Have yet to have a good selling experience on FB. Currently trying to sell a roof rack for the e46 and the number of people who want to pay half what I'm offering and deliver it 2 hours blows my mind
Have yet to have a good selling experience on FB. Currently trying to sell a roof rack for the e46 and the number of people who want to pay half what I'm offering and deliver it 2 hours blows my mind
Sold our couch on FB. Had no bites at all on CL, gal came by, gave me what I was asking and took it away. Easy.
In my area, the selection for older VW stuff im interested in is much much higher on FB than on CL (or the samba or vwvortex), therefore from a buying perspective, I feel stuck with it. Trying to work with FB sellers in general is really off-putting...
In reply to MazdaFace:
Kind of funny, you mention trying to sell an e46 roof rack on FB and getting lowballs. When I got rid of my Saab 9-3, I listed the Thule roof rack on FB. I had a guy agree to buy it, but then message me the day we was supposed to pick it up trying to renegotiate for half the price. He helpfully included links to places he could buy one new online for cheap... I then pointed out that the prices he was using as justification for the lowball were for a single roof bar, not a complete set. He ended up buying them for the original agreed price, but I definitely needed patience to deal with idiocy on that one.
I put up a clear, detailed CL ad for my Saab 9-5 carcass that got smashed by a tree. I explained everything wrong with it and even bolded the fact that it was HIT BY A FREAKING TREE with pictures and everything and no, you cannot drive it home. Most responses included this
"Can I drive it home"
I think I got about 50 responses. Exactly ONE of them had somewhat coherent thought. I responded to that guy and he never responded back.
When it gets a little warmer, I'm stripping it for small stuff I can sell on here and eBay and scrapping the rest.
I stepped away from FB before the marketplace was really a thing. I've been tempted to log back in just to shop, but sounds like it's not worth the headache.
I'm sure it is similar to OfferUp. I thought the lowballers on CL were bad until I started listing items on there. They're all free, so I'll still list items in as many markets as possible for the most eyeballs. I use the ENGINERD model. I make an ad with too much detail and ignore stupid questions and offers. Although sometimes I respond to "what's the lowest you'll take" with "what's the most you'll pay". Surprisingly worked out well for me once.
My experience with FB selling:
Them: Is it still available?
Me: Yes
That's it, it never gets past that point. I think FB has a BOT that just automatically generates that inquiry every few hours.
Jumper K Balls said:Is it an XJ ?
They are so popular with a certain crowd that, yeah I would expect to attract a lot of... them.
Says the guy with a neighborhood full of jacked up, POS jeep xjs plastered with "unapologetically american" and "speak the language" stickers.
It is an xj
pinchvalve said:My experience with FB selling:
Them: Is it still available?
Me: Yes
That's it, it never gets past that point. I think FB has a BOT that just automatically generates that inquiry every few hours.
It's worse than that - when you click the ad for more details, it has some prefilled reply options today are extremely easy to accidentally click. One of those is "is this still available?". More puzzlingly, one of those is also "Next!". Whoever came up with those has clearly never tried to sell something online.
In reply to Tony Sestito :
See, the shiny happy person in me would have just said come by and take it for a test drive. When they got there and say, "What the hell, you can't drive that!" show them the ad where it clearly states no, you cannot drive it home, then ask if they will read and comprehend ads in the future.
I have nothing better to do.
NEALSMO said:
Although sometimes I respond to "what's the lowest you'll take" with "what's the most you'll pay". Surprisingly worked out well for me once.
Sometimes people have a certain amount of money, and no way to get more. I sell cheap cars sometimes, and that is a regular question. I used to get pissed because they were asking that before they had even looked at it, but I figured out that many of them would call on a $3000 car and ask, because they had $2250, and maybe I would let it go for that. If I say no, they go away and we both get to not waste any more time.
I once asked the "Whats the most" question, he gave a number that was pretty close, I said yes and all was good.
Over value it, but not too much. Here is my take on the internet mentality. I used to do this all the time, so I used to be one of those tire kickers.
People troll the internet for freebies and cheap stuff. I remember sitting in front of the computer hitting refresh every 15 minutes on a CL window for cars $499 and under because I was looking for a project. I would find one and email them right away, then realized that I don't really have time for an engine swap or brake lines or whatever.
I recently put a Mattress on FB marketplace for free. Nice mattress, only a couple years old, it just didn't fit in my new house. I received 68 responses overnight. Everyone wants a free mattress. Almost all of them were "I am interested in this item," meaning they didn't actually write a message they just clicked a button. I responded to 32 of them and got exactly ZERO responses back. The next day I posted it on CL for "make offer" and a guy offered $100 and came two hours later to pick it up. He was pleasantly surprised when I refused his money and told him the story.
My buddy once told me a similar story. His dad was a delivery driver and was trying to get rid of a tube TV so he put it in the back of his delivery pickup with a "free" sign on it. Any time he stopped at a truck stop he just lowered the tailgate and hoped someone would take it. After a week he changed the sign to "$20" and it was stolen the first time he stopped. People assumed it was worthless when it was free, but when it had a value attached to it, all it took was the first morally-deficient person to take it.
Free makes everyone come out of the woodwork with no real interest. Placing a proper value on it brings out the actual people who WANT what you're selling.
Sometimes for my cheap car sales I will put "make offer" and then you let THEM weed themselves out. If your number (in your head) is $900 you'll get a ton of $100-500 offers which you can ignore, but chances are you'll get one person who looked it up on NADA, offers you $1250 and you have your winner. Then you don't have to negotiate and you have zero remorse or fear of feeling like you ripped someone off. They set the price they are willing to pay. Done.
The real beauty of that situation is that right out of the gate you have weeded out the tire kickers. Before they fabricate an offer they've had to make an active decision - maybe even researched it on KBB or Edmunds. The bottom line is if they have made an offer, its because they actually WANT it instead of "hey look, cool cheap car."
Sometimes stuff pops up online that I really want. I then read the punctuation free, misspelled, poor grammar ad and decide I just don’t want to deal with the seller
Mndsm said:Jumper K Balls said:Is it an XJ ?
They are so popular with a certain crowd that, yeah I would expect to attract a lot of... them.
Says the guy with a neighborhood full of jacked up, POS jeep xjs plastered with "unapologetically american" and "speak the language" stickers.
It is an xj
Well there you go 
If you were selling a box of axe body spray and and mountain dew 2 liters you wouldn't be surprised if your ad was only responded to by teenage boys who asked you to hold it for them until their mom could give them a ride.
Likewise if you're selling an XJ you shouldn't be surprised if this guy doesn't read the ad and keeps trying to talk you down on the price
Note: I know they are great, inexpensive rigs and do what they do well. This is intended to be a lighthearted, humorous jab but also a lesson on understanding your target demographic... and I suppose reinforcing a stereotype. 
In reply to Jumper K Balls :
To be honest, I’ve been checking the people’s profiles when they message me. The lowballers are always brodudes with newer lifted Chevy trucks. They always drop a price before they look at it. I’m starting to think they’re all friends trying to see who can pick it up the cheapest.
I deleted my post and I’m going to throw it up on CL. I know these I shouldn’t let these people bother me but the last guy did. I’m pretty sure he was trolling, because he asked the lowest I'd go and I told him he should come check it out first before we have that conversation. Then he asked what needed work on it and I gave him the list. So then he proceeded to tell me that essentially I have a rusty $1600 Jeep because he’s going to have to spend about $800 on it. I told him Yep, that if I had the time to fix all that stuff, I’d probably be selling it for that price. He just said $600 was his only offer and to let him know if I change my mind.
I deleted his message.
You'll need to log in to post.
