Talk to me like i'm an idiot

mjmjr25

went home to be a family man
10 Year Member
Joined
Dec 18, 2010
Posts
2,865
Greetings,

I have no facebook account. Have never been on the site. Do not want to go on the site.

My son tells me the only place to find a decent used car now is on Facebook Marketplace. He also tells me I can get sports cards and comics too. He speaks my language. Influential. Subterfuge.

His driving instructor also said Craigs List is dead and used cars on dealerships are 2-3x what you'll find on Facebook Marketplace.

I need to get an account there, apparently.

Talk me through this please.

Is a normal fb account all I need?
This gives me access to marketplace?
Do I just message people?
Do I have like a feedback score or something...meaning, why is someone going to respond to me?
How much spam or other garbage am I opening myself up to by creating this account?

I feel old and I need your help.
 

neo_mao

Been There., Done That., It Was Shit.,
15 Year Member
Joined
Apr 20, 2007
Posts
10,136
i dont know the answer to any of your questions but when you join you can be my facebook friend like roker
 

stormy

B. Jenet's Firstmate
10 Year Member
Joined
Apr 19, 2009
Posts
414
Is that like the metaverse or something? :scratch:
 

Heinz

Parteizeit
15 Year Member
Joined
Feb 13, 2005
Posts
22,333
Don't do it! Before you know it you'll be posting shower thoughts and sharing inspirational quotes.
 

StevenK

ng.com SFII tournament winner 2002-2023
10 Year Member
Joined
Jul 25, 2012
Posts
10,084
Facebook is so depressing in your 40s. I'll save you some catching up time; everyone got fat, several have cancer.

Also, ebay is still a decent place to buy cheap cars.
 

madmanjock

Bare AES Handler
20 Year Member
Joined
Dec 31, 2002
Posts
7,724
Greetings,

I have no facebook account. Have never been on the site. Do not want to go on the site.

My son tells me the only place to find a decent used car now is on Facebook Marketplace. He also tells me I can get sports cards and comics too. He speaks my language. Influential. Subterfuge.

His driving instructor also said Craigs List is dead and used cars on dealerships are 2-3x what you'll find on Facebook Marketplace.

I need to get an account there, apparently.

Talk me through this please.

Is a normal fb account all I need?
This gives me access to marketplace?
Do I just message people?
Do I have like a feedback score or something...meaning, why is someone going to respond to me?
How much spam or other garbage am I opening myself up to by creating this account?

I feel old and I need your help.

Yes the marketplace on Facebook is great for finding used cars as it’s free to list them there as opposed to other platforms that cost you money.

If that’s all you need it for, just borrow your son’s or a friend’s Facebook account for an hour to view the cars, and send some messages to sellers to call you back as you aren’t actually on Facebook because Facebook is shite.

Yes there is a feedback system for sellers but I don’t think there is one for buyers.

If you join facebook properly, the other decent thing is the car groups / communities for just about any car or brand you can imagine. Makes getting spare parts for rare cars much easier than before, or helping others with problem solving. Literally yesterday I sent a question to one of those groups and got 3 replies within an hour to my car’s cold start problem.
 

@M

Vanessa's Drinking Buddy,
20 Year Member
Joined
Feb 10, 2003
Posts
7,174
I use FB extensively, but, I never bother with its' marketplace. I'm also told that it's a good way to buy/sell, especially locally. FB has ads, but, they just show up in your feed and can easily be scrolled past. I prefer using FB's free Lite app to a web browser.

Craigslist isn't completely dead, but, it also isn't what it used to be. You can save search criteria and the site will send you an email if any applicable listings pop up, that's what I do.
 

LoneSage

A Broken Man
20 Year Member
Joined
Dec 20, 2004
Posts
44,746
For the love of his children, will someone peruse the Minnesota used car facebook sellers and hook this man up.
 

lithy

Most Prominent Member of Chat
20 Year Member
Joined
Dec 1, 2002
Posts
22,031
Is a normal fb account all I need?
This gives me access to marketplace?
Do I just message people?
Do I have like a feedback score or something...meaning, why is someone going to respond to me?
How much spam or other garbage am I opening myself up to by creating this account?

I feel old and I need your help.

Yes, as far as I know, you just need a normal account for thefacebook.com, when I signed up I think you need a .edu email, now any ol'email will do. This is reason 1 of why FB marketplace is also full of scammers.

From a desktop you can message people. From mobile they make it a total pain in the ass to not use their Messenger app. From a Marketplace listing you will have a line to send a message. Treat it just like you would emailing someone about something on craigslist.

There is feedback, kinda. But it seems barely used. Reason 2 why there are so many scammers on FB marketplace.

If you're selling, probably lots of spam. If you're just buying, not much, if any.

All the typical buying online/craiglist warnings apply. With the added benefit of you can check out someone's profile to see if they look like a real person too. Don't get murdered, we'd miss you.
 

GohanX

Horrible Goose
20 Year Member
Joined
Sep 28, 2001
Posts
12,490
Is a normal fb account all I need?
This gives me access to marketplace?
Do I just message people?
Do I have like a feedback score or something...meaning, why is someone going to respond to me?
How much spam or other garbage am I opening myself up to by creating this account?

I feel old and I need your help.

FB Marketplace has basically replaced the newspaper classifieds for buying used cars directly from other people. Normal account is all you need for buying, you only need something special if you're selling and using FB for payments, which wouldn't apply for a car. You do just message people, kinda like on a forum. There is no meaningful feedback for anyone that's not a business regularly selling. When you go to Facebook there is a tab for the marketplace, you search for what you want or look in the category and you can set the geographic location and how far a net you want. After you look a few times the algorithm will try to guess what it is you like automatically.

