The Facebook Marketplace, may be the easiest website that allows you to buy and sell goods. It doesn’t require any additional signups or anything. Open your mobile Facebook application, and you will see an icon that resembles a building with an awning on it. That is the marketplace. EBay and Amazon aren’t the only online places where you can sell your own items.

What Makes Facebook Marketplace so Great?

  • Quick and convenient- The marketplace is connected to your Facebook page, so it is also right at your fingertips. All you need to access it is a smartphone, tablet, laptop, or desktop computer.
  • Low-risk- No associated fees, so if your item doesn’t sell for as much as you’d like, or doesn’t sell at all, you won’t have lost much of anything.
  • No fees- Facebook is free, and so is their marketplace. All you need to do is have an active Facebook account to access it.
  • Linked to your personal Facebook account- If you plan to sell a lot of things, you will need to clean up your personal Facebook page, and make it public so that people can see who you are. Make sure you take your super personal information off of your page, and put up a nice profile photo of yourself.

Tips to Make Sure Your Item(s) Sell:

  • Take quality photographs – You should use natural light if it is available. If you plan to sell on a regular basis, you should invest in a ring light. They make them small enough that they fit as an attachment to your cellphone or tablet, and large enough that they stand on their own, with a tripod. If you don’t want to buy a ring light, you can use the flash on your phone, in conjunction with the light inside your home. The goal is to take nice, well-lit photographs of your items.
  • Give thorough descriptions of each item – Honesty is the best policy. It is imperative that you give an in-depth description of what the item looks like. Also, list any imperfections to the item: a scratch, a crack, etc. Also, put your selling location in the description area. Don’t go putting your actual address on there, but put just enough information for the potential buyer. For instance, if you live in Chicago, you can get more specific as to which side of town you’re closest to, or what public park is nearby.
  • List each item separately – It is indeed time consuming to post each item individually, but it’ll help you in the long run. The Marketplace is picture-based, and manybuyers like to see clear pictures of the listed products, not everything bunched up together.
  • Add them to a Facebook group – You can get your items seen by more than just your Facebook friends, if you click to join related groups. On Facebook, there are groups for everything. You could find the exact person who would love your item in the right group. It may generally take less than 24 hours for the group administrator to accept you into the group.
  • Price it right – Before uploading an item to the marketplace, do a quick google search to see how much the item is being resold for in other places. Check if your item is in better condition, or in worse condition, than what you’re seeing online. Then, price your item a bit higher, because chances are your potential buyers have found the same information online on the item that you have. People will try to negotiate the price with you, so this gives you room for that.
  • Only discuss price negotiations in private messenger app – If a potential buyer wants to discuss the price under the original post, kindly direct message them about their interest in the item, as well as its price. You don’t want other potential buyers to see the negotiations happening. This also prevents buyers from thinking that just because the price is being negotiated that, they’re the one who you’ll sell to. Be sure to communicate that you are accepting the best offer only.

The Facebook marketplace launched in 2007, but the company closed it down just seven years later. However, after seeing online peer-to-peer selling become more popular than ever, they decided to try it again. And it is working for them. Facebook, is one of the only free sites of its kind that does not charge users to post on the marketplace. Because it is a social media site first and foremost, they pride themselves on making it safe for users. They allow individuals to control the amount of information that is disclosed to potential buyers.