I’ve tried selling on FB Marketplace in the past and had endless issues. Mainly people just wasting my time, particularly asking me to deliver when I make it clear that the item is pick-up only. Or just people asking me “is this available” when the Marketplace page clearly shows it is. Then they never respond again after I confirm that it is.

Anyway, at the weekend, a friend suggested I get back into it, as I have some things to sell, and she never has such problems. Maybe I had a bad break before and it’s time to try again?

The first I’ve attempted to do is sell my PlayStation 4. I bought a PS4 Pro a few years back so the original PS4 is gathering dust.

I booted it up, checked it over, factory reset it and gave it a good clean. It looks like new. So, I added it to Facebook Marketplace.

Within minutes, somebody offered me £100 for it but I turned it down. Primarily (okay, totally) because they live in Africa, so I doubt they plan to pick it up.

And since then it’s not got much better.

Is this still available? Will you deliver?
Only joking 😂

Well, at least this person got the idea that asking for delivery when I was clear I don’t offer it was a joke. So, I played along, laughed at his joke and told him it was available. I didn’t realise the whole thing was the joke as I never heard back from them.

Then, onto my favourite. Somebody who asked for my best price. I explained that the cost of the 2TB hard drive, if you were to buy one now to put in an existing PS4, would cost £70 alone, so I didn’t want to go too much lower. He offered £60. Why? Because he lived quite far away so it would cost him a bit to get here. Yep, because I’m going to pay for his travel costs.

A few days later and it got weird.

I got this message…

Hi, is this available? I have this for trade plus maybe some cash, check and let me know if u are interested:/product-list-77645345343.atwebpages.com/marketplace/browse_tab/item/77645345343 Thank you !

That link, which doesn’t work, looks very spammy. Also, the user profile doesn’t exist, so it looks like it was pulled after sending. Then, a couple of hours later, another user sends me a message…

Hi, is this available? I have this for trade plus maybe some cash, check and let me know if u are interested:/product-list-4485756233.atwebpages.com/item/facebook.com/marketplace/4485756233 Thank you !

This does have a valid user associated with it, and they appear genuine. Albeit they live in Ireland. I’ve messaged them as I assume they’ve been hacked in some way. In fact, this then happened half a dozen more times – in one case the person responded when I suggested they’d been hacked…

I do know, but don’t know how to stop it. Thanks for not calling me names and swearing though! Any suggestions?

I ended up helping them reset their password and add 2FA onto their account.

All of this corresponded to when I boosted the listing – once that was over, the spam stopped. But that didn’t stop the silly people.

Is this still available? Can you deliver to Kirkby in ashfield

There was only one way I was going to reply to this…

It is. No I can’t.

They didn’t reply.

I also get a lot like this…

This is someone who doesn’t understand what “lowest price” means. They ask me for it, I tell them and then they offer me lower. What do they think is going to happen next?

I also had a couple of instances of people wanting me to install a game and video it for them, so they know it’s working. I wasn’t prepared to do this. One of them even wanted to specify the game. Yeah, that’s not happening either.

After a few weeks, I sold it, to a nice gentleman from Nottingham who wanted it for his daughter. He came to the house and paid in cash. He didn’t have an HDMI cable either and I had some spare, so threw one in for free. I’m keeping in touch, in case he has any questions (he has no experience of using a PS4).

So, looking back, I’ve taken the opportunity to summarise how it went…

• I was contacted by 25 people.
• Only 7 could be identified as living nearby (Nottingham or Derby area). 6 were elsewhere in the UK. 4 lived in another country inc. Moldova and Germany.
• 9 asked me if it was still available, I responded in the affirmative, and then I never heard back from them again.
• 7 offered extremely low prices before walking away. These were normally the people who asked me for my “best price” before then trying to undercut it.
• 4 people asked for basic information about the PS4, despite everything being on the Marketplace page.
• 1 person (other than the individual who did so “as a joke”) asked me to deliver, despite it being clear on Marketplace that I wouldn’t do this.
• 4 people were spam
• 1 person I blocked after they wanted my address but I was suspicious of them

If you couldn’t tell, it was a massive waste of time. Yes, I sold it in the end, but I really don’t think it should be this difficult.