hey guys welcome or welcome back to my
channel my name is Blair and today I
want to share about how to get started
with selling on Facebook Marketplace
I have been in the process of doing a
whole house declutter and it has been
a really big big job where I've gone
through every drawer every cabinet every
closet every everything in our entire
house and I have truly gotten rid of
anything that is not being used by me or
one of my family members on a regular
basis so of course some of the things
that I came across were broken or
expired you can probably hear my little
girl playing outside of the door
um things that were broken expired
obvious trash of course had to go and
then there were the items that didn't
have a lot of value or didn't feel like
they would be worthwhile to sell and so
those just went ahead and got donated
and then there are the items that are
left and those are all of the items that
I have been selling on Facebook
Marketplace in the past week to two
weeks I have made at least eight hundred
to a thousand dollars just selling
unwanted items in our home on Facebook
Marketplace
some of those sales have been two
hundred dollars or one hundred dollars
and some of them have been as little as
five dollars or seven dollars but the
reality is it all really does add up
so to first start off this video I'm
just going to show you this is an item I
was just cleaning out our closet and
this is an item that I'm going to sell
on Facebook Marketplace it is a Dooney
and Burke triple zip cross body
bag purse and it's in really good
condition as you can see
there's nothing like super obviously
wrong with it I think there's a little
Mark here
um but it's really
actually in really good condition and it
definitely still has a lot of life left
in it
so with selling this bag the very first
thing that I'm going to go ahead and do
is photograph the bag so I like to put
it somewhere where there's really good
lighting natural light is your best
friend so you'll want to I just have a
push pin in my wall right by my front
door and I often just open up my front
door because then the natural light
comes pouring in and I photograph the
bag you'll want to photograph Whatever
item it is multiple angles if there are
any blemishes or chips or any problems
and Imperfections with the item that
you're selling you definitely want to
make sure to document that with a photo
that's very clear and easy to see in
focus all of that I'll make sure to
include pictures of the inside of the
purse and the outside the strap all of
it and then one thing that's also really
helpful is to include if possible a
screenshot from an online listing for
the same item so the way that I do this
is I happen to know that this bag this
is the older style but this is called
the north south zipper bag and it's from
the brand Dooney and Burke
I'm gonna go online and search for that
and find that on their website and I can
see that currently the retail price is
82 dollars
so I always take a screenshot of that as
well to include in my listing on
Facebook Marketplace because it helps
people to see the deal that they're
getting if your item is in really good
condition and then they can see the
screenshot of the listing online and
they see that you're selling it for say
twenty dollars and it's being listed
online for fifty dollars they're saving
30 bucks right of course it is second
hand but a lot of times secondhand stuff
is still in awesome condition so that's
the next thing I do is I grab that
screenshot
once I have the photographs and the
screenshot I go over to Facebook
Marketplace and this is where a little
bit of market research comes in super
handy because it's helpful if you want
your items to sell fast you need to know
what to price your items at what price
point makes sense this is where I think
a lot of people get messed up I think
they price their items too high and then
people don't purchase them and then they
become frustrated with Facebook
Marketplace and end up just donating the
items anyway and making zero dollars so
if you're willing to have a little bit
of patience and look into the item and
what the price point it's selling for
currently is I think you could find that
you might have a lot more success on
Facebook Marketplace
so I head over to Facebook Marketplace
and I search the name of the item so
here I'm searching like the Dunya Burke
crossbody
north south zip bag it will show you the
items that that have been closest to you
in in distance and proximity first which
is helpful because in different areas of
the country different things go for
different amounts of course you know the
markets are different so once you do
that you can easily see okay so this has
gone for this much and that one's gone
for that much and you can kind of find a
good starting point for your item you
also have to take into consideration
whether you're willing to sit with your
item in your home for three four months
and just wait it out until someone is
ready to purchase or whether you want to
price the item to sell now I am
definitely more inclined to be in that
ladder group where I am ready to sell
these items I want them out of my house
I don't want the mental burden of having
to manage them anymore or any of that so
I'm like ready I usually undercut the
price and make it pretty cheap so I'm
going to go ahead and list this bag for
thirty dollars I really would normally
list it for 25 and the reason why I'm
listing it for 30 instead is because I'm
gonna put it up for 30 and I'm gonna
give it about 48 hours
and I don't get any bites after about
two days time I'll go into the listing
and I'll knock it down to 25 in the
listing and that can be a really
powerful tool for pushing people to
purchase your item when they see that
you've knocked down the price because
Facebook Marketplace actually will show
the new price and then right beside it
the old price with a slash through it so
