
Any idea how long you’re “flagged” for items such as this? I tried to contact Facebook to potentially have someone look into the issue and there doesn’t seem to be a way to do that. I also cannot figure out how I saw my metrics in the first place to keep an eye on it.
Thanks!
I don’t have an official answer for this, but two weeks seems to be common. As you continue to list stuff, your percentages will improve and they’ll likely lift the flag from your account. They definitely have a long way to go before the Marketplace tools do all the things that buyers and sellers need them to do.
Hi Erin,
Thanks a lot for your very detailed description of how to sell at FB marketplace. You mentioned that ” If you want to get your item in front of a larger audience, you can also offer to ship them. Facebook collects a small fee for these types of transactions (currently 5%)”. I am wondering how I can activate this feature?
You have to earn it, but they don’t really tell you how. Just start listing and selling stuff locally, and one day the option will appear.
Hi, thank you. Great, concise information. Really helpful. If you edit your listing, does that bring it to the forefront also. I want to relist an item, but also want to change the price. Does it matter which I do first?
Yes, editing a listing also seems to bring it back to the top of the pile. So, if you need to change the price, I would just do that, and save your five relisting times for later down the road.
Thank you, Erin, for this article! Helpful information.
I am using FB marketplace for the first time, and your article popped up when I searched “is it safe to give your address on Facebook marketplace” (I know, kind of stupid question, but I’m selling a king size bed and box spring, and need the buyer to come into the house to carry out the bed!) So, I can’t really meet in a public place. Any suggestions? Someone interested in the listing just asked for my address, but the only facebook profile that has this person’s name is listed as living in Honduras, and I’m in the Baltimore area. Thanks so much!
Hey, Carol. If you have a friend or neighbor who can help you carry the mattress out to your front porch, I would do that. I don’t recommend letting anyone you don’t know into your home. Then, you can just provide your address, and give them instructions for where to pick it up and leave the money. I’ve been doing contactless porch pick-ups during the pandemic, and this approach has worked well for me. I wouldn’t worry too much about someone’s profile indicating that they live outside of the country. It’s something to be cautious of certainly, but in my experience it’s just been an indication that they’re new immigrants, and haven’t updated their profile yet.
Just starting to sell some things on Facebook Marketplace. Guess I had too much activity for one night and my FB account was suspended for suspicious activity and Marketplace barred me from buying or selling< I'm assuming because they thought it wasnt me. Its all straightened out now, however, 2 weeks ago I saw the "tags" field on my husband's account, and now its missing from both of ours. My daughter still has it on her iphone, so wondering if you have had that experience recently? Not sure what I can do to get it back!
Recently a few people have told me they had their account temporarily suspended after listing a bunch of stuff at once. So, it sounds like it’s a good idea to ease into listing, if you aren’t already in the habit of listing a bunch of stuff. I don’t think Facebook has a problem with people doing a bunch of back to back listings; I just think they’re looking for changes in behavior that might indicate your account had been hacked.
As to the tags field being missing for you, I don’t have it at the moment either. The Facebook Marketplace interface is constantly evolving, and they seem to do lots of AB testing of features. So, you may have access to different features than someone else. To further complicate and confuse things, you may see different features in the desktop version vs. the mobile version vs. the Apple version vs. the gazillion other app versions that they have.
I also no longer see “tags” when I post items for sale on FB Marketplace.
If anyone knows how to fix this, please let me know.
Thanks!
Steve
slang46188@aolcom
Unfortunately, I don’t think it’s anything to fix. I just think Facebook has either temporarily or permanently removed the tag feature from Marketplace.
Product Tags is the new field name.
Hi Erin,
I am new to the marketplace and I put stuff on it but not sold. I was thinking to discount their prices. I am wondering if there is any tips or tactics to do so.
Thanks
Hi Erin,
You’re a wealth of knowledge! I’ve read that marketplace is mostly run by an algorithm to determine whether a listing gets “reviewed” as opposed to an actual person doing that job. So my question is, I’ve recently edited a few listings of furniture to lower the price and all 4 immediately got flagged as “reviewed” and are not visible. So frustrating! Any thoughts?
