Rob and Melissa Stephenson from Flea Market Flipper talk about Facebook Marketplace vs. eBay: Pros, Cons & Which Makes You More Money.
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Facebook Marketplace vs. eBay: Pros, Cons & Which Makes You More Money
Rob: What's up, pro flippers? On today's episode, we're talking about Facebook Marketplace versus eBay.
Rob: All right, so on today's episode, we are talking about Facebook Marketplace selling versus eBay selling. Now-
Melissa: So this just came up just recently because we are, I know some of you may know are moving our warehouse shop over to our new house that we just bought, and we are selling.
We're trying to liquidate some of the stuff on Marketplace. So we've been selling a lot more on Marketplace. Normally, we used to sell a lot of our big stuff on Marketplace, and then we kind of just gravitated more towards eBay, and we're gonna, we're gonna dive into that. But we've been selling more on Marketplace, and I don't like it.
Mm-hmm. I don't like it at all, so we'll dive into it.
Rob: So there's a reason why we sell probably 95% 98% of our items on eBay because of Marketplace. Now, like Melissa said, we used to sell a lot on Marketplace. We used to sell a lot of larger items on Marketplace, but it seems like, and I don't know, you guys can let us know in your local areas if it's similar to this, you find a lot of flaky people on Marketplace.
A lot of people that will say they'll show up, or they'll tell you a time that they wanna be there, and then they ghost you, and we've had problems in the past with it as well, but at the same time it feels like more now than ever, and maybe it's just because we actually threw some stuff on there, more recently, when we're trying to liquidate at the shop or get stuff out of the shop and move it over to the new house.
So that is what we have found out, is that Marketplace is not as great as eBay. Now, pros and cons, let's talk about some of those real quick on this episode. That's what we really wanted to dive into.
Melissa: Yeah. So on Facebook Marketplace, we do, that is something we actually do promote in the beginning when you're getting started because it is a lower barrier to entry.
You snap a couple pictures. You list it. There are no fees. There's no, you're not shipping. You're meeting up with somebody. So it's actually easier until it's not, until it's more annoying. But it's a easier way to start, 'cause eBay's a little bit more complex to learn if you're just starting. But in our opinion, it's so worth it, so.
Rob: Now, Facebook has also gone into wanting people to ship items. Now, that's something that we've never done. We don't ship on Facebook Marketplace. That's what we ship for, is on eBay, and it's very hard to get-
Melissa: We don't recommend, we don't recommend shipping on Mark, on Facebook.
Rob: We do not. It's very hard to get any support on Facebook.
eBay, you definitely can always get support to get somebody on the phone, to where you can have somebody helping you. So that is why we choose eBay for shipping, shipping items, selling and shipping items, versus Facebook Marketplace. But Facebook Marketplace is more of the local market. That's where, they're actually divided and subdivided into, towns and areas within a radius of wherever you're at.
It lets you do that radius to find those items in the local area. Now, we love buying on Facebook Marketplace. We find amazing deals all the time on Facebook Marketplace, but actually, the selling portion of it, we do not like it as much as we, we definitely promote or that we like actually selling on eBay.
Melissa: Yeah. So just for some examples, so we've been listing a couple things. Last week, we listed a four-wheeler, and it's needed, something's broken on it, and, we disclose everything, like that it's not running, and I put that in all caps in the title, "Not running, needs this, been sitting for years," and you- At first we listed it for $200 and I got so many messages, I got overwhelmed.
And then I pulled it off for a little bit, and then he's like, "Well, let's ask a little bit more." And so I asked.
Rob: Well, I originally told her to list it for $350. Oh. And she actually went $200 when, Really? Yes. You gave me that? Yes.
Melissa: Oh, I thought it was too much- And then $200 ... because it wasn't running.
No. And-
It was a nice... It was a good brand, right?
Rob: It is. It was a Suzuki. So something that we used for years.
Melissa: And somebody who knew how to fix it could fix it.
Rob: Absolutely. Yeah. It sat for years. I think we bought it when Roxy was born or right after Roxy was born. We got it, we used it for a couple years, with her playing on it. And my nieces, used it, when we first got it. And then we actually put it up for, like, five years. And then when I went to start it after we pulled it back out, it bent one of the little push rods inside of the motor. But this was a very good brand. We bought it from the local flea market. I probably paid, like, $275 for it when I bought it 15 years ago, 13 years ago, whatever it was.