just like on any other website marketing
is super powerful and for someone to see
oh it used to be even more expensive
than it is now that tends to work really
well I have had a lot of success with
items that have been sitting for a few
days
marking them down five or ten bucks
sometimes more depending on the price
that I'm selling the item at if I'm
selling it you know 200 item five
dollars doesn't make a big amount of
difference but a thirty dollar item from
30 to 25 or from thirty dollars to
twenty dollars feels more significant
so once you've knocked it down I think a
lot of times people are more likely to
go ahead and check out okay so that's
the pricing pricing and photographs I
would say are the two most important
pieces probably photographs being number
one I have seen some janky pictures on
Facebook Marketplace and oftentimes I
don't think the item that is being sold
is in bad condition but the photographs
are so bad I just see that item come up
week after week on Marketplace when I
refresh the listings in my area because
no one's buying it because the pictures
are so bad so it's really important you
don't have to be a photographer you can
use your cell phone usually your camera
on your cell phone is Stellar anyway and
use natural light natural light that's
not direct is what you want you don't
want to go put your item or stand in the
Sun so if you have a patio in the shade
but it's bright that can be really
helpful or if it's a cloudy day that's a
great time to take pictures as well
so you've gotten your pictures taken and
you've put them into your listing and
you've chosen your price and now you
want to name the listing and you just
want to use Search terms that people are
going to use I've had some I've seen
before in the marketplace where
someone's had this exact bag or
something very similar and instead of
using the name for the bag they just
call it red purse
the problem is that your customer the
person who's going to purchase a purse
like that most likely isn't searching on
Facebook red purse they're probably
searching Dooney and Burke crossbody or
crossbody bag or some people are even
searching the exact term because they
know they want the north south zip so
you want to use very clear language that
is good for people who are searching not
red purse you want to put Dooney and
Burke red
north south crossbody it's hard for me
to think of all those words but that's
like what you want to name it something
that's very descriptive and easy for
people to find when they're searching
now moving on to all of the other little
pieces like the condition it's in the
material that's made out of you can fill
those things out at your discretion I
really feel like the interface for
Facebook Marketplace is very very
intuitive you're just working your way
through the prompts you can add a video
you can add all kinds of things to your
listing but I'm just going to talk about
a pretty basic listing and just kind of
show you how it works
so then at the bottom you have the
option for a description and this is
another place that I see a lot of times
people don't include a description or
they don't include a detailed
description and then
I see that listing again it just keeps
coming up week after week and I think if
you would improve your photos and if you
would improve your description I think
maybe it would sell So within the
description you want to be descriptive
there's you know a crazy idea so you
want to explain what the product is talk
about it in a conversational tone so for
this I would say this is a great purse
I've used it for traveling a few times
but it's in like new condition it's
perfect for your keys your cell phone
and a small wallet it's lightweight the
nylon can be washed easily I would just
you want to sell it right that's that's
what you're doing you're on a
Marketplace so you want to sell it and
you really want to use marketing style
language in order for people to think oh
that's you know great writing that it's
in excellent condition writing that it's
super great for travel those kinds of
things can really pique people's
interest and think oh maybe that would
actually suit my needs for the thing
that I'm looking for also of course you
want to include in the description if
there's any imperfections if there's
like like I said earlier chips stains
problems if it's Appliance and some part
of it doesn't work or a part of it's
missing very clearly very very clearly
you want to state that and then at the
very bottom of your description on your
listing it's important to put some
parameters around how you are selling
this item if you're planning on shipping
it it's really simple Facebook makes it
super easy you just choose the weight of
the item and then you choose whether you
want to cover the shipping out of what
the buyer pays you for the item or
whether they should cover the shipping
separately so it's sort of like are you
going to give them free shipping
included shipping or not
at the bottom of every one of my
listings I write the same little blurb
and I'll put it on the screen here
so I always write unless it's not being
shipped if it's a large item I get rid
of the first part it just says porch
pickup but I write shipping or porch
pickup venmo or cash absolutely no holds
without prepayment via venmo if you
don't tell me a specific time you're
coming to pick up the item today I will
sell it to someone else unless you've
prepaid check out my other listings too
you may think that's a little bit snarky
and a little bit strong yes it is
because I have had the experience
because I've sold so much on Facebook
Marketplace at this point where someone
will say hey I want to come pick up
this item and then they don't show up
and then someone else asks can I come
buy the item and I'm like well I don't
know if the first person still wants it
or not or I don't know what's going on
