Advice for using Marketplace

[gary_in_neenah]

I haven't used Marketplace before but intend to in the near future. I'm looking for advice for selling, past experience, etc. How did you arrange payment? Certified or Cashier Check? We're talking thousands, not hundreds so I need to make sure the payment is sound. Good experience or bad, I'd like to hear your thoughts and suggestions. Thanks!

Gary

 

[J.Glenn]

Hi Gary - Just recently sold larger item that was listed via marketplace. Overall a good experience. I would just say be as detailed in your listing as you can, to help justify your listing price. You know you are going to have folks beat you up over price, but if you have the details and pictures to justify it, then that will help you out. The negative is just that also, you're going to have deal with all the message from people trying to low ball you. You can weed through those and reply if you want or not. Payment arrangements for us were made at the bank, at the time of pickup. I wanted to ensure the cash cleared prior to handing the item over to the individual. I likely would have handled it the same way had it been a certified/cashier check too.

I would lean against meeting at a random place just because you don't know who you're dealing with out there. Meet in a public place that has other people (or security cameras) around in event you would need assistance if something goes wrong. You can kind of weed any shady people out with marketplace too by viewing their profiles, and if you don't like what you see, you can simply ignore them.

I know others will chime in too, but just my .02.

 

[gary_in_neenah]

Thanks J. Glad to hear it worked well for you. I'll try to follow up with our results once the sale happens.

Gary

 

[hybrid]

cash only at police station or bank when doing transaction
or wait 3 weeks for cashiers check to clear to release item
i personally would not take a check
larger ticket items 20k and up
pain in the but waiting for check to clear
depends on banks involved and where you live
smaller banks take forever
do not release item till you are 10000% sure u got the money
GLWS

 

[heckler56]

Absolutely look over the prospective buyer. View their profile and walk away if all a buyer wants to do is email and text. Big ticket items “I” as a buyer would like to screen you and that means a phone to assure your legitimacy, if someone won’t talk on the phone walk away. Spammers will come fast and you might find someone steals your ad to repost to scam someone.

That said I have sold some very large ticket items: Three newer snowmobile trailers and a fishing boat. My buyers were local and I was able to screen them. We met in-person after “the dance”. All checks can be cancelled so “we“ went to my bank to deposit funds to “legitimize” check, then hand over bill of sale with title.

 

[maddogg]

For the most part I've had really good luck with buyers. Most are honest. Be ready for people to "haggle/lowball" and you'll get a few no shows and people asking you to hold stuff till they get paid. Once you get past that, I've only ever been stiffed $20.

 

[600_RMK_144]

It is the new norm. Craigslist is dead. Always check the users profile. A few red flags would be - Just joined the group, no profile pic, no FB history, no FB friends, no FB posts at all, locked down profile, etc. It's a gut feeling for me. If it doesn't feel right, then it probably isn't. Once you start to carry on a conversation (thru FB Chat) with the potential buyer, you can get a feel pretty quickly if they are legit or not. As mentioned above, I also typically try to have a verbal conversation just to make sure. Especially if it's a higher $$$ item. But... Scammers have been starting to use the FB phone app to contact users, so don't rely on that, you want to get their cell and call it directly. You can probably cross-reference their phone# to confirm it matches the name you are seeing in FB pretty easily. Basically, become a stalker to avoid being stalked. LOL!

 

[harvest1121]

Are you doing it for a business or personal? The only FB account I use is fake don't want my real name out there. Use it mostly to sell high end bicycles and snowmobile stuff. Anyone that wants you to click a link to call is fake. I usually just use FB messenger for everything. Do not like people to have my personal phone number. Look at the buyers profile if its made that day usually fake. Ask them questions see how they answer. I do have a google phone number incase I do have to call people but have not used in years. With all the new taxes they want on money transfers I try to do cash since taxes were paid already.

 

[jedoyle]

My advice is pretty simple. Take good pictures of the item you are selling after making sure it is cleaned up & presentable. I see some people selling things with horrible pictures of dirty unmaintained looking items. Also, be detailed in listing out everything about said item so as to avoid questions like how many miles. Lastly, and this seems stupid to mention, but in your post it doesn't hurt to say "If this item is listed it is still available. I will delete the post when sold". You can't believe how many people ask if it's still available & then you don't hear another word. Gets kind of annoying. Oh and like others have said cash is always good for payment but when you are talking a bigger ticket item a certified bank check works well too.

 

[gary_in_neenah]

Thanks, all good advice.

Gary

 

[harvest1121]

I would only take a certified check to the bank branch it was issued from. I sold my Harley took a certified check from a big bank. Went to a branch of that bank and they could not guarantee it was good. That's been a few years ago but hope things changed.

 

[eagle1]

Sold last sled on Craigslist ...7k. Guy came up from Illinois....wanted to do PayPal or Venmo....said I was more comfortable with cash. He was cool with that.
Sold my truck local to guy for 11k....just went to his Credit Union they cut check, wasn't to worried new his son owned local business....just did quick Bill if sale with our signatures.
Definitely getting to be pain with higher prices. But really had good experiences so far. Probably gonna have to break down and join FB to use Marketplace eventually 🫤

 

[Hoosier]

Are you doing it for a business or personal? The only FB account I use is fake don't want my real name out there. Use it mostly to sell high end bicycles and snowmobile stuff. Anyone that wants you to click a link to call is fake. I usually just use FB messenger for everything. Do not like people to have my personal phone number. Look at the buyers profile if its made that day usually fake. Ask them questions see how they answer. I do have a google phone number incase I do have to call people but have not used in years. With all the new taxes they want on money transfers I try to do cash since taxes were paid already.

I do the same thing - fake FB account set up with email address I set up just for that with a nonsense name.

 

[pclark]

Call me old fashioned but I still use Craigslist but I live in the Northwoods, I know a scam when I see one but people up here are pretty trustworthy still. I just meet them in town at the grocery store parking lot and let them know it's cash up front, not selling major high ticket items.
If I lived in a city I probably would not use Craigslist and for the record I will never join facebook even if it means not using marketplace. JMO

 

[600_RMK_144]

My advice is pretty simple. Take good pictures of the item you are selling after making sure it is cleaned up & presentable. I see some people selling things with horrible pictures of dirty unmaintained looking items. Also, be detailed in listing out everything about said item so as to avoid questions like how many miles. Lastly, and this seems stupid to mention, but in your post it doesn't hurt to say "If this item is listed it is still available. I will delete the post when sold". You can't believe how many people ask if it's still available & then you don't hear another word. Gets kind of annoying. Oh and like others have said cash is always good for payment but when you are talking a bigger ticket item a certified bank check works well too.

I have this a lot as well. And I've sent "Is this Available" by accident myself. It's that dang pre-set response in FB. I swear if you get your finger within a foot of touching it, FB sends the message!

 

[Tim in Indiana]

I do the same thing - fake FB account set up with email address I set up just for that with a nonsense name.

Same thing here, fake name on a facebook account that is only used for marketplace. No friends, no posts, but several years history.

I do believe that some of my messenger inquiries are ignored but if the happens I just have the wife or son ask about an item. If it is a female selling something I will usually have the wife make contact, it seems to get better response from the seller.

 

[moen_lake]

I mostly sell on FB Market Place. No big ticket items. Everything cash and meet in a public location, I think that makes everyone more comfortable.
However, I did just see a boat on Craigslist. 1974 Glastron in pristine condition. Was a super smooth process. He contacted me, talked on the phone and I provided additional pictures. He sent me a cashiers check from the same bank I use with no issues. He lives in FL and is using Uship to have sent down to him next weekend.