How do I sell on Facebook?

May 14, 2021 6:47 AM

Trying to post a listing for sale in a private buy&sell group on Facebook. It's not happening.

I don't use Facebook a lot, so this may be a stupid question, but I've tried googling and no variation of keywords even brings me to someone having the same issue I am, never mind to a solution.

I am a member of a private buy&sell group on Facebook. I want to post an item for sale to the group, not to the public marketplace.

Here are the steps I'm following:

1. Open the group page
2. Click either the gray "Sell something" button on the main group page, or the blue "Sell something" button in the "Your items" tab
3. Compile the form that pops up - add photos, add a price, etc, etc
4. Verify that on the posting screen, the group I want to post to is ticked and "post to marketplace" is unticked, like so
5. Click "Post"

...and the listing ends up posted on the general marketplace, and not in the approval queue of the private group. It doesn't show up in the "pending" section in the "Your Content" tab in the group, and a group admin has told me it never shows up for approval on their end.

I've tried several different browsers (Vivaldi, Chrome, Firefox) to no avail. What on earth am I doing wrong?

posted by sailoreagle to Computers & Internet (6 answers total)

Best answer: I am no FB guru but I would just post it as a comment
posted by InkaLomax at 8:48 AM on May 14, 2021 [2 favorites]

Try going through Marketplace to create and post the ad, then when it prompts you to post to more places, click the group (it will pop up in the list)
posted by ananci at 9:39 AM on May 14, 2021

Response by poster: Trying not to threadsit, but: even going through Marketplace, I can't seem to post. The group doesn't pop up in the list.

Posting it as a normal post is a thought, though. I'll do that if I can't work out what's going wrong. A listing would have better visibility, though. :(
posted by sailoreagle at 10:22 AM on May 14, 2021

Best answer: I belong to a few hobby groups and we only ever posted as a post. Posting it to marketplace allows it to show up to tgw general public. The post to the group shows up in marketplace in the browsing section where it collects all the buy/sells in all groups you belong to.
posted by tipsyBumblebee at 12:41 PM on May 14, 2021

Best answer: I’m in a fb share/swap group where everybody posts their stuff as regular posts (not For Sale posts). When you create your post in the group and hit Post, it often somehow guesses what you’re trying to do and offers you the option to format it as a For Sale post within the group.

So yes, try it as a regular post, and see if fb offers you the option to convert it when you try to post.
posted by penguin pie at 1:37 PM on May 14, 2021

Try posting it to your group alone first, and then once it's posted there, edit it to post in other places.
posted by itsflyable at 3:49 PM on May 14, 2021