with them I try to reach out to them
they don't get back to me so then I tell
the second person yeah you can come pick
it up and then sure enough two hours
later the first person's like I'm on my
way to come pick it up well the second
person has already picked it up and so
it's like this chaotic thing so by
putting it in the listing that listen
I'm not holding this item for you unless
you pay me has worked so well because
people who really want it are totally
willing to jump over to their venmo app
and venmo usually these items are you
know 10 20 25 30 there's a few of course
that are more expensive but the things
that I've been selling typically are not
and so they'll just shoot me you know 20
on venmo and then I usually take a
bright lime green sticky note and write
their name on it just because I'm
selling so many things right now I put
the sticky note on the item and then I
tell them hey let me know when you're on
your way over to pick it up
and then they can come pick it up and
there's no issues and it's not any
problem as far as who is getting the
item and when they're picking it up
which leads me to the next point of your
listing of course you'll want to choose
whether you're going to do shipping or
not you definitely want to add some kind
of like how you're going to handle it at
the end at the bottom of your
description that's what I've done as you
can see it's worked out super well for
me and then you go ahead and publish
that
um listing now when you publish your
listing a really great idea is to join
your local buy sell trade groups your
buy nothing groups if you're selling it
for free or if you want people to come
pick it up and haul it away themselves
you want to join a bunch of those local
Kids Consignment groups on Facebook
because then you can post that item to
all of those groups when you post it to
Marketplace so then people can find it
by searching on Marketplace and they can
also find it within those groups I've
had a huge amount of success with that
as well
okay so now your listing is live and you
are let's say it's this item in
particular which I would be willing to
ship of course it's very small and
lightweight it would be super easy for
me to package this up and ship it and
also I would be willing to sell it to
someone who's local who wants to come
over and do a porch pickup so let's talk
about those two different options if
someone is has purchased the item and
they live across the country and I need
to ship it to them then when they check
out on Facebook I will get an email that
says someone has purchased your
crossbody bag and you need to ship it
within three days and then within that
email there's a link to a already
created shipping label you click on it
you click print and it prints out the
shipping label that you'll use to
package up this item as well as a
packing slip
and so then from there it's just easy
peasy you want to make sure you package
the item really well so to do this I
just keep whatever
like Amazon bags that come into my life
if I order from target.com if I get any
boxes I just keep them all neatly stored
in this little drawer that I have and I
recycle all of those for Facebook
Marketplace so when people order from me
on there I just use I find a box or a
bag that is the right size and it's
great it's so so easy so if someone
ordered it for shipping I would print
out that shipping label I would put it
with packing tape on the front of a
little bag I would put this probably
wrap this up in
um like a Ziploc bag or something like
that to protect it in case the outer bag
would tear it would still protect this
or wrap it up in tissue paper something
of that nature just to keep it safe if I
had the dust jacket for it still I would
put that on it but I don't
um and then slide the packing slip into
the package and package it up and then
you just go and drop it off at your
local UPS store or at USPS at your post
office if it's less than one pound if
it's less than 16 ounces you can just
have your mail person pick it up without
having to schedule a pickup if it's more
than that you can just go to the USPS
app or website and schedule a pickup
really easy so shipping is really no big
deal now on the port pickup side so
let's say someone purchased this bag and
they were coming to pick it up from me
the ways that they could do that are
like I said earlier they could prepay by
venmoing me let's say I sell this for 25
they venmo me 25 bucks I put their name
on it let's say I sold it to someone
named Susan I put Susan's name on it on
a sticky note and then I tell her hey
text me when you are planning on coming
over and I'll make sure to set it out on
the front porch and that's that then
when she tells me she's coming over I
shoot over my address I put her this
into like a grocery bag usually
something obviously to protect it I
don't just Chuck it out on my front
porch and then I set it on the front
porch with her name her sticky note name
on the front
and we have a home security system with
cameras so it's really it makes it super
easy because I can see when Susan comes
and she just picks up her bag if she's
already venmo'd me then it's a done deal
if not then she'll just slip cash under
the mat and then I'll grab the cash and
move on with my life it's really truly
super super simple if you're not
comfortable with doing porch pickups
then you could either do them at like a
business if you have access to like a
local business you could do a Meetup
where you meet up in the grocery store
parking lot or something like that or
you could just not do them all together
and you could just ship items that are
reasonable for you to ship and the rest
of it you could just let it go another
way you got to do what feels comfortable
to you I live in a very very safe small
town and 99 of the people who do have
done a porch pickup from me are people
who I have like 10 mutual friends with
