Introducing Marketplace: Buy and Sell with Your Local Community • Hacker News Board

Re: Introducing Marketplace: Buy and Sell with Your Local Community

#81

Post by vlucas » Mon, Oct 03, 2016, 6:04 PM UTC

bluedino wrote: post #70

vlucas wrote: post #29

Good for Facebook. My wife has been buying and selling things on individual Facebook groups for years before this official marketplace. Selling on Facebook is hands down a vastly better experience than selling things on Craigslist in every way - especially if you live in a market that is too small for a designated Craigslist area. Our real world experience: 1) Hyperlocal - Our city of 40k-50k is 40 miles from the nea…

3) Way fewer scammers and spammers since you have to use your real name. 4) You know who you are meeting and what they look like (again - real name, single account requirement). 5) Built-in messaging This also means someone can harrass the crap out of you for whatever reason they want regarding the item.

... which is why I also included (6), which you conveniently left off your blockquote.

Ending harassment on Facebook is as easy as blocking them. Done.

Re: Introducing Marketplace: Buy and Sell with Your Local Community

#82

Post by vlucas » Mon, Oct 03, 2016, 6:07 PM UTC

thr0waway1239 wrote: post #66

vlucas wrote: post #29

Good for Facebook. My wife has been buying and selling things on individual Facebook groups for years before this official marketplace. Selling on Facebook is hands down a vastly better experience than selling things on Craigslist in every way - especially if you live in a market that is too small for a designated Craigslist area. Our real world experience: 1) Hyperlocal - Our city of 40k-50k is 40 miles from the nea…

> 5) Built-in messaging allows you an easier way to communicate meeting details privately without having to give your phone number or email address. Your notion of "private" is a little strange. Facebook offers the illusion of private transactions by effectively robbing everyone of their privacy - in other words, that is how they established themselves as the pre-eminent and now possibly only two sided marketplace fo…

You should never assume so much, or infer so much meaning from text on the internet. I simply meant private as in "not on the public listing".

Re: Introducing Marketplace: Buy and Sell with Your Local Community

#83

Post by erikb » Mon, Oct 03, 2016, 6:09 PM UTC

Now they finally have some kind of business model! Congrats FB!

Re: Introducing Marketplace: Buy and Sell with Your Local Community

#84

Post by vlucas » Mon, Oct 03, 2016, 6:09 PM UTC

maxaf wrote: post #76

How's this better than Craigslist?

I addressed this directly in my comment here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12627831

Re: Introducing Marketplace: Buy and Sell with Your Local Community

#85

Post by tomschlick » Mon, Oct 03, 2016, 6:14 PM UTC

Washuu wrote: post #60

bjacobel wrote: post #36

Facebook's come under a lot of heat for refusing to moderate the buying and selling of firearms in Groups, often in violation of local laws[1]. Hopefully their moderation standards will be higher on Marketplace. [1]: https://medium.com/@monteiro/this-article-first-appeared-in-...

That is a terrible article with lots of emotional writing and nothing cited to support their claims. Selling firearms locally that does not cross state borders or to prohibited individuals is generally legal.

Yup, so long as you are following the local/state laws there is nothing wrong with using Facebook (IMO) to facilitate the meet up. No different than placing an ad in the newspaper to sell a gun and meeting the buyer somewhere.

Re: Introducing Marketplace: Buy and Sell with Your Local Community

#86

Post by tomschlick » Mon, Oct 03, 2016, 6:18 PM UTC

maxerickson wrote: post #54

bjacobel wrote: post #36

Facebook's come under a lot of heat for refusing to moderate the buying and selling of firearms in Groups, often in violation of local laws[1]. Hopefully their moderation standards will be higher on Marketplace. [1]: https://medium.com/@monteiro/this-article-first-appeared-in-...

What a waste of time. The activity will just move elsewhere. Working towards requiring registration/background checks of private sales would actually accomplish what they want. Lobbying Facebook to disassociate themselves from the sales will accomplish little more than moving the sales off of Facebook. And of course, given that there are tens of millions of unregistered firearms in the US, all a registration law woul…

If you want universal background checks then let private sellers use the same system gun shops do. Paying $25-$50 per gun at a gun shop to do a transfer is cost prohibitive.

There is no reason a buyer shouldn't be able to go to the ATF website submit themselves for a BC and get an approval code for a seller to verify. That respects privacy and gets you closer to 100% background checks. No responsible gun owner wants to sell to a felon. Thats why a lot will only do private transactions with CCW permit holders.

Re: Introducing Marketplace: Buy and Sell with Your Local Community

#87

Post by M_Grey » Mon, Oct 03, 2016, 6:19 PM UTC

fiatjaf wrote: post #65

Stop using Facebook now or you'll regret later.

I think plenty of people are figuring out that there's reason to regret using it now, never mind later.

Re: Introducing Marketplace: Buy and Sell with Your Local Community

#88

Post by askafriend » Mon, Oct 03, 2016, 6:47 PM UTC

gnicholas wrote: post #71

I used to buy/sell on Craigslist a lot but now use NextDoor (neighborhood-based, address-verified social network). I never had any safety issues with CL, but ND definitely feels safer/friendlier. Most of the people I meet are local housewives getting rid of stuff. There tends to be less haggling, and because it's neighborhood/town based, you don't have to drive as far to meet (huge plus). I think the reason that peop…

I agree. There's a ton of spam and fake accounts in these types of Facebook groups which isn't a great experience and only marginally better than Craigslist.

Nextdoor is far better positioned to avoid this kind of spammy experience. They require real names and verify addresses so you know the people you are interacting with are real, and actually live near you.

Re: Introducing Marketplace: Buy and Sell with Your Local Community

#89

Post by ismail » Mon, Oct 03, 2016, 6:47 PM UTC

subpixel wrote: post #51

Semi-related: just last night I learned from a waitress that there is a thriving underground food marketplace on Facebook. Basically, if you live in a city with a large ethnic population, and you search in native languages, you can find housewives and hustlers selling lots of delicious looking things, sometimes offering delivery. I wonder what effect the marketplace will have on black market biryani.

What city are you in?

Re: Introducing Marketplace: Buy and Sell with Your Local Community

#90

Post by tonfa » Mon, Oct 03, 2016, 6:52 PM UTC

matthuggins wrote: post #43

ideonexus wrote: post #38

I was debating with a friend recently whether offerup.com or letgo.com would win this snap-and-post marketplace battle. I guess fb just rendered that discussion obsolete.

Why do you think it's obsolete?

On that topic, I think fb tried to enter a number of market but wasn't always successful (looking around there's things like coupons / gifts / credits).