So we were talking about FB Marketplace....a couple stories from today (including GRM mag!)

(cue everyone getting upset I'm using FB in the title and not CL lol). Anyhow, just to show it's the same old strange world regardless of what site you're using to buy/sell stuff....here's my FB Marketplace day. 

1. I have over a decade of GRM and CM mags sitting in a box in my garage. I've read them all a dozen times but really running out of space to keep all this and don't want to toss them. So I put them on FB Marketplace with price "$10 or whatever you want to trade me for them.....tools, parts, motor oil, booze, whatever"

Guy shows up to get them (says he's shipping them to his brother's Army unit deployed overseas), and here's his trade:

2. Saw a stripped Porsche 944 on there, guy trying to sell it before he scraps it. I want the washer reservoir, so I offer him a few bucks for it. Go out to get it at his place this morning, and no problem there.....got it, etc. Funny part was right behind it he had one of his TWO "prized' Chevy Citations, with X-11 (?) package and a supercharged 3800 swapped in, as well as a high-lock LSD diff. He spent 20 minutes talking about Citations (big ol country mechanic type, shirtless) and how he used to race them. It was pretty interesting. Even fired it up so I could hear the S/C whine at high revs :)

Anyhow, just a couple funny stories from the FB Marketplace (ex-CL) weird world of car people....

All I see on FB marketplace these days are $2000 Miata hardtops with rattle-can paint and broken latches.  

Fbm around here either seems to be way overpriced or cheap as chips. I bought a galvanized boat trailed from a guy for next to nothing. I've put $500 in it and I'm still under market value. 

It's just as weird as CL but I dont think it will eclipse it.

ultraclyde said:

Fbm around here either seems to be way overpriced or cheap as chips. I bought a galvanized boat trailed from a guy for next to nothing. I've put $500 in it and I'm still under market value. 

It's just as weird as CL but I dont think it will eclipse it.

yep, I bought some 15" Integra wheels recently off there for $60 (about 200 miles from home, a friend picked them up). Then I see literally identical wheels listed anywhere from $100 to $400 on my local FBM....

The main problem is that if you are searching for a specific rare vehicle, it is 10 times more difficult to search FB than it is to search CL.  FB only lets you search a 100 mile radius, and if you change search locations a few times, it locks up on you.   Not to mention the typical FB glitches, such as everything titled as a Dodge Avenger or a Chevy Avalanche, and the fact that you aren't able to tell when something was listed, so you end up with items that have been on Marketplace over a year, but are marked as being for sale "over a week"

Marketplace is a trainwreck from my perspective.

Cooter said:

The main problem is that if you are searching for a specific rare vehicle, it is 10 times more difficult to search FB than it is to search CL.  FB only lets you search a 100 mile radius, and if you change search locations a few times, it locks up on you.   Not to mention the typical FB glitches, such as everything titled as a Dodge Avenger or a Chevy Avalanche, and the fact that you aren't able to tell when something was listed, so you end up with items that have been on Marketplace over a year, but are marked as being for sale "over a week"

Marketplace is a trainwreck from my perspective.

Thinking back to the early days of CL, it had issues as well, but was refined over time. FB isn't a bunch of idiots, I suspect they also will refine marketplace's search abilities as time goes on. Who knows. 

not sure about the search distance part. I find all kinds of stuff using normal searches that are hundreds of miles from me. That's actually annoying since I find something I am looking for and .... damn, it's way up in Connecticut 350 miles away lol. IDk what the search mechanism is or how it works - and I agree it's kind of funky. The more I use it, the more I'm starting to figure out how to find what I'm looking for. 

It is really hard to do a narrow search. I use it more as a way to stumble on good deals on stuff I was only kind if looking for.

irish44j said:

 

 FB isn't a bunch of idiots,

You must not have to deal with the back end of it much.   I have several groups, and a couple business pages.   FB does the absolute least possible to get by when it comes to service. I have been trying to get them to fix issues for years.

I have been able to search any area of the country with CL from the very start.  FB is basically taking a glance at OfferUp, and trying to copy it without understanding how it works.  

You had me at Jameson! 

