In a bid to find out more about shopping on Facebook marketplace as well as some weird things people sell there, we previously spoke with Sean Fowlow, a professional thrift hunter and seller, as well as the creator of "Ridiculous Thrifter".
If you suspect that online marketplaces have become immensely popular in the past years, we can confirm that. According to Sean, “most people would rather browse through locally available items for sale online from the comfort of their own homes… than driving around their area looking for flea markets and garage sales.” It’s because going to a real flea market takes a whole lot more time and is energy-consuming.
Moreover, we are certainly heading in the direction where everything is being done from our smartphones, shopping included. “As a seller of used items myself, it’s much easier to list all of my garage sale items on Facebook Marketplace than it is to set out a table in front of my house or in a public market and wait there for hours,” Sean explained.
He said that this way, people can then come get the specific item they want at an arranged time with ease, without “having to rummage through hundreds of items set out on tables.”
Sean also agreed that it’s true that there are a lot of weird, funny, and fake items for sale on online marketplaces. According to him, “Most of them are people just having fun… and it is indeed funny to see these items. For instance, I remember seeing someone selling a stainless steel toaster on Facebook Marketplace where the reflection in the toaster was the seller in his underwear taking the photo for the listing. It was done totally on purpose and I highly doubt there was an actual toaster for sale.”
On the other hand, the connoisseur of online marketplaces added that even though there are a lot of listings like this, they only make up a very small percentage. “The greater deal are legitimate sale items,” he assured anyone worrying if it’s all bananzas out there.
