Craigslist is the biggest loss for me. It's such a nice simple website that doesn't require much of me to get things listed. I refuse to get back on facebook just for the market place, but damn if it doesn't make selling off old equipment/stuff much easier.
Yeah, FB market is infuriating to use. I have no senes for whether my search is giving me "real" results or filtered results that FB wants me to see. I assume the latter. It doesn't easily allow nationwide searches. Its auto search is a hacked together steaming pile. Craigslist is/was so much easier to use, particularly with some of the aggregator sites allowing nationwide searches.
If you want to level-up your frustration try selling on Facebook marketplace. No one reads your ad text and they just use the vile automated one-click replies. I used to give away very nice items, assuming there are many people in need in my community, but it has become very abusive. The amount of time I have to waste is too much to justify. The only thing I would sell on there anymore is a high dollar item like a car. Even then, I don't suggest that. The last car I sold resulted in getting nagged to death by the person who couldn't figure out how to transfer the title. The convenience features of the platform are the opposite of convenient. It's cancer.
Most of the people who reply to marketplace are older women who see a promoted post and just click "Is this still available?" button and never talk to you again or talk for a day or two and then ghost you after "my husband took me on a surprise trip and I won't be home until Monday, you can give it to someone else if you want." Happens too much to make it worth the trouble. I had to start selling things I wanted to give away because the price reduces 20% of the pain but anymore it's just too much effort. Craig's list, aside from potentially getting murdered, is a much better experience.
Does your neighborhood/town have a "Buy Nothing" group (on FB)? It's a private group for what you describe - giving away unused items. We've used our local group heavily for this - mostly giving away things (we downsized homes a few years ago and have been purging ever since). But, we also picked up some nice things as well - my wife even hit the jackpot with a neighbor giving away a closet full of designer shoes in a hard-to-find size.
Agreed. I miss the simplicity and quirkiness of Craigslist. I don't use FB so I've been using NextDoor for buying and selling locally and I've found the experience pleasant so far. Very simple and you can limit your blast radius. No algorithms involved. Kind of like a modernized Craigslist.