The Citations are just a bonus. Sort of the beer to go with the Jameson 

Cooter said:

irish44j said:

 

 FB isn't a bunch of idiots,

You must not have to deal with the back end of it much.   I have several groups, and a couple business pages.   FB does the absolute least possible to get by when it comes to service. I have been trying to get them to fix issues for years.

I have been able to search any area of the country with CL from the very start.  FB is basically taking a glance at OfferUp, and trying to copy it without understanding how it works.  

I have several groups as well, as well as a race team page. There will always be stuff we want fixed. I've learned to deal with the stuff I dislike for the sake of the stuff i do.

Plus, I work for the Gov't. FB works about 1000x better than any of the bespoke or defense-contractor-created systems we use at work. Mark Zuckerberg himself is probably more likely to respond to my requests than is my Northrop-Grumman contractor lol....

I've never even thought of supercharged 3800 swapping a citation!!!

It looks pretty well done too.

Robbie said:

I've never even thought of supercharged 3800 swapping a citation!!!

It looks pretty well done too.

He talked about it as if it's a pretty common thing....even listed off all the j/y cars I could find the S/C engine in, if I wanted one in my Porsche ;)

As far as "finding" things from outside of 100 miles, that is the "You Might Also Like"  part of the Marketplace search, where FB tries to think they know what you want better than you do.

Here is a search of "Dodge Diplomat".  There is only one in my area, but I "Might Also Like" to see cars from outside my area.



But wait, there's more!

FB also thinks I want a Dodge Caravan, or maybe a 4 door Dakota!   I don't.

Sometimes the extra listings are there, sometimes they aren't.  Sometimes the extra listings are much worse than this.

Searching for a Ford Ranchero is especially frustrating.

irish44j said:

Cooter said:

irish44j said:

 

 FB isn't a bunch of idiots,

You must not have to deal with the back end of it much.   I have several groups, and a couple business pages.   FB does the absolute least possible to get by when it comes to service. I have been trying to get them to fix issues for years.

I have been able to search any area of the country with CL from the very start.  FB is basically taking a glance at OfferUp, and trying to copy it without understanding how it works.  

I have several groups as well, as well as a race team page. There will always be stuff we want fixed. I've learned to deal with the stuff I dislike for the sake of the stuff i do.

Plus, I work for the Gov't. FB works about 1000x better than any of the bespoke or defense-contractor-created systems we use at work. Mark Zuckerberg himself is probably more likely to respond to my requests than is my Northrop-Grumman contractor lol....

The point is, I am not able to find things on FB Marketplace that I have been able to find on CL.  

The government isn't a marketplace for listing Dodge Dreamers or 2 door Chrysler M Bodies.  If they were, I would be complaining about how they are worse than CL, as well.

not disagreeing. Just saying that perhaps they'll refine them. I've bought and sold more stuff off FB Marketplace in the last 6 months than I had off CL in the 2-3 years preceding it. And none of it having to deal with a bunch of scammers and spammers, which is the best part. It's far from perfect, but with some search term refining, I generally find what I'm looking for, if it's out there. YMMV. 

The "perhaps you want to see stuff outside of your immediate search" thing isn't new. CL has it too. The Eastern Shore isn't a "nearby area" to me per se, it's a couple hours drive to that location. The FB one isn't as good, but maybe it'll get better. Maybe it won't. IDK. 

I clearly mishandled the disposal of my back GRMs. You got Irish whiskey, and I got a heavy recycle bin.

I just didn't want to miss the window of decisiveness that got me all those bookshelves back.

I sure hope GRM keeps getting the back catalog up in the digital edition...

Cooter said:

irish44j said:

Cooter said:

irish44j said:

 

 FB isn't a bunch of idiots,

You must not have to deal with the back end of it much.   I have several groups, and a couple business pages.   FB does the absolute least possible to get by when it comes to service. I have been trying to get them to fix issues for years.

I have been able to search any area of the country with CL from the very start.  FB is basically taking a glance at OfferUp, and trying to copy it without understanding how it works.  

I have several groups as well, as well as a race team page. There will always be stuff we want fixed. I've learned to deal with the stuff I dislike for the sake of the stuff i do.

