My First Experience with Facebook Marketplace

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Flack
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My First Experience with Facebook Marketplace

Post by Flack »

I don't remember how people sold things before the advent of the internet. I mean, if you had a bunch of things to sell you held a garage sale or something, but I don't know how people sold, you know, a couple of coffee mugs. I'm guessing a lot of coffee mugs ended up in landfills back then.

Over the past twenty years I've bought and sold things though eBay, Amazon, and Craigslist, each of which have their own advantages and disadvantages. The one method I hadn't tried until this weekend was Facebook Marketplace, Facebook's free classified ads.

Earlier this week my wife and I paid a down payment on a new house. We're moving and downsizing, which means somewhere between a few and a lot of things have to go. As I walked through my house Friday with the eyes of a man about to pack up all his belongings, I began searching for things I could let go of. The first thing I literally bumped into was my Halloween dragon skeleton, acquired last year from Big Lots. It's 6 1/2 foot long from nose to tail and a little over 4 foot tall. I don't have a place for him in the new place, so I decided to roll the dice and put "Bruce" up for sale on Facebook Marketplace.

Here was the ad:
For Sale: Big Lots Halloween Dragon Skeleton - $100 (Oklahoma City)
If you're looking for an exciting Halloween decoration, this is it! I purchased this dragon skeleton last year from Big Lots for $149. This year, it is only available online ($149 + tax + shipping). 6 1/2 foot long from head to tail, and just over 4 foot tall. Press the hidden button and the eyes light up red, the jaw moves, and the dragon screeches for about 30 seconds. Available for pickup in OKC or, due to size, will deliver to Yukon/OKC/Piedmont.
And here were the results:

###############
# Buyer #1: Dana
###############

Dana: Is this available?
Me: Yes, the dragon is still for sale.
Dana: Where do you live? Oklahoma City? (*1)
Me: We're in Yukon up near NW Expressway (near Surrey Hills)
Me: A couple of miles west of the NW Expressway turnpike exit.
Dana: Ok sorry. Too far away.
Me: Where are you located?
Dana: Electra, TX (*2)
Me: Well, that rules out meeting you halfway.
Dana: Sorry to waste your time. I'm sure you will be able to sell your Dragon Skeleton pretty quick, it's cool!!

(*1: The ad says "Oklahoma City.")
(*2: Electra, TX is 196 miles away.)

##################
# Buyer #2: Charlene
##################

Charlene: Is this available? We bought this last year toolol
Charlene: Broke it trying to put it together. hubby had to make it a metal neck
Me: Yes, it's still available. This one's not broken, but I have seen people who have said theirs broke or arrived broken.
Charlene: Oh I cant buy it just making conversation
Charlene: I have marketplace set to notify me of new Halloween listings.
Charlene: I wish I had told my daughter no on urs
Charlene: ours
(one hour later)
Charlene: My clown room so far

Image

Me: (You have blocked Charlene)

##############
# Buyer #3: Sam
##############

Sam: Is this still for sale? Does it come apart ?
Sam: Will it fit in a car , or will it require a truck?
Me: I haven’t tried yet, but all the joints just popped together when I assembled it so I’m sure it’ll come apart. I’m on the way home now and will check.
Me: It looks like the legs come off fairly easily, but not much else. Good news is, I have a truck. If you're local and have cash, we can work something out.
Sam: I’m in Guthrie.
Sam: We can discuss gas money

(So Guthrie is 40 miles away, but there are a couple of restaurants there we love. I decided to be a nice guy, go have breakfast in Guthrie this morning, and deliver the dragon to Sam.)

Me: Sam, are you available tomorrow morning? Thinking about making a breakfast run out to Katie's Diner in Guthrie.
Sam: Yes. I work nights , so I will be home when you get up this way .
Sam: Full disclosure : I’m in the country . And the road kind of sucks .
Sam: But if you follow me home from Katie’s , I’ll throw in an extra $20 .
Sam: Deal ?
Me: Sounds good. We'll probably get there and eat around 7 so maybe we can meet at 8?
Sam: I’ll set an alarm and meet you .
Me: Perfect
Sam: Thank you

---

At 6:30 a.m., my wife and I loaded the dragon into my truck and drove to Guthrie for breakfast. Katie's Diner is always great. As scheduled, at 8 a.m. a guy with a shaved head and a beard down to his gut pulled up in a red Cavalier (no way that dragon would have fit in that thing). He looked "Bruce" over, handed me $120 in cash, and then said "follow me." Again he warned me about the roads, and said, "should be interesting!" and then laughed like a villain in a James Bond movie.

We followed Sam for 20 minutes, swerving back and forth down a dirt road like a Nascar driver trying to keep his tires warm. We took a rough road to a dirt road to a gravel road to another dirt road to finally a dirt path that lead through a pasture. We had to pull over once to let a gigantic tractor pass by. We were so far out in the middle of nowhere that Susan used some app to text out a quick will. In the end, everything worked out fine. Sam turned out to be a cool dude who loved the dragon.

---

Facebook Marketplace overall review: 3/5 stars. Although I sold the dragon within 24 hours, I also had two kooks contact me. Also, a younger, more single me would totally have nailed that girl in her creepy clown room.

RIP Bruce (2017-2018)

Image
"I failed a savings throw and now I am back."

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Flack
Posts: 8822
Joined: Tue Nov 18, 2008 3:02 pm
Location: Oklahoma
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Re: My First Experience with Facebook Marketplace

Post by Flack »

In retrospect, I see this is way too long for modern audiences. I will be retooling my approach to storytelling and comedy.
"I failed a savings throw and now I am back."

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AArdvark
Posts: 16178
Joined: Tue May 14, 2002 6:12 pm
Location: Rochester, NY

Re: My First Experience with Facebook Marketplace

Post by AArdvark »

Actually that was great. Don't change anything

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Billy Mays
Posts: 2647
Joined: Sun Aug 28, 2016 4:33 am

Re: My First Experience with Facebook Marketplace

Post by Billy Mays »

I agree with AArdvark, what you did here was the right thing to do.

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