Too many places to look

Even though prices on second hand parts appear to, for the most part, be falling. CL appears to be waning in listing popularity in favor of Facebook marketplace, let go, offer up and even nextdoor. (I've noticed this trend accelerated after personals were removed from CL, just saying). Unfortunately these other applications don't have a searchtempest type tool to cast a wide range geographic search, and it's obviously also more time to search the same key words into all the various applications. It would really be beneficial to sellers and buyers to have one centrally utilized application to buy and sell.

Vent/rant over. 

My vent is that I don't use Facebook, it's hard to shop for used cars and assorted stuff

Not only do I not want to have a Facebook account, but the fb marketplace is terrible. 

My main experience with FB marketplace is that people want free stuff delivered for free as well, ideally a couple of hundred miles away. I had some luck selling a handful of items on there, but my experience selling car parts on FB marketplace has been rather terrible.

I sold the Vette & the 22s off the Suburban on FB Marketplace & have bought some parts there before. Everything went well for me. I like that they now have ratings for buyers & sellers. 

Facebook marketplace is the wild wild west, never use a transmission filter as 95% of manuals are in fact listed as automatics

captdownshift said:

Facebook marketplace is the wild wild west, never use a transmission filter as 95% of manuals are in fact listed as automatics

This is why I check the entire ad and the interior photos.  

There’s a disproportionate number of female names selling cool cars for cheap. I suppose they could be posting for a guy, but I’m always skeptical. 

In reply to Woody :

Harkens back to one of best CL search terms "divorce" 

Apart from the 2 times i got lucky selling weird stuff for cheap, this pretty much sums up my experience with facebook market place.

In general FB has been a good place for parts but I usually look in specific groups rather than the general marketplace.

dculberson said:

Not only do I not want to have a Facebook account, but the fb marketplace is terrible. 

I also feel really weird communicating with a stranger who can potentially view a whole lot more about me than I might want or realize.

I bought my 2018 challenge car and probably 20% of its parts on FB marketplace. I've sold my last two parts cars on it. It really is the wild wild west. Some really good deals to be had out there.

Anything on Facebook, marketplace or otherwise, is terrible. Only slightly kidding.

One of the big changes on CL is the fact that items are removed much quicker than they were in the past.  So there is less to view, but what you do find tends to be actually available.

FB has more and better deals, however, which is a shame, as it is a real PITA to search for anything specific.  Especially since FB likes changing the title for everything into "Chevy Avalanche"

Cooter said:

One of the big changes on CL is the fact that items are removed much quicker than they were in the past.  So there is less to view, but what you do find tends to be actually available.

FB has more and better deals, however, which is a shame, as it is a real PITA to search for anything specific.  Especially since FB likes changing the title for everything into "Chevy Avalanche"

At least the price is fair... 123,456,789...!

In reply to mikeatrpi :

That is also a FB issue.  You aren't allowed to leave the price blank, or it will be listed as free. So people list asinine amounts that are difficult to filter out of a search.

Fitzauto said:

In general FB has been a good place for parts but I usually look in specific groups rather than the general marketplace.

This has been my experience.  All the good deals I've scored on FB have been from a closed group... more like buying from forum members.

I detest FB, and one of the only reasons I have maintained my account is access to these groups.  Even within that group, most of the adds appear to be posted by illiterates, and very rarely include accurate and complete information/pictures/pricing on what they're selling.

IMHO, that's more of a general cultural shift, and it's not just contained to FB. 

Couldn’t agree more with the sentiments here. I really detest FB marketplace, it’s awful to use. I would rather just not buy a car than use it. CL is so much better to work with, but I worry that the good deals are no more there.

There's always going to be a disconnect between people who read (us) and people who don't (many FB, CL etc. sellers). People who read tend to be a lot more detail-oriented and up on things like compatibility and common failure modes. Someone once explained to me that it is the job of people who read to explain how the world works to people who don't.

My CL vehicle hunt has never been as difficult as it is right now.  I attributed that to the shift to FB Marketplace.  I did a search -- FB Marketplace will actually let you browse anonymously for a while -- and found some interesting cars that weren't duplicated on CL.  I relented and created a FB account so I could browse, and turned off all the privacy invading features.

And...FB's algorithms are good enough to detect my ploy.  Even after 2 weeks, Marketplace still wasn't available to me because I wasn't sharing enough personal data.  So I deleted the account. 

It really sucks for the hobby...forums and CL are dying off in favor of FB and I'm not going to do it, so I'll just miss out.

FB:  You are the product, not the customer.

Offer Up is another OK place to search for things relatively close to you.

Daylan C said:

Apart from the 2 times i got lucky selling weird stuff for cheap, this pretty much sums up my experience with facebook market place.

Just thought of a meme

somebody with a bunch of useless chrome on their engine = Edle Bro

Facebook is turning into AOL in that it's like it's own whole separate thing from the rest of the internet -- a closed environment if you will. Yet the people who use Facebook for everything (much like AOL users in like 1998) don't necessarily see it that way and think everyone else is like them and wants to use it for everything.

captdownshift said:

Even though prices on second hand parts appear to, for the most part, be falling. CL appears to be waning in listing popularity in favor of Facebook marketplace, let go, offer up and even nextdoor. (I've noticed this trend accelerated after personals were removed from CL, just saying). Unfortunately these other applications don't have a searchtempest type tool to cast a wide range geographic search, and it's obviously also more time to search the same key words into all the various applications. It would really be beneficial to sellers and buyers to have one centrally utilized application to buy and sell.

 

Vent/rant over. 

FWIW we are planning to look into whether we can offer something similar for FB, Offerup, etc., soon.