Facebook Marketplace

[This Could Be Rotterdam]

Has anyone sold on Facebook marketplace before? Have got an iPhone XR on there (also on eBay but Facebook doesn't charge fees) and someone is offering the price I'm after and wants to pay by PayPal. 

All the advice online says if buying to pay by PayPal and if selling to avoid PayPal scams. 

The guy has a profile over a year old, decent amount of photos etc. But just wary of getting scammed on it. Then again, that could happen with eBay too. 

Anyone used to selling online?

[GarethRDR]

I sell stuff all the time on there, though mainly in specialist groups which have their own rules/admins/established communities which helps a little with the trust issue but to be honest, if some buyer is going to try and pull a fast one via PayPal, then they'll do it regardless of the platform you're selling on (which ultimately means there's really not much difference in risk selling on Facebook as there is on eBay and the like). There's some basic stuff you can do to protect yourself as both buyer and seller:

As a buyer

Only ever pay for stuff via PayPal "Goods & Services", not  "Friends & Families".  Paying by F&F is essentially a bank transfer, so you can't file a PayPal claim and get the money back if something goes wrong.  There are lots of sellers who will ask you to pay by F&F because from the seller's side, they don't have to pay a PayPal fee on such transfers (plus as mentioned previously, they'll be pretty much immune from claims being raised).  Don't do it, ever.  If it's something you really want, you'll probably find that the seller will accept a G&S payment if you cover their PayPal fees (normally works out around 4% of the total cost) so you can offer that instead, the couple extra £££s is absolutely worth the cover of being able to lodge a claim, always.  Frustratingly, sellers aren't actually meant to do this as it's classed as passing on a surcharge to the buyer which is explicitly against PayPal's terms of service; sadly unless you're selling in a specialist group that's bothered by this kind of thing and actively enforces it, there's not really much you can do (of the 7 selling groups I'm in, only one actually polices it.  It's pretty much accepted practice everywhere else, sadly).

As a seller

Most of this advice is standard stuff for selling via PayPal whatever platform you use, though on Facebook you've also got the ability to scrutinise potential buyer's profiles for warning signs (this is why I find selling in groups a bit better than just the marketplace itself, as people tend to be established within those groups though again, it always pays to a bit wary).  For sales themselves, always ensure that you post to the address provided on a buyer's PayPal profile only and always send whatever your selling via a service that gets a signature from the recipient.  Oh, and don't be one of the aforementioned dickhead sellers who makes buyers pay the PayPal fee.  Be the change you want to see!  Heck, I make it a selling point on my listings that I always cover fees, sets my listings apart from the rest of the rabble (and besides, you can always just build that fee into your asking price, something I cannot understand for the life of me why sellers don't just do).

Hope that helps.