That said, it's the worst way to buy or sell online. It has the absolute worst of the worst buyers and sellers. Still, your son is right, if you want to buy from an individual that's the way to do it. Also, heck out autotempest.com. It's a really handy search tool that searches most of the online marketplaces, local dealers, etc. It doesn't search FB, but it searches most everything else.
 

lithy

Most Prominent Member of Chat
20 Year Member
Joined
Dec 1, 2002
Posts
22,031
I'd go with this one, a bit of a hike to Sioux Falls, but probably worth it.

 

roker

DOOM
20 Year Member
Joined
Apr 12, 2003
Posts
18,871
This is reason 1 of why FB marketplace is also full of scammers.

Advice: Don't bring cash unless it's a really low sum and meet in a common well lit area during the day. Another thing you can do is meet them at a bank. The whole f'in thing is dodgy. Just buy a corvette and get it over with.
 

NeoSneth

Ned's Ninja Academy Dropout
20 Year Member
Joined
Oct 22, 2000
Posts
11,084
I agree that Craigslist is dead. Marketplace gained a lot of ground during covid.
You just need a facebook account. Nothing else. But , Facebook requires a lot of information to make an account now as they want to make sure it is a real person.

If you are flipping cars, yeah I would agree facebook marketplace is a good place. It is also going to be full of scammers like craigslist was when it was popular.
 

wyo

King of Spammers
10 Year Member
Joined
May 22, 2013
Posts
10,109
Is a normal fb account all I need? YES
This gives me access to marketplace? YES
Do I just message people? YES
Do I have like a feedback score or something...meaning, why is someone going to respond to me? YES but no one cares about it
How much spam or other garbage am I opening myself up to by creating this account? NONE if you turn off all the notifications

As others have said, FB Marketplace is full of obvious scammers but there are good deals to be found if you're willing to wade through the shit.

I sold an old but running SUV for $2000 and was inundated with about 50 "Is this still available?" inquiries within a day. Ended up selling to a nice lady, even after I spent about 15 minutes explaining all the problems it had.
 

Xavier

Orochi's Acolyte
20 Year Member
Joined
Apr 25, 2002
Posts
5,103
with about 50 "Is this still available?" inquiries within a day. Ended up selling to a nice lady, even after I spent about 15 minutes explaining all the problems it had.
What's up with that?
Then normally you don't hear anything back from them.

I like to try to sell stuff not worth throwing away or giving to thrift stores.
Say a big item or something not worth shipping/selling.
I sold a new air fryer for $20 a couple days ago, they cost $40 new and I'm sure shipping to most anywhere would cost $15 so not worth dealing/selling online.

You can sellll online too. At&t sent me a refurbished phone unsolicited that was slightly more powerful than the one I had. Sold my Xperia for $50 to what appeared to be some dude living in a hotel room and got $50 in my Paypal.

I don't understand the feedback system. I sold this guy a new or like new car battery (IRC) met him at the parking lot of a Best Buy, he seemed happy and cool gave me the cash and it got put in his trunk then he stopped talking to me and got back on his phone. I get out of the parking lot and on the street and it says he gave me one star for not as described. Well a blurred picture of him, it was the only deal I've done recently... that was him getting back on his phone to leave me negative feedback for no reason.

Anyways it doesn't matter, I don't think anyone looks at the feedback. I look at the profile, make sure it's not a new or fake account and that the person seems mentally stable.
 

Lastblade

Friend me on Facebook!,
20 Year Member
Joined
Aug 13, 2001
Posts
5,840
I have bought 2 used cars on FB. One was on FB's marketplace, the other was in a local "yardsale" group. The prices now are pretty competitive to used car dealers but you can haggle a bit easier with private parties.

I suggest joining and find a local neighborhood group and see what people post to sell.
 

mjmjr25

went home to be a family man
10 Year Member
Joined
Dec 18, 2010
Posts
2,865
Thanks guys, and Mot. Helpful for sure. I'll keep you posted. I know you all are on pins and needles.
 

GohanX

Horrible Goose
20 Year Member
Joined
Sep 28, 2001
Posts
12,490
What's up with that?
Then normally you don't hear anything back from them.

I like to try to sell stuff not worth throwing away or giving to thrift stores.
Say a big item or something not worth shipping/selling.
I sold a new air fryer for $20 a couple days ago, they cost $40 new and I'm sure shipping to most anywhere would cost $15 so not worth dealing/selling online.

You can sellll online too. At&t sent me a refurbished phone unsolicited that was slightly more powerful than the one I had. Sold my Xperia for $50 to what appeared to be some dude living in a hotel room and got $50 in my Paypal.

I don't understand the feedback system. I sold this guy a new or like new car battery (IRC) met him at the parking lot of a Best Buy, he seemed happy and cool gave me the cash and it got put in his trunk then he stopped talking to me and got back on his phone. I get out of the parking lot and on the street and it says he gave me one star for not as described. Well a blurred picture of him, it was the only deal I've done recently... that was him getting back on his phone to leave me negative feedback for no reason.

Anyways it doesn't matter, I don't think anyone looks at the feedback. I look at the profile, make sure it's not a new or fake account and that the person seems mentally stable.
When browsing it’s pretty easy to accidentally send an automated “is this available” message and sellers know to ignore them since if that’s all that’s in her message they won’t hear back.
 

GutsDozer

Robot Master., Master Tasuke, Eat Your, Heart Out
10 Year Member
Secret Santa Veteran
Joined
Mar 5, 2013
Posts
5,391
I'd go through a dealership. Usually have a better outcome than dealing with Joe Blow.
 

neo_mao

Been There., Done That., It Was Shit.,
15 Year Member
Joined
Apr 20, 2007
Posts
10,136
*checks Facebook profile...

...no new friend requests


:(
 
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