Craigslist! or Facebook Marketplace? In this article I’m going to share how Facebook Marketplace compares to eBay and Craiglist and much more.
First, of all it’s a big pain in the rear to have to take items that I’ve already sold on eBay and drive over in the post office or the UPS Store, box it up and then send it off. It’s time consuming it’s an extra step and let’s face it time is money. On top of that, eBay also takes a cut of your net earnings to pay for listing fees as well as to cover PayPal fees, so when you listed item for let’s say 50 bucks, you’re not going to go in and make 50 bucks when you factor in fees and time and so forth and packaging you’re making a lot less than that.
So when you start selling and flipping, you may let these factors stop you from moving forward and achieving the full upside potential. The more eBay items you have listed, the more it makes sense. The beauty of eBay and all online platforms is that they bring you customers. When you really warp your mind around theat idea, it is easy to see why these platforms are worth every nickel in fees that you pay.
You can also list items you want to sell on websites like Craigslist which are local classified sites.
Now, over the last couple of weeks I’ve been packing up my house getting ready to move, I’ve been selling a lot of stuff. I’ve also been selling a lot of household goods and I discovered Facebook Marketplace a couple of weeks ago, actually just clicking through the Facebook mobile. At the time I had a bunch of items listed on Craigslist, I had people reaching out to me left and right asking me for my address and it really started to rethink; do I want random strangers coming to my house and knowing where I live and looking at all the items I have in here? I am a little parinoid, but for me the answer was no.
So I decided to give Facebook marketplace a shot, I had never used it before and I was pleasantly surprised to see how fast I was able to sell things like my dining room table, and breakfast table, and living room set, and other items including TVs and beds. If you have experience selling on eBay and Craigslist, you are going to be amazed at how fast items sell on eBay.
One, I can do everything from my iPhone so Facebook marketplace is completely integrated within the Facebook mobile app. I can take photos, I can list my items, and I can go back and forth and exchange messages through messenger with anyone who’s interested in buying my items. Once my item is sold, I can go ahead and mark it has sold. I can also accept bids from other people, so it makes it really convenient and inclusive to use Facebook marketplace since I’m already using Facebook.
Now, like I said before when you have items to sell you don’t necessarily want to give out your address on classified sites like Craigslist so it’s cool about Facebook marketplaces because it is integrated with Facebook I can go ahead and vet someone ahead of time I can look at the profile, I can make sure they’re legit and vice versa they can also look at my profile just to see if I’m someone that they want to potentially swap or buy items from. So, enough said about Facebook marketplace and my experience with it let’s go ahead and jump straight into the tutorial so I can show you how you can get started using marketplace and make some money.
So, the first thing that you’re going to want to do is go to Facebook from the mobile app. Once your Facebook account loads up at the very bottom of the screen you’re going to see four different icons. The, one in the very middle that looks like a storefront you’re going to tap on that icon and that brings you to Facebook marketplace.
Now, from here you have a few different options, you have different categories at the very top as you see they’re in front of you. You also have different items that are for sale within your own community or neighborhood. When you click on the city that you’re in you can go ahead and select the radius of items that you want to be found within a set distance of your home as you can see here I’m in the suburbs of Oakland near San Francisco, so I can go ahead and select how far I want to be able to search.
Now, for example, in front of me right now is a 51-inch Samsung plasma TV that just listed 9 hours ago and as you can see I already have 840 views on this item right here. The reason why I have so many views on this particular item it’s for a couple of reasons one I put one dollar as the listing price, so because it has one dollar as a listing price a lot of folks on Facebook are searching for items within a set budget and typically their budget will range anywhere from zero or free and then on upward from there. So, by putting one dollar, it really helps the likelihood of my item to be seen.
Also, because Facebook marketplaces integrated within Facebook which is the world’s most active and use social network you benefit by listing your items on Facebook versus Craigslist or vs. eBay. As, you can see with this item here I have a description in there I put them actually selling this TV for $400 or better offer. I can also list in there some more details about the TV itself as you can see it also has a map or radius approximately of where this item is located.
Now, if you want to sell an item what you’re going to do is click on what are you selling and then from here you’re going to select the items that you want to list on Facebook Marketplace. And for the purpose of this demonstration I already have some photos in my camera roll stored from my house of items that I’m currently the process of selling or that recently sold. What’s cool about this is you can either take photos with your iPhone or Android or you can use photos are already stored on your phone.
I have photos of my wife’s handbags, I’m going to type your sets of three coach purses. I can describe my item here and then I can list my price for $1 and on the last step you’re going to enter your zip code as well as a category. So, in this case it’s going to be bags and luggage, and then you hit post from here. I’m going to go to my items, app for sale and as you can see this is the set of Coach handbags that I just listed about an hour ago has already been seen by 70 people.
Now, in terms of functionality with this listing right here, I can hit share, I can send this to a friend through messenger, I can share on my wall, and create a post so if anyone locally is interested in buying these purses I can go ahead and share that out with my Facebook network.
So, as I mentioned, before I’m currently in the process of moving and I’ve already listed several items over the last week. On this listing right here I listed several items within my house including a dining room set, a crib, my daughter’s twin bed, I listed some TVs, a dresser, a wine rack, as you can see here in front of you this listing in itself has been viewed over 49 hundred times, again, a listing that posted nine days ago has been viewed over 49 hundred times because of Facebook marketplace.
As you can see here in front of you these are some different items I’ve sold for example I put this entertainment console on Facebook marketplace eight hours ago, someone right away reached out to me and agreed to come to my house and buy this for $125. As you can see when someone reaches out to you that they’re interested they will send you a message through messenger. Now, because Facebook marketplace is integrated within Facebook anytime someone’s interested in buying an item from you, they will send you a message through messenger.
The coach purses I just listed you someone’s already offered me $60 for this set of purses, on this message someone’s asking what condition it’s in, and the messages go on, and on, and on, so make sure as you list items you’re checking your Facebook Messenger and you’re communicating directly with prospective buyers. And that’s it guys that’s how you use Facebook marketplace, really easy to use app. I can tell you over the last couple of weeks that I’ve been using it, not only have I been able to sell a lot of household goods, but been able to make some cash to help out with my move and it’s been a lot smoother than having to use eBay or Craigslist.
When you are in the market place looking for items to flip on eBay or
Craigslist sometimes we ignore oversize items because of shipping cost. With Facebook market place you now have a platform where you can sell virtually anything quickly.
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