I’ve had it! I’ve absolutely had it! Craigslist is a shell of its former self, leaving me with no choice but to sell my car parts on Facebook Marketplace. It’s a great platform in many ways, but it’s also severely flawed. Its worst problem is its inclusion of an automated response button for listings — a button that everyone I know loathes. But that wasn’t the only thing that made my attempt to sell some Jeep parts in LA a complete nightmare.
Have you ever had to sell something on Facebook Marketplace? If so, I’m sure you’ve become extremely, extremely tired of the phrase: “Hi [your name], is this still available?” It’s the auto-send message that Facebook lets people (and probably robots) send sellers, and it is unceasingly agitating. I just bought a Jeep Wrangler YJ with a hard top and two sets of doors. As I live in California, I have no interest in keeping that top, nor do I need the full-doors that accompany it; I’m a half door/soft top kind of man. I should be able to get at least $1200 out of that hard top and around a grand from those two doors, so I threw the parts up on Facebook Marketplace.
Here are the two listings:
The description for the door listing goes like this:
These YJ full doors are in very good condition! New paint, new interior panel, new mirrors; window seals are cracking, and there are tiny blemishes here and there. But these white doors look wonderful inside and out.
And here’s my description in the hardtop listing:
This hard top is in good condition. The glass handle will need to be taken off and either replaced or fixed, as twisting it doesn’t unlatch the glass (I just reach up and pull the cable by hand). There are a few minor imperfections on the outside, but overall the shape is good. The inside of the hardtop shows no cracking.
Sadly, it looks like I won’t be selling these Jeep parts anytime soon — at least not on Facebook Marketplace — because the app has become totally unusable. I have received no fewer than 70 messages about these two listings, and the vast majority have been of the automated variety. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, it’s this little pre-filled box in the bottom right corner of a listing. Simply hit “send,” and the seller gets the automated message shown there: “Hi, is this available?”
Just look at this absurd number of mostly automated messages, all received in the span of 24 hours. The vast majority appear to have no interested in buying anything, and it’s not clear to me if these are humans or bots:
For some reason, no matter what I do with my post’s title, people keep thinking I’m selling the whole car. It’s gotten to a point that I think the world is messing with me. Look at Joshua here. I tell him I’m selling just the top, and he then replies “That’s all wrong, but does it work well? does it start and drive ok?”
A top, Joshua? Does a top start and drive OK? No, it doesn’t — it’s a freaking top!
A person named German seems confused as well, saying they’re interested in the [car emoji]. Again, it’s a hard top. It literally says “just the hard top” in the title!
Then there’s Eliel. He asks me if my Jeep’s doors are four-wheel drive. And when I reply that, hey, we’re just talking about doors here, he responds with: “is [it] 4×4?”
Eliel! No it’s not 4×4. Why would a hardtop need a drivetrain? What would those fours even represent? There are no wheels to drive! It’s 0x0!
Bahram managed to really crank up the level of discourse in my Facebook Marketplace inbox by replying to my hardtop listing with: “wath is mileg.”
Truly profound.
But among the people who enraged me most was this wise-guy, Geno. When he asks if he can pick up my hardtop, I tell him to bring a friend, for it’s rather heavy. “Wym does it run” he responds, apparently inquiring if my fiberglass hardtop somehow features an internal combustion engine, and if that engine runs.
I tell him it’s a top, and he seems to realize that I’m “not selling the keep.” I suggest that he look at the listing title; this seems to be something one should do prior to sending silly messages. He response with what I’m sure he knows is going to make my blood boil:
“You wanna sell the keep are not I have cash” — no punctuation, didn’t spellcheck a damn thing, just pure unadulterated annoyance in text form. Come on, Geno!:
Emilio was at least clear with his communication. “I want the whole car.” Fair enough, Emilio, but that’s not what’s for sale:
Ynnos decided to offer me $700 — half of my $1,400 asking price. And you know what? I wouldn’t be surprised if he, like the rest of Facebook Marketplace, thought he was offering me $700 for the whole rust-free, beautiful 4.0-liter YJ.
But nobody, I mean nobody, spiked my blood pressure as high as Yael, who I’m going to come right out and call a fool. I don’t like calling folks names, but what he did is the bane of any Facebook Marketplace-seller’s existence. He looked at my overall price, came up with a number way, way lower, and then sent that in the chat with absolutely no punctuation:
Screw you Yael. Screw you.
I’m largely kidding. I am somewhat amused by how poorly this is going, and I realize that some of the issue is a language barrier.
At this point, I’ve given up on selling this top and these doors. If I get 70 absurd messages a day, even if someone actually is interested in buying these parts sends me a note, it’s likely to be lost in the inbox of drivel. Facebook Marketplace is a shitshow.