There seem to be a lot of people who list brands that aren’t allowed on Facebook by listing the item, and then once it’s been approved going back and adding the brand name. It’s possible Facebook has caught on to this, and is now pulling edited listings (or a bigger portion of edited listings) back in for review. Obviously, this isn’t what you’ve done, but this practice could be causing some trickle down. Just a theory. Or perhaps it got pulled back into review because you edited several at once? I don’t know, but lowering prices is a normal practice, so I’d imagine your listings will be live again soon.
I just sold two older bicycles. The buyer knew the years and even rode one of the bikes before buying. Now they want they want to return the bikes and their money back. Legally, I do not need to give the buyer a refund, but I would like to know the proper etiquette in this situation?
You have absolutely no obligation to allow them to return the bikes, but it may be worth it, just to avoid any chance of them making a claim against you on Facebook (or elsewhere, if you took a digital payment). Unfortunately, there isn’t currently a good mechanism to reach out to Facebook and present your side, and if they were to file a complaint with a digital payment service, you could find their money is refunded, even while the bikes are still in their possession. So, my advice is to save yourself the potential for additional drama, and accept the return. Sorry you’re having to deal with this.
I kinda have a weird question. I listed a couple of items and then figured that I’m selling them for too cheap. A few people contacted me, and if any of them confirmed their interest, I would adhere to my word and sell it for that price. But I want to increase the tag price on the original listing, so if it doesn’t work out with any of the previous interested people, I can sell it for a fair value. Any idea on how to do that without losing my current customers?
Hi Aya,
I would just go ahead and increase the price. It won’t show on the listing that you’ve done that. And if the people who contacted you about the item didn’t follow through immediately, they probably aren’t going to, so you aren’t likely to upset anyone. You said you would honor the original price, if they did, so I think you’re in the clear. It takes a bit of trial and error to find the right price point for Facebook shoppers.
Hey Erin,
I sell sports cards on FB Marketplace. Most are less than $10, with $4 shipping. I use my own shipping with PirateShip. If someone orders more than one, FB charges shipping for each item. Is there away to fix that on my end, so someone can pay a flat $4 regardless of their quantity? Happy Mother’s Day to all the MOMS out there!
Thanks!
-Tom
Hey, Tom. I don’t think FB has built in that functionality yet. Ebay makes that very easy to do, so hopefully FB will someday, too.
Just wanting to say thank you for posting this. Finally using Facebook and this was very thorough and the comments and answers were also really helpful!
This was very helpful. I had to laugh about your Bommy Bilfinger; I had the same problem when I tried to sell some ice skating clothes from a brand named Chloe N*el. Kept getting rejected, exactly as you described. Couldnt work out why. I finally relisted not mentioning the brand name. Worked a charm.
Thank you for all your advice, this was very helpful
I am new to Facebook Marketplace. I am trying to list a garage sale , but there is no category for garage sales. Where is Facebook hiding it.
Good question. There used to be a garage sale category, but I couldn’t find it either when I listed my garage sale last weekend. I think they must have gotten rid of it. I just listed mine in the miscellaneous category, and marked the price as $0. We got lots of customers from FB, so this seemed to work fine.
I’m new to FB marketplace and new to Facebook. I’m trying to sell an item and it asked me to allow FB to access my photo library. I don’t want FB to do this. Is there any way around this?
You should just be able to say no. I always upload photos from an SD card or my phone, and I’ve never been asked to give Facebook access to any photo library. Were you trying to pull photos off of a Google Photos account or something?
Hi there,
I posted an item in FB MP after a year that I hadn’t posted one, this time 3 potential buyers messaged me right away asking for my ph# to send me a code to verify it wasn’t a scam, I sent it but when I received and have them that code back they told me that my phone wasn’t verified and so they didn’t want to purse the purchase any more. So I lost the sale.
What do i need to do in this case?
Hi Diana,
This sounds like a scam designed to try to pull information from your cellphone. I don’t give out my phone number to anyone on FB. I think FB still has a message at the bottom of messenger advising you not to share phone numbers.
If you use your phone for banking purposes, I would recommend resetting your passwords. Might be worth doing a factory reset on your phone just to be sure they didn’t plant any spyware. Don’t mean to sound alarmist, but it sounds suspect to me.
