[mikece]

If any one thing killed Craigslist it was Facebook Marketplace. I used Craigslist to buy and sell things for years; I didn't even know about FB Marketplace until a friend recommended it. I swallowed my hatred of FB to give it a try and it was easily a far better experience than CL at the time. Of late I've noticed that it's become a haven for scammers which is a pretty reliable indicator of success (the scammers go where the buyers are).

[enragedcacti]

Yup, if anything is killing CL, its Facebook Marketplace which is sad because Facebook Marketplace is an awful user experience even before you consider the scamming and spamming.

- The search doesn't support basic boolean modifiers such as AND, OR, NOT, or quotation (try to find a "day bed" without getting flooded with "bed" results)

- their filter complications (e.g. vehicle year) are completely hardcoded (try searching for a motorcycle instead of a vehicle and you completely lose vehicle specific filtering)

- they untoggle "local pickup only" whenever possible to force you into seeing "ships to you" results

- They will deliver you an infinite number of results even when the number of relevant results is few, including in violation of the filters you set like distance or vehicle make.

- More relevant results will end up interspersed with very irrelevant ones, forcing you to keep scrolling to find what you are looking for.

All of these things coincidentally have the result of keeping you on the site longer and seeing more ads in opposition to the implied goal of connecting buyers and sellers effectively. This is particularly bad in my opinion because every failure of FB to connect a buyer and seller is both a potential purchase of a new piece of junk and a potential trashing of the old, still functional piece of junk.

FB Marketplace is an amazing example of social network effects and the power of social networks to use them to demolish competition with a (intentionally? imo, yes) worse version of the service.

[datpuz]

I've been trying to sell a gaming laptop on FB Marketplace for local pickup (to avoid seller fees and shipping), and I've gotten about 20 scam attempts. Of the two legit interested buyers, one was a lowballer, and the other wanted me to trade it for a pair of headphones, an iPhone 8, and some shoes (wtf?).

[mikece]

"Will you take in trade?" is annoying when you have no interest in the stuff being offered. I recently bought a Canon 5D Mark III from a seller who also had another lens I wanted to buy. When we met I mentioned that I really wanted to get the other lens too but needed to sell my Sony a6400 and lens before I could justify it... turns out he wanted another a6400 and the lens would be a handy addition so we met one more time for a second transaction. I don't know if he would have accepted the offer for the trade at first had I offered it, but given the type of gear I was buying and what I knew he had for his primary gear I figured my stuff was way too down-market for what he shoots. Had I never asked I would have lost out... so I try not to get offended when people offer a trade as long as it's a reasonable trade.

[orev]

When someone asks for a trade, my typical response is that I will trade them for cash, then they can use that cash to trade for the other thing they want. It usually makes the point of why money was invented.

[Kiro]

Those shoes are worth tens of thousands now. Sneaker flipping is the easiest way to make money in 2022. You missed out.

[smileysteve]

This, I thought that Facebook gating would reduce spam but have gotten more simjack attempts than on Craigslist

[freemint]

Trading might be a way to flip stolen goods.

[wyager]

I listed a laptop on FBM, and out of probably 30 contacts, 29 were pretty obvious scammers. Really bad experience. I've had much better luck on CL.

[mikece]

I mainly have been buying and selling photography gear and outdoor power equipment of late but when I did list my 2019 15" MacBook Pro a couple years ago I got nothing but ridiculous low-ball offers and scam replies. The scams were the typical "I will pay over your asking price plus shipping via PayPal" to which I always responded with "I don't use PayPal but I will accept your offer if you can pay with Bitcoin, here's the payment address..." which always ended the conversation.

[Gordonjcp]

Facebook Marketplace just plain doesn't work for me. I want to look at things in my area but it can't work out that 400 miles away in a different country is not "in my area", and I never ever ever want to see "Delivered to your door" Argos crap.

[lazide]

eBay also still alive, also inundated with scammers (from what I’ve seen, mostly targeting sellers).