So I didn't pay that much for it. I bought it at the local flea market. We got some use out of it, and then it sat, and then it did have a problem with the engine. Now, Melissa disclosed that, that it was not running, but she got messages out the wazoo, for different questions and different things, and then people saying they would be there, and then they don't be there.
So that's one of those things that, yeah, were you gonna add anything to that, that sale?
Yeah, I, I pulled it off for a little bit and then put it up for $400, and then, some people offered less, which is what you do. Yeah. Which is... But it's interesting to see people, they said, " You're gonna take $200 because the," whatever reason for this.
And I was like, "Okay, that's not how you get a response." Yeah. If you... Like, be nice. You can be nice and offer, "Hey, 200 cash today," you know, but by telling somebody and being rude, that's not gonna get you a sale or not gonna get you the item if you want it. Anyway, so there's just people like that that are funny.
And then, oh, and trying to actually schedule to meet up. Somebody w- wanted to meet up, and they said, "I can be there after work." We scheduled at 3:00, and then he said, "I'll message you once I leave." Didn't realize he was, like, an hour and a half away from where we were. I, 'cause I gave him an address to, a public address to meet up, a nearby store.
And he's like, "I'm, like, 45 minutes out." So that's gonna be, like, almost 4:00. Yeah ... by, by the time. And I was like, "Ugh," 'cause you were trying to leave and take a load over to the new place, and I was like, "That's not gonna work," 'cause it was gonna work at 3:00. So we had to rearrange where to meet, so it was just a little bit different.
But it was just annoying, so more than that. So it's just trying to get your schedule to meet up with somebody, whereas on eBay, you ship it out, and you don't have to worry about meeting up with anybody. You don't have to talk to anybody. You don't have to deal with anybody. Now, you will occasionally have to deal with buyers and if they, there's an issue or they want a refund or something like that.
But the, it's a lot less hassle.
For us, we have five days to actually get the item shipped out after we sell it, so that is what we love. We love the people paying for the item. Now, you definitely wanna make sure that you're advertising the right way, make sure you're listing your items the proper way. Great pictures, great listings, telling any imperfections about the item. You wanna make sure all that stuff is done so the buyer knows exactly what they're getting, 'cause that's the difference between marketplace, and we've talked about this in the past as well. Marketplace is where people are picking it up before they pay you.
Now, we do not get to do that on eBay, or buyers don't get to do that on eBay. They're paying you, and then they're hoping that you're disclosing everything about the item before they actually pay you and wait for it to actually get shipped to them. So you definitely want to make sure everything that you're doing, your listings are good, your descriptions are good, your pictures are good, disclosing everything that you can about that item because you do not want upset buyers, especially after they pay you and then a week later they get their item.
Sometimes even longer than that for some of the bigger items that we do. You want them to be happy, with that item. So that's one of the biggest things between eBay and Facebook Marketplace. Yeah.
Melissa: But I just have to say, it's a lot easier to deal with people.
Rob: 100%.
Melissa: And it's on your own timeframe. Like, you're shipping it out.
You're like, "Okay, I'm gonna spend this afternoon shipping stuff out," versus trying to schedule meetups with people. And then, and I like to be fair, so a marketplace, like this person messaged me, so I wanna message them back, and then they don't get message back, and this, other people are waiting. So that's another thing with marketplace is we don't really hold items because you never know who's gonna actually show up. So I'll tell some, I won't tell three people the same time. I'll tell them, you know, "If this person's coming at this time, if you wanna come, you know, whatever, 30 minutes later, an hour later, I can let you know if it's still available," or something like that.
Like, I try not to hold the... I don't hold the item. Yeah. But I also don't rearrange for somebody to come at the same time.
Rob: Man, I bought something off of Marketplace just recently. What did I buy? And the guy said, somebody said they'd come later. If you can get here before that, you're welcome to buy it.
And I was like, "Man, that's not good."
Melissa: Did you buy it?
Rob: I can't remember what it was. Did I... What did I buy recently on Marketplace? Did I buy something to flip?
Melissa: I mean, you do. That's where you buy stuff
Rob: I know, but I can't remember what I bought. Anyways, it was pretty funny when the guy told me, "If you can be here before that..."
But to be fair, there's people that sell on Marketplace know there are a lot of flaky people who will set up an appointment to come pick up an item, and then they'll never show up. So, to be fair, I think the safest way to do it is the first one who can get to you with cash. I wouldn't be giving your address out.
