When Facebook launched their Marketplace platform for anyone to sell their used items to push out the likes of Gumtree and make Ebay quiver in their boots, there was a thought that this could be the return of the good old fashioned classified ads but in a digital form to be accessed wherever you may happen to be. But is it and good?
Well I’ve been trying to buy a 125cc motorcycle as a project and then to use on some dirt trails in the coming months, but all I have found is a platform that keeps failing, has lots of glitches and randomises search results…let alone some of the shady sellers that seem to be on there.
In the last two weeks I have tried to contact sellers of over ten different machines to find that most do not even reply to simple questions, the ads appear to be fake or contain false information…or the seller is trying to polish a turd and sell it as gold.
It could be that those selling the bikes are of a young age that they have yet to learn to art of simple conversation or being able to answer direct questions. Perhaps they are not really wanting to sell their bikes at all…or indeed they put up an ad and completely forget they had it on there. Thus not informing anyone, not even Facebook that they sold the bike already.
Buying used bikes can be a real hit and miss affair at the best of times. Sellers may strike a deal or agree to a price, which has happen to me recently, but then go radio silent when trying to make arrangements to come and view the bike…or even sell to someone else as you make your way there.
I would like to say that Ebay is much better, but it is just as bad too. When you’re looking at project bikes, you really don’t want to be paying too much for the bike in the first instance because it just doesn’t make economic sense to do so, but that doesn’t stop sellers believing that their crappy beaten up bike is worth nearly the same as a new one.
You would think that many people buying used would be so fed up with this process and the likes of troublesome Facebook marketplace that they just bite the bullet and go buy a brand new bike for a few hundred pounds more, especially a cheaper Chinese bike or Indian brand. Or even go buy a more expensive bike but on finance.
The finance market has become huge in recent years but you would think that would have a detrimental affect on the used market, but a shortage of supply in the last couple of years has made the used bike market buoyant too.
So this leaves me very fed up with the whole situation. constantly sending out messages to sellers to try and get a deal done…if I hear back it’ll be a miracle. Trying to work with Facebook Marketplace which seems to keep crashing and their search function doesn’t work either.
I’m sure at some point soon I’ll find a bike and get a deal done, but it won’t be a process I’ll return to and enjoy anytime soon that’s for sure. For me, Facebook Marketplace can do one! That is all. Rant over!