Good morning! Just curious – have you by any chance discovered a “secret” to not having to repeatedly select groups to post in – In other words, is there a way to save and repeat when posting multiple listings? This just drives me crazy and is so very time consuming!
Afraid not. Facebook is constantly adding and removing features, so hopefully they’ll improve the way they handle groups, or remove them from listings.
I’ve been unloading some used kids clothes and toys on marketplace and just received a message that my payments are being withheld until I give FB my ssn number so they can issue me a 1099. 😳 I do not feel comfortable with giving FB my ssn!! What advice do you have?
Hi Alicia, You must have sold enough stuff to require FB to send you a 1099. It’s an IRS requirement that they have to adhere to, so unfortunately, there probably isn’t a work around. You could get a TIN to use in place of a SSN, if you’re treating your earnings as a business.
Hi I use marketplace and just wondered can potential buyers see my personal facebook page? Of course i dont want this, so if so how can i prevent this?
They can only see your personal Facebook page, if you have your account set up that way. I don’t allow people on Marketplace to see my personal page. To limit who can see your page, go into your account; click on “settings and privacy”; then, click on “privacy checkup” and “who can see what you share.” It’ll take you through a bunch of questions to help you set your privacy preferences. I only allow friends to see my page. Facebook Marketplace has a separate profile; and that’s the only thing sellers and buyers are able to view for me. Hope that helps.
Do you happen to know if there is a limit on the amount of postings for sale items you can list in Facebook
As far as I know there isn’t a limit. I just wouldn’t go crazy and post a ton of stuff in one day. I’ve heard some people run into problems when they posted too much at once.
Hello. Very informative Article. I have an issue, I listed an item for sale on maretplace & the listing says the item is available for shipping. How do I remove the shipping option & change the delivery option in my listing to local pickup only?
I don’t think there’s a way to update the listing to show “local pickup only,” at the moment. I’m hoping this will change soon. In the meantime, I just add that information to my listing description.
Accidentally deleted a listing before realizing that I needed the contact from a message associated with that listing. Is there a way to see that deleted listing along with the messages.
Thank you so much. I really appreciate you sharing this information.
Hi Linda, you should be able to find the messages associated with that deleted listing in Facebook Messenger. Just open messenger and do a search for the person’s name/the item you were selling, etc. It should pop up.
Thanks for this helpful and detailed article, Erin. Several questions to pick your brain for all of us here:
1) Have you found Facebook Marketplace buyers to be very different these days, given covid, inflation, concerns about possible recession, oversupply at retailers, etc etc? I have posted some things to sell but have been having a hard time selling.
2) Also I had renewed a bunch of posts a few days ago, but when I pulled some of them up, they are going to the original date of posting. Are they actually getting renewed? Or do I need to delete and repost again?
3) For my sales, I prefer to do only local pickup and cash sales to cut down on possible scams, and have found that seems to work best. I also read through some earlier Q&A comments where you mention (a few years ago I think), that it might be ok to accept payments through zelle and venmo, and sometimes (if buyer is coming from a distance) to give out a phone number for contact. It seems like years ago, this was a reasonable practice for convenience of contact and payment, but I’ve read articles/blog comments online from other sellers saying that scammers are offering to pay zelle/venmo and then having someone else pick up, then pulling back payment under some excuse. Also, some scammers ask for phone numbers to collect personal data… Have you heard about any of these things?
Hi Andi,
I think Facebook Marketplace can be hit or miss in terms of what sells well. Sometimes something I think will sell right away takes a while and something I think won’t sell will sell right away. I just take a patient approach with Facebook and usually sell most things eventually.
As long as you’re clicking on the “renew” buttons your listings should get a bump in the search results–even if it isn’t updating the listing date. Facebook is constantly changing how they do thing on Marketplace, so you could be seeing something new that they’re testing, or it could just be a bug.
I only do local pick-ups and cash sales. I’ve never accepted Venmo, Zelle or anything else because like you, I think there’s too much potential for scams. I also don’t share my phone number because there are lots of scams around that too. I have on occasion gotten a phone number for a seller, if I will be traveling a good distance to purchase something.