Four Reasons Why I Shop Facebook Marketplace

Yesterday I had what I would refer to as a "major marketplace score". Actually, I feel like I have had several recently. Because I have an antique booth in Vintage Mercantile (Denison, Texas), I am ALWAYS on the hunt for unique finds at a great price (cheap and cheerful). While I often shop thrift stores and estate sales, most of my great finds come from Facebook Marketplace. Today I am sharing why I like to shop this resource along with some of the cheap and cheerful finds that I have furnished my own home with.

I'm going to skip the tutorial on how to use marketplace, as it works much the same way as Craigslist, which I'm assuming most people know how to use. If you want more information on how to use these resources, please feel free to email me. I always want to help others be resourceful. For this post, I am sharing why I prefer shopping on marketplace.

• Efficient Communication. Facebook Marketplace is easily maneuvered from your phone. You can quickly scroll through the pictures, find what you like and express interest with one of their typed messages or one of your own. I have found the sellers typically respond quickly.

This bamboo fireplace screen I located on marketplace on Sunday evening and it was in my home by Monday evening. I did drive an hour to pick it up, but at $50 I felt like it was totally worth it. I have seen similar ones on 1stdibs and they list for around $400. Total score!!

• Marketplace Narrows Location Search. Nothing is more defeating than finding a fabulous piece and then finding out it is actually 4 hours away. Because I live just an hour from Dallas, my Craigslist search covers a very large range. With marketplace it is much easier to narrow your search to within a certain mileage. If I'm going to Dallas to see my son, I can easily add Dallas or 60 miles to my search.

I found this Queen headboard for my son's apartment in McKinney, which is 30 minutes from where we live. It was $100 and I was able to pick it up and load it into the moving truck while in route to Dallas.

• Items Are Priced To Sell. I have found that sellers on marketplace want things gone and gone like yesterday. Therefore, most items are priced to sell without much negotiation involved. Unlike Craigslist, sellers on marketplace lower prices when something hasn't sold and FB alerts you when your saved items have a price drop.

This refectory table was a great price originally listed for $125. I had it saved and within one week, the price had dropped to $100. FB alerted me to the price drop and I immediately connected with the seller to purchase it. This is one of those items I bought to resell but decided I just couldn't part with it!! This sometimes happens when you love antiques, LOL!!

• Facebook Marketplace Gives You a Profile. In this day and age, SAFETY FIRST. I never felt secure enough to buy from Craigslist simply because there is no information on the seller. My husband almost always goes with me to pick up an item, but on two occasions he wasn't available. Thankfully I was able to look at the seller's profile, see that we have friends in common and then make an informed decision to go and meet them. They were both women, had good seller ratings, and were located here in Sherman. I would never travel out of town to meet a man or woman that I do not know. BE SMART AND BE SAFE.

I bought this pair of camelback sofas from a man in Arlington. I had been searching for a matching pair and at $300 ($150 each), I couldn't pass them up. Now Arlington is about 2 hours away from my house and my husband being new to the shopping on marketplace scene, was skeptical. He had visions of us driving 2 hours with the trailer in tow and it being a total bust. With very little effort, I was able to research the seller's profile, look at his ratings along with other items he had listed and discover that his real job is buying up estate sale leftovers and then selling them out of a big warehouse. My husband was pleasantly surprised.

I scored a set of 6 of these dining chairs for $125. While four of them went to my antique booth, 2 of them found a place in my entryway. They are the perfect size and I will eventually recover them with a neat small print.

There are many other reasons to shop marketplace, these are just my top four. I have only had one bad experience and it was on me as I didn't act quickly enough and I missed out on something that I really wanted.

Do you shop Marketplace or Craigslist and if so, which do you prefer and why?? I would so love to hear. I hope this post has been resourceful and somehow inspiring. Thanks for visiting and please check in again soon!!!!