David Tracy you lovable idiot. I would suggest a jeep club or ebay as free sites are free frights. You can block auto responses dont answer the autobots to begin with they are just address hunters. Selling your address to other bots. Report the morons it is just two clicks or better just block and report. Can you tell me as a jeep lover for all your adult life you dont know a few clubs with free classified ads. Or hell start a classified ad section on autopian.
My wife got banned from a local community Facebook marketplace page after she ghosted a lady that was just stupid AF and my wife was tired of answering her petty questions about purchasing a $20 item. My wife ended up blocking the lady and shortly after she couldn’t access the marketplace page anymore.
It’s pretty clear with most of these folks English is not their first language. Your first mistake was taking a picture of the doors on the vehicle. So to a non-English speaker it just looks like a sale for an entire Jeep. They see a small number and an entire vehicle in the picture, hey that’s what’s for sale.
“The vast majority appear to have no interested in buying anything, and it’s not clear to me if these are humans or bots:”
Facebook has a huge problem with fake users and fake pages that are used to spam people with bullshit.
The solution is to not use Facebook and get back onto craigslist… or move to Canada and sell it on kijiji.ca.
I use FB get good buys but i sell as well. For every stupid buyer there is a stupid seller. Selling tires but 4 requests on tire size and build date you get ” I think they came off a Ford.”. They do not post size and think you can read it off the tire picture. You got the i dont need to sell just entertaining offers with no pictures or description. Or i am not selling looking to trade but no mention trade for what. And I am so close to meeting up with every moron who posts $1,234 or free just to punch them in the face. You have the item you know condition year age etc put a fucking price on it. They want you to drive hours to see crap and expect a fortune. Pay for my gas you little beetch.
Sounds to me like you need to move away from FB to Craigslist or Kijiji.
:-p
IS THIS STILL ABAILABLE
Whenever I have a vehicle up for auction, some A$$hat always axes me “What is the Reserve?”
I always answer:
“A reserve price is a minimum price that a seller would be willing to accept from a buyer. In an auction, the seller is not typically required to disclose the reserve price to potential buyers. If the reserve price is not met, the seller is not required to sell the item, even to the highest bidder.”
Also: I do know what the “mileg” is.
But I cannot reveal it…
COTD.
Never EVER underestimate the level of stupidity of people. Especially on Facebook.
Like others have mentioned you broke the #1 rule of Craig’s list and that is putting a picture in that has something you aren’t wanting to sell. 1 ad with pictures of the removed top and 1 ad with pictures of the removed doors. Nothing other than dirt, asphalt or grass should be visible in those pictures.
That should have said Craig’s list of the market of faces.
Maybe a confederate or american flag too
Good point.
Time to create Autopian Marketplace: A place for people who know what they got.
David, the first photo of your listing should have been the top/doors on their own, not installed. I wish I was facetious here, but you can’t expect people to read. They look for “Jeep”, they see your listing, they hit the button.
I will usually use the stock message and add behind it something like ‘what area of town’ or other pertinent questions, 90% of the time the seller doesn’t read past the first part
Craigslist is not dead. https://losangeles.craigslist.org/search/sss?excats=20-114-11-1-28-16-13-1&query=jeep%20wrangler#search=1~gallery~0~0
And if you decide to use the List of the Craigs, just take a picture of the doors and top by themselves and post under parts, not automobiles.
I always put in the ad that i wont respond to is it available messages. And I delete anything that isnt a coherent buyer question. It sucks but FB has killed Craigslist so we gotta deal with it.
Also join some local Jeep part buy/sell groups. You can push the ads to those groups specifically. Thats where your best leads will come from anyway.
As a CL seller, I understand the frustration of the ‘is it available’ questions, however as a CL buyer who frequently has to deal with sellers who never respond when I’m ready to buy something, I find the ‘availability’ question a good way to find out if the seller is going to be responsive without wasting a lot of time on one who isn’t. One tactic I use is to ask one more question (that wasn’t already answered in the post) to show I know a little about what’s being offered.
David, You could have saved yourself a lot of headaches with the lowball offers by just including “no lowballs – I know what I got”. This is automotive classified 101.
Major part of readers of you offer are Latinos. No more than 3/1000 will buy anything from social media ads. If you received 70, you are close to get 1/4 of a buyer!!! Keep going!!
You were happier in Michigan, Dave.
Cali car culture is neat but it’s already covered everywhere. I honestly don’t give a single care about stuff happening in california.
I absolutely despise Facebook Marketplace. At this point, I really only use it to give away things of little value that I no longer want or need. For example, a non-running power washer, no-frills bed frame, well-used sofas, a 20-year-old gas stove. Even that can be an aneurysm inducing experience. But selling anything? Especially a car? Oh Lord…
A little less than a year ago, I sold a very crusty 2004 GMC Sierra 4×4 with the 5.3L V8. The body and frame were extremely rusty, but it only had 120K miles and both the engine and transmission were solid. I went through great pains to write up an extremely detailed list enumerating EVERYTHING that was wrong with it and took probably 30 pictures to illustrate the condition. I don’t want to waste anyone’s time, after all.
