Check Out reasons to use Facebook Marketplace instead of Craigslist: It’s easier to browse listings on your phone. Similarly, the absence of a Craigslist app means that to view listings, you have to use your browser.
That requires a lot more navigation, a lot of tapping as you view an item, go back to the previous page, and so on.
One tap of the Marketplace icon in the Facebook app lands you on your local listings, where you can instantly start scrolling through the products available. The listings can also be filtered easily based on location or distance, category, and price. And if you just want to look at the giveaways, there is a “free” tab.
Speaking of location and scope, that’s another major marketplace plus: not just counties like Craigslist, you can define a range for your searches.
It’s probably more stable,
For better or worse, Craigslist allows for total anonymity. From the item you’re selling to your address and identity, you can fake almost everything. (Indeed, this may be why some very unfortunate crimes have resulted from the service.)
The Facebook Marketplace is directly linked to the Facebook accounts of buyers and sellers. This can obviously all be faked, but at least you can look at the profile of a person, find out how long they’ve been on Facebook, check their previous involvement in the marketplace, and so on. (If anything is suspicious, you may also report them.)
The marketplace should be the safer way to buy and sell products because of this transparency (of which there is none on Craigslist). There are no guarantees, of course, and I can’t point to any data supporting this theory.
I’m just saying, they’re less likely to do a dirty deal when someone adds their name and face to something.
It creates greater opportunities for the product to be sold
Enable me to talk from personal experience as well as anecdotal evidence. My success rate on the Facebook Marketplace for selling goods is around 70 percent. In some cases, on the same day I posted them, I sold things.
It is more like 25 percent on Craigslist. I’ve got some guesses as to why. First, via Marketplace, there is the aforementioned ease of browsing products. I don’t think people are surfing on Craigslist; they check. So there is less chance for someone to come upon my product.
Second, Facebook had some 2.2 billion users at last count. That’s a lot of eyeballs, and while obviously, only a tiny portion of them are going to be looking at your post, it’s a safe bet there are more than your Craigslist ad is going to be looking at. It is simply a game of numbers.
Add the greater ease of contact (see below) and greater transparency (see above) to that mix, and I think you’re probably more likely than you are on Craigslist to make the offer on Marketplace.
You don’t have to give out your phone number or email address
When you’re dealing with strangers, you may not feel comfortable sharing your phone number and/or email address. Thankfully, without disclosing any of that information, Facebook allows for contact.
Instead, via Messenger, you get instant messaging—which, as it happens, allows for phone calls as well. So, just as you can by conventional means, you can easily connect with the other side, but without disclosing any private details.
And it is that! That’s my case on Craigslist for Marketplace. I just assume that the former is a stronger platform to purchase and sell locally. Agree? Agree? Disagree with? Tap on the comments and tell me why.