My city's weird little Marketplace quirks

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I have conducted Facebook Marketplace transactions and a lot of different cities that I've lived in throughout the Midwest and the Mountain West. Having moved to a city that is a little more, uh, rough around the edges I guess, than my former homes, I am starting to see some common patterns in the Facebook Marketplace transactings around here.

  • Lowballing to an insulting degree (ex. offering $40 for an advertised $350 brand new 70" TV), and follow up with something along the lines of "I'm a single Mom, have some heart. It's for my kids".

  • Scheduling a time and place to meet several ours or days beforend, and receive a message 5-10 mins before that time saying they just checked their wallet and only have "[amount 10-25% lower than agreed upon or listed price] and hoping I'll accept that amount.

  • People showing up expecting me to have change for their big bills and end up trying to get you to accept a lower amount because I don't have change for them (example, I list item at $25 and they show up with two $20 bills and ask if I have change, hoping for me to just take the $20 and get the interaction over with.

  • I I I often sell electronics and every time I list a TV with "not a smart TV" included in both the title and first sentence of description, I will always get at least one message asking if it's a smart TV. I don't even respond to these l anymore, because in the past I would say 'no' and the majority would reply back with low-key rude or pointless messages like "well I already have a regular TV and don't need another one" or something like that and I'm like .. okay...

That is just my rant. Overall it is just mostly people being frugal, aloof, or stingey in a rude way. I have spent a year here so far and have not gotten robbed, scammed or, majorly screwed over on Marketplace (yet). Could be worse.

Posted Sep 2, 2025, 3:34 PM UTC

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