Didn’t stop me from getting stupid ass questions like “is it a V8?,” “is it a 4×4,” “what’s wrong with it?,” “$400?” (I’d rather let the scrapyard have it than give your cheap ass the satisfaction). On top of people who spammed the “is this still available” and never responded once you did. Or other people who feigned interest and would set a time to look at it but then kept bailing and offering excuses, multiple times. So. Damn. Infuriating.
I finally got a guy who low balled at $1,000 but was serious, had his shit together and was happy to pick it up the next day. He was awesome to work with; I let it go just to be rid of the headache. I swear to God that most Facebook Marketplace users are most clueless and exasperating motherfuckers on the planet. I’m looking to buy a new car in the next couple years, and if no family or friends want my old one, I’m just gonna let the dealer have it on trade. It’s seriously that bad y’all, I’d rather get gouged by a dealer on my trade-in than deal with the type of person on Facebook Marketplace looking to buy a high-mileage 2016 Chevy Cruze. My time and sanity are worth more than dealing with these idiots for a month or more to maybe squeeze out an extra thousand or two.
“I really only use it to give away things of little value that I no longer want or need. ”
I won’t even use it for that. I prefer to use the ‘free’ section in Craigslist.
” Or other people who feigned interest and would set a time to look at it but then kept bailing and offering excuses, multiple times. So. Damn. Infuriating.”
The truth is that a large percentage of people out there are flakes. What you talked about brought back a memory of when my friends and I would throw parties… if we wanted to have a mix of 10 guys and 10 girls, we’d have to invite 20 guys and 40 girls.
“I finally got a guy who low balled at $1,000 but was serious, had his shit together and was happy to pick it up the next day. ”
And that was my experience when selling my mom’s Toyota Yaris last year. Lots of idiots, some nice people and the woman who bought it was a very nice person. Her boyfriend was nice too. It was enjoyable chatting with them. Legitimate questions and no bullshit.
Most of those people are probably Spanish speakers going by the names. I have no idea if Facebook translates chats. If it doesn’t then you’re hitting a language barrier. That’s my best guess at least. Es hora de aprender español, David. En California te ayudara inmensamente.
Qué?
I found that unless it is free, Marketplace is useless. People offer half, get upset. Or you get the “Not worth anything, I will take it for free and you help me move.”
I end up donating the stuff as it has more value as a tax write off.
I was trying to buy a 2-person Kayak as my kid was getting to big to wedge into the front of one of our singles, and I messaged a guy asking if he’d come down on his price for one, and then left my house (I don’t put facebook on my phone) ironically to go kayaking. I was gone maybe 4 hours. When I got back, he’d messaged my that the price was firm and then started yelling at me for not answering him because he thought I was mad the price hadn’t come down enough. People are crazy.
Yeah had that happen too, rants as I didn’t respond within minutes
Wait, what’s actually the problem with Craigslist?
Oh IDK. Maybe it’s the 32 responses in one day to even the most uninteresting item for sale. Most of which aren’t even people and none are actually interested in buy the product. They either want some security code (Google Voice, PayPal, etc) or they want to pay by check (I can keep the overpayment) and have their ‘friend’ pick it up. FBM is down right normal compared to CL.
People abusing the search function by seeding their posts with every word under the sun. Yes, I know I can search by title also. That sucks too.
On the flip side Facebook searches for everything under the sun no matter what your actual keywords are and will often not produce the same results even for identical searches.
They both suck something awful.
Craigslist by me is so oversaturated with spam and scams it’s been unusable for years.
I still use CL and have had good success buying, selling, and giving stuff away. Haven’t run into scammers, and once you’ve accepted that you’re going to be dealing with a certain level of flakiness I find it not too infuriating. At least CL doesn’t allow buyers to spam sellers with auto-generated messages.
Oppo Swappo
https://opposite-lock.com/category/19/swappo
No one will misunderstand your listing! But also no one will buy your stuff.
The last time I tried to sell wheels with a picture of them on a vehicle, I had the same problem, but on probably 1/10th the scale. It seems like the only way to minimize this problem is to have absolutely no pictures of the car in the ad, and even that probably won’t stop people.
This is something I have found also. Only post the image of exactly what is being sold. If you have a picture with doors and the top, people will think they come together. Also all these images are being fed into AI algorithms that end up posting lime green Lamborghini’s with Ryobi tools.
Yael reminds me of the single time Dilbert was funny.
“I heard you went to Yale, Sven.”
“I yust got out yesterday.”
Offer up is a good alternative. Its kind of taken over from what craigslist used to be at least in Sacramento. I’ll admit to not having looked at every comment so apologies if this is repetitive.
offerup.com
eBay is the way to go.
Only if you want to give them a way too large chunk of the sale.