How on earth can anyone be arsed selling anything on FB

[PrincessSloth]

Listed an item

Replied to around 150 messages of "Is this still available"

No response.

"Does it have X?"

Yes, I said it did in the advert and it's also clearly in the picture so, yes.

"will you deliver?"

No, again I said in the advert, collection only.

"will you take a fiver?"

That is literally a 75% reduction, so no.

Somebody was meant to be coming to collect said item tonight after I spent an hour sending them pictures from every single angle in the planet and answering his 1000 questions about a very very simple uncomplicated item and he appears to have dropped off the face of the planet.

Arghhhh I would rather just take the item to the bloody tip it would be less hassle but as it is plastic I thought it would be better someone else got the use of it.

How can anyone ever be arsed?!?!

I remember actually I sold a TV a couple of years ago on there and the guy messaged me 18 months later asking if I had the manual for it!!

A percentage of the general buying public are dingbats to be sure. I've not done too bad on fb but I think that's because we will deliver for free/token amount locally. Rule of thumb is the more questions they ask the less liklihood of a sale.
Same with Ebay but at least then you can get ebay on the case. Today's dingbat was querying why his item had incurred postage costs as it was free delivery. Those would be the postage costs in the listing, no mention of free delivery.

I am trying to give away an above ground swimming pool as I am moving house. Despite me giving dimensions and pointing out that it is huge and will need a pool fence and two people to lift, I have had a stream of people saying they are interested, and then not showing up!Its driving me mad and its going to the tip very soon, which is a real shame as a family could get a lot of fun out of it. But I'm over it!

I've sold a lot of stuff on FB but I sell items for pretty much dirt cheap.
I don't understand people that try to sell any item for 70% the cost. Might as well buy it new then.
Also I don't understand why people are so bothered when people offer less. You have the option to counter. If I won't budge on price I state " price is firm". If it doesn't state that in description, I always low ball (unless the price is reasonable, ie. Dirt cheap)

My weirdest one was I sold a picnic bench on ebay - the circular kind with circular seats attached. I was amazed how much it went for as a new one wasn't much more. The bloke came to collect it, seemed delighted, and then a few days later sent me an angry message saying he could have got a new one for the price he paid and demanded I send him the receipt from when I bought it. Really weird, nobody forced him to bid that much. I told him to bring it back for a refund but he decided to keep it anyway even though he was furious. Irrelevant but he was a vet at a local practice, so not a stupid man.

My experience of Facebook selling was listed item, someone got in touch, we agreed a price, then they said can you put it on eBay so I’ve got more protection... If I’d wanted to do that I would have done in the first place

Full of dim people..I advertised a huge sideboard with measurements and stated a van would be needed...buyers arrived in a car and complained it wouldn't fit and then moaning about getting a zip van to get it and the cost etc..it was free item... still trying to get rid of a shed..as new... will chop it up this week and use in log burner as can't face any more idiots..it's also free and some ask if we can dismantle and deliver !!

Oh but have got some fab bargains and freebies off it !!

we were selling a table and chairs.
Woman turned up in huge people carrier ('my husband is a doctor'she mentioned 100 times).
Then barked orders at me and her son on how to put the table in her car carefully. I suddenly thought 'what the hell am I doing?' and shut the door. Bloody woman was so rude.

Yanbu.
People on mnet talk about selling on their branded children's clothes for as much as 1/4 or 1/3 of the new price etc. Also talk about how they rarely buy anything new for their children and regularly get new looking items for a fraction of the cost.

I go on and post:

• barely worn, immaculate condition baby & toddler clothes - frugi, Boden, jojo, joules, some scandi brands. Pricing at 1/4 new price. I get little interest, except people offering £1 an item or wanting me to bundle up stuff and give them the lot for £10.
• I post a pair of leather high heeled shoes I never wore because they didn't quite match an outfit, I lost receipt and forgot to return. Pics showing inner & sole immaculate. £20 (I paid £70 :( ). First buyer doesn't turn up to collect. I repost after 48 hrs. 2nd buyer also doesn't turn up at the agreed time..no further interest.

I've also given up on buying 2nd hand. All i can even find for DS (3) is mostly quite heavily worn/washed and colours faded (hello people, persil non bio has "brighteners" that bleach colours) or is being sold 2nd hand for little less than the new price eg £15 vs £20. Why would I buy at that price with no warranties/ability to return etc?!

Oh the people who sell 70% of the retail price mostly look a little dodgy...
Always have loads to sell, all apparently new, barely used, has tags and just unwanted, changed mind etc. but mysteriously have lost receipts or otherwise to be able to take back to store for a full refund. Always has two or three sizes of different stuff, but from the same store. So 5 next tops, 2 in a 10, one in 12 and 2 in 14....
Either you are so terribly unlucky that you buy stuff every week, but change your mind and lose the receipt and the ability to go back to the shop at all, or you are acquiring these items through other means.

