I’m guessing the answer is “no”, but thought I’d ask for advice here regardless.
I don’t have FB. Haven’t for years. I ditched it long before I started giving a shit about Privacy, it’s just so toxic and silly.
That said, I’m a retro gamer constantly on the hunt for holes in my NES/SNES collection and unfortunately the folks in my area seem to be quite a bit more active on FB Marketplace than Craiglist, Offerup, or Nextdoor For Sale pages. In the past I’ve asked my spouse to message the seller for me and then show up with cash and buy what they’re selling. Increasingly, sellers are scared of scams and seem to be less responsive to this type of inquiry.
Is there anyway to minimize footprint in FB? Or perhaps a way to use Messenger without an account? You can browse the marketplace pages of your community without an account, but they’ll pester you the whole time and you can’t save your locale without signing in.
Or am I out of luck entirely? I thought about posting “In Search Of” type posts on Craiglists to bring the buyers to me, but my area has several of those already and I’m not after bulk lots or other platforms other than the old Nintendo stuff.
I do check Ebay as well and have found a few gems for decent prices and a local shop occasionally has some stuff that hasn’t been completely picked over, or i show up right after someone sells their collection and that’s rad, but that’s rare.
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Depending on the comfort level of your spouse, asking them to use their account would be best.
One of the forms of trust in Marketplace is how long the person’s Facebook account has existed, how many friends they have, and whether there are photos. If you create a burner account with no photo, no connections, and “Joined Facebook in 2024”, you’ll have a rough start.
I have had people show up who don’t match the account and they say it’s their partner or whatnot, never phased me.
If you do decide to make an account, push people to rate your interactions after you make a successful purchase. After 3 messages are sent back and forth, you get an option to rate the seller and buyer. Just tell them you rated them well and would like a rating as you are new to Marketplace.
I do hate Facebook for what it is, but even here in Canada where Kijiji was once king, Marketplace has taken over. I care about the used market (and the positive effects on the environment) too much to pass it up.
Ah Kijiji was the other app I was trying to think of. These are good points. It really is frustrating that so many have migrated to using Marketplace instead of the alternatives.