That was another thing that I were gonna, was gonna talk about some safety precautions. When you are selling on Marketplace, make sure that you're meeting in a public, public place. And if you can't, make sure you're not alone if you have somebody come to your house to sell an item or pick up an item, the same thing, make sure you take somebody with you or meet in a public place.
You'd want to make sure that you're taking the right precautions that you do not put yourself in a bad situation with that. Now, I've been doing this for three decades. We've only had one incident that was really questionable, but nothing really happened. But like I said, we've only had one incident in three decades, that was questionable.
Other than that, that's just why we've actually changed. We used to bring people to the house. We used to do stuff like that. But now we try to be as safe as possible. Meet in a public place, fire department, police station, a strip mall, something like that, whether you're buying or selling. It's just a safe way to do it.
So make sure you're doing that. And then we deal with cash. I don't like to take, if I'm selling something, I don't usually like to take Cash App. I don't like to take all the other thing. If you're younger and you use those apps all the time and you understand them, perfectly okay. But we don't use, the only apps that we use, eBay, PayPal.
PayPal's old school for eBay, but we still have PayPal accounts, that I can verify the money goes into the account.
Melissa: And we know it's, there's PayPal protection too, so.
Rob: We do, and we know it's there. So those are the really only ways, but I still don't like PayPal when I'm doing a sale on eBay or selling something.
I mean, sorry, in a sale on Facebook Marketplace. Oh, on Facebook. I typically want cash, and I tell people ahead of time, make sure that you have cash. If you don't want cash, and a lot of people that I bought from have said, "I don't want cash. I want Cash App," or, "I want Venmo," or any of those other stuff, you can honor that.
But like I said, for us, it's just safer to have cash in hand when we're actually selling something.
Melissa: If, if somebody does come to pay for your item and they're, they, they want to pay you a different way, just make sure that the item is, or the mi- money is actually in that account, not an email, not a confirmation email.
Open your account, open Zelle or whatever you're using. Open the bank, open whatever, software it is. Make sure that it's inside there because we've had that happen before. Yeah. Somebody for that glove. Glove,
Rob: yeah.
Melissa: Somebody said, "Oh, I sent you the money. It was $300. I sent it to you. You should see it.
You got a confirmation email." "Yep, we got a confirmation email. Nope, the money is not in my account." So-
Rob: Scammer ...
Melissa: it's just a scam. Yeah. They try to get you, and then they try to get you to return, like, through gift cards and whatnot. So it's just not, it's not worth messing with, so that's why we just like cash.
But then there's also,
Rob: If you don't have the way to verify it while you're with the person that you're selling it to, just don't do it. The safe thing is to just take cash. If you can, if you know how to navigate your phone and you have the apps on your phone and you can look in your bank account, like Melissa said, don't do emails because people can make fake emails telling you the confirmation that the money's there, and typically, if they are doing that, it's not there.
You need to make sure you open the account and make sure that the funds are in the account 'cause some people will send you emails and tell you, "Oh, you gotta go buy gift certificates to release the funds," or you have to verify something else to release the funds. That is not how it works. You want either cash in hand, or you want to see that the money is immediately into your account before you release the item.
Melissa: And then back to your point about meeting in a public place. A lot of times people will want your address just to see how far it is to you. So instead of giving them your address because you hate it when people just, "Oh, I'm here." They show up and you didn't arr- even arrange a time. Yep. And they're just like, "Oh, I'm here."
You're like, "No, we didn't arrange a time." So you'll give them a location that's close by. So, like, if there's a gas station at the end of the block, or there's something that's, like, really close, we'll give them that address so that if they do end up just showing up and no communication, that they're at a public place.
They're not just showing up at your front door. Exactly. So that's just a little tip for Facebook, so.
Rob: Yep.
Melissa: One other thing we didn't really talk about was that you can actually get more money for your items on eBay versus Marketplace, which is why we source Marketplace and sell on eBay.
Rob: Absolutely.
Melissa: So, and why would that be?
Rob: Yeah. Local market. We're back to the local market. Facebook is split up into, the local market area. So within a radius of wherever you're at, you can extend Facebook Marketplace I think out to, like, 250 miles, when you're on the, not the app on your phone. I don't think you can do it on your phone, but if you're on the computer looking at Facebook Marketplace, I think you can extend it to, like, 250-mile radius of where you're at, which is huge.
But typically, it's within a 5, a 10, a 20, a 30, 40-mile radius of where you're at. That's what you set your, your filters to to find those items in the local area. So if I'm looking for something specific, it might be three states over and I can't see it because Facebook won't show it to me unless it's in that local, the radius of what I'm looking for on Facebook Marketplace.
