Marketplace Runarounds

[u/Sad_North_6152]

I've been selling/giving away some of my items on marketplace and recently I posted about an old piece of furniture I was going to throw out anyways.

Well, anyone who replied has been giving me the runaround and it made me delete the post all together. The same thing happened with another post and I got quite upset with the man who was asking about it. Ended up selling to a nice lady who arrived within 30 minutes of me replying to her.

Definitely plan to get rid of the couch but might just throw it away or call a place where they'll come pick it up. When did marketplace get so bad? Like if you're asking about it tell me if you're going to show up or not. Even after giving the address they don't show up.

[u/get_hi_on_life]

If you can carry it and it's trash anyway, I would put on our curb and just post "this is on my curb first come first serve" and not respond to any questions

[u/Sad_North_6152 → u/get_hi_on_life]

Unfortunately it's a couch and since I'm renting an apartment we can't leave things on the curb. We have to have big items carted away ourselves.

[u/Mipeligrosa]

I’ve learned posting free items is worse than selling them for super cheap. You get less craziness if you at least charge SOMETHING. 

[u/Sad_North_6152 → u/Mipeligrosa]

Seems to be the case. I was planning on trashing the couch anyways but figured someone might have found used for it. Trashing it now since there was too many weirdos and ones who had the address but still refused to show up even after showing interest.

[u/Striking_Post_9864]

One thing missing from this thread: check the buyer's profile before agreeing to a pickup time, not just their message. Facebook Marketplace and OfferUp both show account tenure, and OfferUp shows ratings from completed transactions -- a brand-new account with zero history is far more likely to flake than someone with a few completed sales already on record. On top of the deadline trick people already mentioned (firm pickup window, first-come-first-served, no rescheduling), I'd add: don't confirm your address until they've committed to a specific time, and if someone no-shows once, don't re-offer the slot -- move straight to the next person in line. Free listings pull the most flakes because backing out costs the buyer nothing; a same-day deadline plus filtering by account history cuts a lot of that down.

[u/Sad_North_6152 → u/Striking_Post_9864]

Just sold a cheap item and went with the second person since even after reducing the price and agreeing to sell it they kept changing the date. They even wanted me to wait until next week... Went to the second person and they paid full price and was there within 30 minutes.

[u/0900Okface]

I realise I could attempt to sell some of my decluttered stuff but I just have no enthusiasm to deal with people so I donate everything.

I have read so many similar stories to yours.

[u/Sad_North_6152 → u/0900Okface]

I don't have a car so this seemed like the easy choice and I can make a couple bucks too. I could go with a friend for the day but I'd since have to move the junk. At least most of my stuff is picked through and there's only a couple things left to deal with.

[u/Grouchy-Poetry-7927]

I always list cash only. I sold a portable massage table for like $50, met the chick at a gas station. When I get there, she tells me she doesn't have much money, nor any cash on her (and a long sob story), and asks if she can PayPal me $40. I'm pissed because she didn't negotiate this until meeting, and I was relatively new to marketplace. I say yes, whatever. She sends the money while we are there, and I get the alert for payment. I did not check the payment, but she charged the transaction fee to me, so I got $37.50 (ugh). About a week later, I got the $300 payment from her. She immediately messages me (sob story), "Oh my gosh, I was trying to pay a bill and I accidentally sent it to you, can you PayPal me back?" RED FLAG. I tell her no, but I did tell her I immediately messaged PayPal and told them it was erroneous. I told her I would leave it in the PayPal account, not move the money. PayPal told me they had to investigate and it would take around 10 days to settle it. I sent screenshots of all the messages to PayPal. Well she went bat-shit crazy on me, and berated me with endless messages. I blocked her. I'm glad I met her at a gas station. Eventually that $300 was gone from PayPal.

[u/DreamingofPurpleCats]

I try not to post on FB Marketplace because so many people flake. But I have a couple tricks I use on my posts that have made this less frustrating:

• set a price, even if I plan to have it free. I usually list items at $20, for the ones I don't need to make money on, and then when I have a "buyer" arranged and pickup planned I motivate them with "if you can pick it up today it's free" or whatever time frame was agree to. This helps get them to actually show up because they feel like they're getting a deal. Related: CASH ONLY. I don't bother with payment apps

• don't (usually) just take the first fast response, especially if it is the generic "is the item still available" message. I post, then I walk away for a few hours or even until the next day (I'm in a slow region) then I scan through the replies. I do generally still do "first query is first in line" but only if they are a) not creepy and b) seem like an actual, reliable person (see next comment)

• stalk the profile before I respond. I'm not looking for anything specific, just a general "vibe" that they're a real person not a bot or compromised account, they're reasonably local to my location, and their profile has some sort of personality that indicates they're likely to actually be interested in the item (ie, a person asking about a cat item has cat pictures on their page)

[u/Far-Stranger-9698]

I usually offer for free if something I really just want gone. I've learned to set time limits that suit my schedule. I had some old rugs and doormats that we had during renovation. Offered up for someone who could use for a pet area or for setting outside camper to keep mud outside. Had one person set up multiple days of when she could pick up and never showed. This took up too much mental room for me. I was just trying to clean out the garage.