Plus, I work for the Gov't. FB works about 1000x better than any of the bespoke or defense-contractor-created systems we use at work. Mark Zuckerberg himself is probably more likely to respond to my requests than is my Northrop-Grumman contractor lol....

The point is, I am not able to find things on FB Marketplace that I have been able to find on CL.  

The government isn't a marketplace for listing Dodge Dreamers or 2 door Chrysler M Bodies.  If they were, I would be complaining about how they are worse than CL, as well.

 

The gov't comment was just to note the fact that I'm somewhat jaded to "IT response" and have a high threshhold for frustration.

In any case, CL still exists. If you want to use it and not FB, that's certainly your choice, makes no difference to me - I'm just stating my experience and thoughts. This post was more about telling the two (interesting to me) stories and not really meant to re-hash all the discussions in the other thread specifically. Probably should have known the title would take it in the wrong direction  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

In reply to irish44j :

Reading your posts in this thread and the other one, it would appear you either own a ton of Facebook stock, or have a large position in options. 

Ransom said:

I clearly mishandled the disposal of my back GRMs. You got Irish whiskey, and I got a heavy recycle bin.

I just didn't want to miss the window of decisiveness that got me all those bookshelves back.

I sure hope GRM keeps getting the back catalog up in the digital edition...

Funny part is, I offered to give them away for nothing here in the GRM classifieds, and didn't have any takers locally. Then I ask for something random in trade, and had several messages within a day lol. Maybe people think something's better if they have to pay/trade for it, haha....

The whiskey is in the old-style bottle labels from a number of years ago, and the case was missing the cap. Probably been sitting in the guy's liquor cabinet for 10 years and he thought it was a good way to get rid of it and get something in return haha....

Indy-Guy said:

In reply to irish44j :

Reading your posts in this thread and the other one, it would appear you either own a ton of Facebook stock, or have a large position in options. 

Nope, I'm just a realist concerning "the way it is" and just trying to make the best of it. I spent endless hours browsing CL for car stuff, so it's not like I have no stake in "what comes next.."

We can pine over the loss of paper car parts catalogs, private ebay listings, CL, non-ABS cars, manual steering racks, 14" tire selection, or whatever else that we really loved "back in the day." But those things aren't coming back, or are dying. I just started buying 15" wheels for my e30 since they just discontinued the 14" rally tires I use. I prefer the 14s, but it is what it is. Gotta adjust and do our best to use whatever the current "thing" is I guess.

And yeah, I generally like FB (but dislike many things about it). I have no financial stake in any of it though ;) Just hoping Zuckerberg sees my comments and decides to send me a million bucks :D

also, I am a contrarian by nature ;)

Robbie said:

I've never even thought of supercharged 3800 swapping a citation!!!

It looks pretty well done too.

It used to be a pretty common aspiration for a lot of GM 60° V6 owners in clubs back in the early 2000s as there wasn't much (at least back then) that could be done to the FWD 60° V6s that was considered cheap. 

I was browsing C-list yesterday and not finding much of interest. Gave Marketplace a whirl and found that the more vague I am about what I'm looking for the more results I get...in a good way. So I just put in pre-1980 Ford for under $3000 and it showed me all sorts of neat stuff sitting in fields and barns. And, not all of it was Fords.

One trend I did note was that cheap stuff (say under $2000) was more realistically priced than stuff in the $3000-$6000 range. Lots of dreamers in the upper scale.

FB remembers the Marketplace posts you click on and because it thinks you like that widget you'll see more like them.   So while the search function may stink, if a new widget comes up for sale, it'll likely pop up in your marketplace feed quickly. I tend to view ads for guitars, amps, Miatas, MINIs, Mopars and a few other things. So my MP feed is full of those.

In reply to Ian F :

And heaven forbid you accidentally click on something you aren't interested in or would never buy, because FB is gonna try and tell you about it and give you alerts on it for the next few weeks.

I was browsing toolchests. A seriously WTF  picture with no description is there. I click and see an ad for some early oughts style platform goth boots and back out of the ad. For the next few weeks I get push alerts for women's shoes. 

That is my beef with marketplace. Other than that it seems clumsy but fine