I put a couple of boxes of baby clothes on, in the title and description I put sizes, gender and price - which was free by the way. Que a load of messages asking what sizes, what price and are they boys or girls.

Put some girls on for a tenner, no messages at all😂

I haven’t found Facebook marketplace too bad for most things. Except for 4 Kallax units. Omg they’re apparently like crack cocaine for people who use Facebook marketplace! I sold them within 5 minutes but still got literally 100s of messages, many of them cheeky (“will you take £40 for all of them?” When they were up for £20 each). And lots of pissed off ones demanding to know why I’d sold them to someone else and not them

Never had any bother when I sold my kids old toys or the chest of drawers and other odd bits.

Yes! Pre-assembled Ikea storage units have been very, crazily, popular. Must price higher next time. I suppose it's that you're saving them assembly time, as well as a trip to Ikea.

On the whole I find it fine, for things I'm willing to sell very cheaply. For higher value things, Ebay and Gumtree are better.

Freecycle is similar - full of unreliable people, so you have to do it clearly and on your own terms. On both though, I do quite enjoy meeting this little stream of different people, who seem happy to have this or that old but useful thing.

I just had a surreal experience last night - put two pairs of boots on FB, sold for full price to two different buyers in ten minutes. Both paid by paypal immediately with no haggling. Marvellous

Reporting you as a troll @Colinthedaxi as this is clearly impossible and can’t have happened

I do wonder if people expect too much money sometimes. It doesn't really matter what it cost you originally, as it isn't in the orinigal state anymore, it's used. My MIL keeps trying to sell old records for a fiver a piece. Not collectable records but the ones that you can buy for 50p at every garage sale... and she lists dog eared books from the 80s for the same price as new ones since it's the same story...

I have limited success, selling son’s old clothes. Often the items you don’t expect to sell get the most money! I do find recently I have had more offer bids, and less actual bidding wars. In fact, out of all the items sold between September and Christmas, only a couple had more than a couple of bids on. Fortunately, no disputes.

I'm getting rid of some logs for free on Facebook right now. Had no issues last year, and been OK again this year.
I live in a three storey house built into a hill. There is a side passage into the garden, which is up a steep initial slope and is almost as high as the roof at the back.
This is clearly written in the advert.
Guy messages last night.
Can I drive my land rover up the steps into the garden?
I point out that it would mean driving through the house
He replies, oh, is that an option then?

I've been relatively lucky, my husband has had a few idiots, one tried haggling for a £1 reduction and another one expected technical support a few months after buying the item.

Gumtree however is on another level and we have both stopped using it.

I sold a child’s bike on marketplace once. The woman was ringing and texting me for an hour because she couldn’t find my house (super super easy to find).
I had to leave my house and walk to the top of the street and grab her. She was just walking up and down past the street sign. ‘Oh I didn’t think that was your street’?!?’
She then told me a sob story that she needed to buy her DD a bike as she had given hers away? Then she went on about how she would have to get a taxi whilst eyeing up my car.
I made her pay and closed the door. I saw her a while later still walking up and down the main road looking lost. She couldn’t find the bus stop, it was directly on the opposite side of the street for the direction she was going in - odd.

Sorry about the emoticons. DS did it when I wasn't looking.

@ItsAllTheDramaMickIJustLoveIt it’s just Ikea furniture in general, it all goes within 5 mins on FB.

I haven’t sold on FB but have got a couple of bargains on there including brand new flooring which I was chuffed with.

I have sold a lot on eBay over the years though and experienced a few CFers. Once waited in all day for a couple to collect some beautiful Mexican pine wardrobes. They were stuck in my living room because they didn’t fit up the stairs of our new house so I needed them gone ASAP. The man was about to pick them up but the woman stood umming and ahhing then said she didn’t want them after all... I was pretty fuming.

@PebbleStone22
I think it sums up the thread pretty well

I've had some pretty good transactions on there and some lousy ones. When asked if I deliver or if I'd take a lower amount I don't even answer. Life's too short.

I sold a lovely wooden toy kitchen a few months ago. It was about £150 new, and still in great condition with extra accessories included. The CF who turned up to collect said it was smaller than he expected (dimensions were in the listing) and therefore wouldn't pay the £55 I was asking and would take it for £30. I told him no he won't because there are 9 other people asking me about it and if he doesn't want it I'll sell it to one of them.
He grumbled and muttered and got his wife in from the car to inspect it. She grumbled and muttered as well, and they eventually, grudgingly handed over the £55.
Wish I hadn't sold it to them now.

I’ve mostly had ok experiences with buyers, amid the odd stupid question or those who disappear after saying they wanted it, but the one that gets me is how common it is for someone to arrive without the correct change. I’m not a shop or a bank, I rarely carry cash and certainly don’t keep a stash in the house!