Now, eBay is where they'll show it to me no matter where I'm at. Sometimes you'll see stuff in other countries, it doesn't matter, still here in the United States. As long as you can get it, yep. Exactly. If they're offering shipping and they know how to ship, statewide or countrywide, you definitely can buy stuff from Canada, from Europe, from all over the place.
If you have the abilities to, if the buyer or the seller has the abilities to ship it. For us, we can ship with global shipping into other countries, into Canada, into Europe and all the other places. We do have the ability to ship to some of those places with global shipping. So that's why it opens up such a, or
Melissa: international shipping now.
Rob: Sorry, international. That's why it opens up such a bigger marketplace for you when you're buying from the local market, very, very small market, and taking it to the larger nationwide or global market.
Melissa: That was something else that happened sometime on Facebook. People will, you know, message, they're trying to arrange to meet up, and then all of a sudden they look and it, like, "Oh," you send like a address that's close by.
"Oh, you're three hours away from me. I didn't realize that." I'm like, "The zip code is right there. You can just look at the zip code." But sometimes they, people don't. I guess they, I don't know if they have their, maybe on the phone it's set wider ranges. No or wider distances. And then I had somebody even just today, I have a listing up for that flooring.
It's like, we just want it gone, it's, I put 50 bucks on there and just put in the description what it was, and then they were like, "How much?" And I was like, "It's right there. There's like two sentences, pictures, and $50." Like, that's it. So, but I don't know. It's just interesting to de- to deal with people.
So, to conclude, Facebook is great for getting started, for quick cash, for some of the larger stuff if you're not quite ready to freight ship. You can make some quick money that way, and we do recommend Using it, but then eBay's so much better to sell on.
Rob: If you're really trying to make some money and do a business out of it, eBay is the place to be.
Yeah. So, and we did... I, I don't know if we added, the first thing we listed on Marketplace was that four-wheeler. Had a ton of responses at $200. Melissa took it back down, especially 'cause we couldn't meet the people either.
Melissa: Yeah. There we- we're gone for the next day, and I was like, "This is just too annoying to try to arrange."
Rob: It was through the weekend. Yeah, it was like a- We were gone for the next multiple days ... yeah. Couple, couple days. She put it back up for $400. We had the first person came out and paid us the $400 for it. So we did, we do still do sales. It's not like we're telling you don't do sales. But that's one of those things that, yeah, you're... it's way easier to do eBay than Facebook Marketplace, but you can make some fast cash. We sold that one. Once she relisted it, I think that guy came over later that afternoon. Yeah ... and paid us 400 bucks, so, for that four-wheeler. So you can make quick crash- cash, depending on what you're selling, in the local market.
But, if I would've sold that thing on eBay, I don't know. I might have got an extra 100 bucks, 500 bucks, but then I would've had to ship it. Yeah, so it wouldn't have been worth it. It, it wouldn't have been worth it for this specific item. Now, if it, this item was running, I probably could've got a lot more money on eBay, probably more towards $1,500.
And then it would've really made sense for me to be able to ship it for 200 bucks, 250 bucks, something like that, to somebody. Made a lot more money and charged them for shipping on top of it. So but this one worked out just great how it was, the sale on Facebook Marketplace, and we made quick cash.
So that's why we teach people in the beginning, you can make quick cash, get your bankroll up while you're doing Facebook Marketplace, and then start selling, lower, dollar items on eBay to really learn how eBay works. And then that's when you're really starting out your business. You're starting out your side hustle, and that's where you can get really, really good, just by starting out laying the foundations on eBay because that's where we sell our stuff.
That's where the majority of our income comes from is eBay, and it's a, it's an amazing place to be able to do that.
Melissa: Yeah, and there are other platforms as well. If you sell clothes, there's Poshmark. If you... although, I think I've seen some recent stuff with Poshmark going with some craziness, but Depop.
There are others, and we've cross-posted on many of them, but eBay's always just been our. For sure ... our best one, so we don't even cross-post anymore. We only list some stuff on Marketplace and then 95% on eBay because it just works the best for us. So if you haven't opened your eBay account, this is your, your cue, your permission.
This summer, not this summer, now. Open it so that you can sell this summer and really grow your eBay side hustle. And if you wanna see some more about our business model and how we do it, you can check out our free workshop in the link in the show notes below, and thanks for hanging out with us.
Rob: You're amazing. Thanks for hanging with us today. We cannot wait to see you until the next episode.