what's the story with FB Marketplace- first many views, now 0? (credit card, fee)
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After not selling online for a while, I decided to give Marketplace another try. I tried selling on there two or three years back (I think), but there were no sales, so stuck with eBay and Craigslist. I was pleasantly surprised as three items I listed sold within a week or two each and had plenty of views. So far, I've just sold locally but now I see they have shipping options which I am reluctant to try at this time. Currently, after the prior sales successes, I've listed other things and they get very few views, sometimes 0 for quite a long time. I also notice that the categories I will place something in are not in that category by the time it gets past their 5-10 minute item review check. Any ideas of the cause and how to remedy (especially the low number of views)?
SO MUCH stuff on there. EVERYONE and their mother sells online now. I don't even bother with eBay and CL as I get no successes there anymore.
Ebay has been going down hill for years now, you have to wade through endless pages of garbage to find anything decent.
Page after page of junk, stolen consumer products (how much detergent can one family have surplus?), etc..., and nearly all of it overpriced. When you add shipping charges things just aren't worth bother anymore if can find locally.
Lot of buyers moved onto CL, FB, letgo and other online sellers that offer local pick-up when eBay and others were forced to collect sales taxes on purchases. Things that were a deal before aren't so much anymore, less so when sales taxes are piled onto shipping charges.
On seller side of thing people are fed up with eBay's pro buyer policies that often leave them holding bag.
People buy stuff then file claims with PayPal or eBay that merchandise wasn't delivered, as described, or whatever to get their money back (charged back to credit card). Even when a seller sends all required documentation to eBay or Paypal showing merchandise was received, it still isn't a slam dunk.
Ebay has been going down hill for years now, you have to wade through endless pages of garbage to find anything decent.
Page after page of junk, stolen consumer products (how much detergent can one family have surplus?), etc..., and nearly all of it overpriced. When you add shipping charges things just aren't worth bother anymore if can find locally.
Lot of buyers moved onto CL, FB, letgo and other online sellers that offer local pick-up when eBay and others were forced to collect sales taxes on purchases. Things that were a deal before aren't so much anymore, less so when sales taxes are piled onto shipping charges.
On seller side of thing people are fed up with eBay's pro buyer policies that often leave them holding bag.
People buy stuff then file claims with PayPal or eBay that merchandise wasn't delivered, as described, or whatever to get their money back (charged back to credit card). Even when a seller sends all required documentation to eBay or Paypal showing merchandise was received, it still isn't a slam dunk.
I am aware of eBay's policies - and yes for sellers, they SUCK.
We dropped Craigslist just got too few responses and the ones we did were flakey. We sell a lot now on Facebook, anything that can’t be shipped. Our last round of goods had a few items that sat for a few weeks, but we just kept lowering the price and they finally sold. My recommendation is make sure you have the items key worded or tagged correctly otherwise they will never be found.
Anything we can ship goes on eBay. We have had great luck on eBay. Our lifetime sales total is nearing $100,000 - over a 20 year period. We’re eBay fans even if there is the occasional bad buyer. We put up with it. Part of doing business. It makes us plenty of cash. Can’t complain about that.
ebay is a place to clear if yu are the seller and you need cash fast.
ebay is a place for bottomfeeder buyers to buy something for nothing.
Ebay has come down hard on retail arbitrager ,those who list an item,take the money and buy it on AMZN,WMT,COSTCO and ask them to ship to you.
and Chinese sellers can sell cheaper than you,with 99 cents shipping/
I don’t have an answer for the OP. I made a living on eBay for many years but refused to sign up for Managed Payments so they no longer want me. I’m retired and downsizing the stuff I loved, collected, & hoarded. I have some success with Facebook, mostly by joining collector groups and making things available to those targeted audiences. I put some listings on Marketplace, if something is small and of limited interest to only a few select collectors not likely to be within driving distance.
Facebook, specifically Facebook Marketplace, has a couple glaring problems! They are a 2 tier system and if you offer shipping you get tier 1 exposure with lots of views, BUT you pay 5% commission to Facebook and they hold your money until AFTER the item is delivered as proven by online tracking. I don’t mind paying a fee for a worthwhile service but they are completely shooting themselves in the foot with their shipping program. They have a wonderful service to provided prepaid shipping labels (with cost deducted from your payout) that are prefilled with buyers shipping info and the tracking info is automatically uploaded so that your payment will be transferred to your bank once item is delivered. You can also opt to print your own label through carriers or whatever shipping software you use. If you do so you have to copy down buyers info and manually enter it all plus upload the tracking number to Facebook or you don’t get paid at all. If you do choose to use Facebooks prepaid labels you have to select one of three weight ranges and there are no options to use any of the flat rate, or regional rate USPS boxes or envelopes. When I asked the help desk how to get a prepaid label for a padded flat rate envelope the idiots sent me a form letter telling me there is no such thing and that all shipping is done by weight and that I have to select one of their weight options. How in the world can an outfit the size of Facebook not know what a flat rate box is?
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