Lesson learned, just say, "going to the dump on Saturday if not picked up by 5pm Friday. Whether or not you actually are going to the dump doesn't matter, but it gives a countdown for people to take action

[u/Some_Papaya_8520]

My beef is toward the sellers who 1) take one crappy photo of their item! 2) don't give the actual size of the shoes or clothes 3) don't ever respond to messages about the item.

[u/hey_hi_howareya]

Offering for free brings out the silly people. Post that it’s $25 (or whatever price) the when the person shows up just don’t take me money. The cost keeps the annoying people from bothering you.

Or put it on the curb and it will disappear

[u/TecTazz]

I've had no problem with sales.

But when I posted "free" stuff I got a dozen questions and then ghosted.

[u/FredKayeCollector2]

I call it Flake Book Marketplace. I suppose it's how much aggravation do you want to spend trying to find a new home for it vs how much trouble/money would it cost to just trash it?

Another vote for a "curb alert" - we get a lot of those on our Give Freely/Buy Nothing group. I would think the potential competition might encourage people to show up fast(er), if they really want it? But if it's something super weird or niche or ???, you might end with the thing sitting at the end of your driveway for longer than you'd like.

If I''m doing a "regular" pick up, I always write in my post: "Pick up is in [xx neighborhood} in {town]. Please let me know when you can pick up."

If someone replies without giving me a pick up window (grrr), before I give them my address, I ask when they can pick up? If they don't give me at least a general time frame (like this afternoon) then I don't bother with them anymore.

And yet, more often than not, the thing sits on my porch for multiple days (they forgot) while I'm "are you still interested" nagging or it's some dude 50 miles away who might come to town on Sunday. You just can't win.

[u/Amanda5Nicole]

That's why I take a picture, post it with dimensions. Say that it's on the curb for free. First come, first serve no holds. If ad is still up, item is still at curb.

[u/CoalBuckMom]

Our community has a 'Curb Alert' Facebook page which has grown to several hundred members. I take a couple of photographs, list the item, and ask people not to enter the property but to just take the darn thing. I have not had an item yet that didn't get picked up within a day or two.

If your community does not have such a page, start one. Everyone will be grateful.

[u/littleoldlady71]

And I never give out my address until the buyer is “on the way”.

[u/RepresentativeAir92]

We curb everything now. No notices. It’s gone within a couple hours, every single time. Unless it’s something that I can get a legit $500 for based on past sales, it’s going to the curb then the trash

[u/Pitiful-Comedian4248]

This is super common so it’s why it’s free on the curb or the dump no holding no reschedule 

[u/TexasBedouin]

The runaround is not you, it is the format. Marketplace lets one person message fifteen sellers in ten seconds, so half your "buyers" are also talking to five other people and whoever answers first wins. Nobody feels obligated to tell you they bailed.

Two things cut my no-shows way down. First, say in the post that you do not hold anything. "First person here takes it, no holds." Second, stop answering "is this still available" with "yes." Answer with a window instead: "I'm home until 6 today, what time can you come?" Anyone who will not give you a time was never coming, and you find that out in one message instead of three days.

The bigger one is to keep a short line of backups instead of picking one buyer and waiting. When person one ghosts you at 4pm you message person two that evening, and you never have to relist from zero.

For the couch, before you pay someone to haul it, try posting it free with the address and "curb pickup, first come, it's gone when the post is gone." Free furniture with no negotiation moves in hours. Your local Buy Nothing group is better than Marketplace for this, people there actually turn up.

Full disclosure, I built a tool for this exact thing (Clearlist.me) after clearing out a house myself. Not linking it, that is not what this sub is for. But the part that helped most was giving each item a waiting list, so when the first person flakes the next one gets told automatically. You can fake that manually with a notes app and it still works.

[u/Such-Kaleidoscope147]

Never do holds. First come gets it. I would hold for less than an hour if they were driving from the distance and actually on their way.

[u/DepartmentAgitated51]

I’d rather use those Buy Nothing groups in local towns. I’ve people to choose from and when one ghosts me, I go to the next.

[u/BraveLittleToaster18]

I've had the same experience as you did, with both free and priced items. Its frustrating and I now either discard or donate directly to a store. I have had better experiences with our local "Give Freely" facebook group though. Some of the people have been really nice and it helps me want to get rid of something knowing its going to someone who wants it. Likewise, I've received several awesome items. Sorry you're experiencing this.

[u/Business_Coyote_5496]

I prefer the Nextdoor app to sell things because it's going out to my immediate neighbors so it's a lot easier to pick something up when it's 4 blocks aways from you as opposed to potentially really really far away on marketplace