these are good people they're just
normal most of them are just moms like
me in the area who are picking up you
know whatever I'm selling so I really
feel super safe about it especially
since I'm not opening my door to them
I'm not there it's just a porch pickup
they leave the money and take the item
or they venmo me and take the item I
completely understand that that's not
everyone's case some people live in big
cities or in areas that are less safe so
maybe you don't do porch pickup or maybe
you have people come and pick up from
your workplace or something like that or
you meet up like I said there are all
those different options as you're doing
Facebook Marketplace
I will say people
on Facebook Marketplace can be a bit
tricky and sometimes frustrating you'll
find that folks will go on there and
they'll ask you questions
um the automatic if you're on a listing
and you're interested in it and you want
to message the person who has listed
that item the automatic message is is
this still available which is I find
pretty obnoxious because I'm like why
would they make that the automatic
message to me if the listing is still up
it's still available because as soon as
I sell it I mark it as sold
every single time but I guess that's not
always the case so you can so people
will say is this still available is this
still available so um that's another
thing you can put in the description of
your listing if you are on top of
marking it as sold when it gets sold you
can put if you see this listing it is
still available I've seen people do that
a lot as well
but anyway people will ask you all kinds
of questions
um just normal I'm very used to this
I've been selling online for years now
and so I'm very used to people's
different kinds of questions that they
have when they're purchasing online they
can't see something or hold it you know
whatever and so you just go ahead and
answer those to the best of your ability
if you don't know an answer to someone's
question you can just say hey I'm not
sure about that
um but I think being friendly using a
smiley face here and there using the
person's name not just responding like
yes no I find that does well with people
because it makes them feel comfortable
like they can ask you questions and chat
with you
um and all of that so that's sort of
from beginning to end sort of my
experience with selling on Facebook
Marketplace
we have sold Furniture we have sold kids
toys we have sold clothing I have sold a
camera lens I've sold guitar accessories
I have sold I mean I could just go on
and on there's just been so many
different things that I've sold and it
has been such a great experience I
haven't really had any issues other than
a few times when people don't get back
to me and then they get mad at me for
selling the item but I'm like
I told you no holds I'm not you know
people will message me on a Monday and I
will have sold it you know they'll
message me on a Monday that they want to
buy it and then I won't hear from them
on Tuesday I won't hear from them on
Wednesday and then someone else comes
along on Thursday and then they message
me finally again like almost a week
later it's like Saturday and they're all
upset and I'm like
uh it's you could have gotten back to me
if it was that important to you could
have gotten back to me
um so that's sort of the overview I hope
that's helpful with getting started
really once you list just a couple of
things it does get so much easier
because you you just realize how simple
it is and again you can do the porch
pickup or you can do the shipping or you
can offer both depending on the size and
scale of the item and how you want to do
it on your end but there is a real
Market on Facebook Marketplace people
are eager and willing to buy many of the
items that I put up are sold within a
matter of hours and many are picked up
within 12 hours a day it is a great way
that I have found to make back some of
the money on the items that I'm no
longer using but are still in good
condition and still hold some value in
my home and as I've been decluttering
it's really nice to put money back in my
pocket for these things that I'm getting
rid of so I highly recommend giving it a
shot you know I think clothing is a
really great place to start because if
you don't want to do the porch pickup
thing or if you're just unsure about it
clothing is easy to photograph you just
put it on a hanger hanging up on like a
push pin on your wall take some good
pictures of it you know share a
screenshot of that garment on its
original website if possible
price it low and just people will pretty
much purchase it you know like I've had
a really good luck with clothing and
jackets and fleeces and things like that
so
that's my experience selling on Facebook
Marketplace this is sort of a brief
video just sharing what that has been
like for me and my best tips and tricks
for you I hope that this is helpful to
you I highly recommend it you can also
find some great finds for yourself we
have been looking for a few different
pieces of furniture and one of the
pieces of furniture that we did actually
purchase off of Facebook Marketplace is
an authentic mid-century dresser that is
beautiful it is this beautiful wood and
we use it in our back room as like a TV
console and every time I look at it I
love it it has history it's real solid
wood and it's such a conversation piece
and we got our Facebook Marketplace for
so much cheaper than I would have gotten
it from like an antique store or
something like that so there's some
really great finds on there for you as
well
anyway my kids are starting to scream
they are with an adult out there but I
just I'm going to wrap this video up
hope this was helpful all the best of
luck to you selling on Facebook
Marketplace I hope you're able to make
some great sales good luck and I will
talk to you soon
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