I’ve sold and bought items online since 2003 so I’m going to share some of the differences between marketplaces such as eBay, Gumtree and Facebook. It’ll help you to decide which marketplace to use to sell and buy your items. Also, be sure to check out my part two post which goes into a lot more detail of the tactics and strategies I use to buy and sell online.
Differences between Facebook Marketplace vs Gumtree vs eBay
Facebook Marketplace
I often receive ridiculously and unrealistically low prices for things I sell on Facebook Marketplace such as furniture, jewellery and baby stuff. However, if you can be patient and work through them, you’ll find you can sell your unwanted items a lot faster on Facebook Marketplace – I’ve sometimes sold my item within 30 minutes!
It’s also a lot faster to list an item for sale using my mobile – I can list an item for sale within 30 seconds.
Pros
Faster to create an ad for your unwanted items using your mobile – and it’s free.
I sell most of my items faster on Facebook Marketplace than on any other marketplace.
You can view the sellers and buyers Facebook profile to make sure they’re genuine.
You can instantly message people which makes communicating with sellers and buyers a lot faster compared to Gumtree or eBay.
Cons
If you’re a buyer on Facebook Marketplace, you’re limited to browse items for sale within 500km from your location. This is very annoying because most of the items I buy online I ask the seller to post to me. So if I’m limited to 500km from where I live, it means I have to change my city location in order to view items I want to buy from other parts of Australia.
Offers are often low and unrealistic compared to offers received from buyers on Gumtree and eBay. BE PREPARED FOR A LOT OF TIME WASTERS!!!
If you’re a buyer, there’s a lot more inventory to shop from on Gumtree and eBay compared to Facebook Marketplace. I feel there is a lot more crap for sale on Facebook Marketplace than on Gumtree and especially more than eBay. I think it’s because it’s so fast to sell items on Facebook Marketplace that people feel they can list anything for sale! The most ridiculous thing I saw for sale was an invisible air guitar pick for $1.50!
Gumtree
I generally list the items I have listed for sale on eBay on Gumtree and generally receive up to $50 more per item when sold on Gumtree compared to Facebook Marketplace. So if you have something to sell and you’re not in a hurry to sell it, list it on Gumtree.
Listing an item for sale on Gumtree is free. They do offer optimised listings to help get your ad in front of more buyers, but I’ve never used that option. So you can get away without having to pay any listing fees when using Gumtree to sell your unwanted items. Just be prepared to log in several times to manually push each of your listings live again once they expire. It happens automatically for up to 30 days. But if you have not sold your item on Gumtree after 30 days you need to log back in and post the ad so it goes live again.
I receive more spam messages from buyers on Gumtree compared to eBay and Facebook Marketplace. I wrote some online trading safety tips here for our wedding marketplace. These tips can help those of you who like to buy and sell in person.
Pros
Gumtree is well known and has a stronger brand presence in Australia.
I receive more money for items sold on Gumtree over Facebook Marketplace.
Cons
It takes a long time to sell on Gumtree with an average sell time of 2 weeks to 3 months.
It’s not quick to contact the seller and usually takes a day or two to receive a reply.
I receive more messages from buyers trying to scam me on Gumtree compared to Facebook Marketplace and eBay.
eBay
I love the rating system on eBay, and it’s because of this that I have more confidence in buying and selling high priced items over Gumtree and Facebook Marketplace.
If I’m shopping for something worth more than $1000 I only buy from sellers who have a positive score of at least 99.7%. I have a score of 100% with close to 900 transactions so it makes it easier for me to sell on eBay because buyers know they can trust me when buying items from my eBay store.
Pros
eBay is great for high priced, designer items and for its excellent rating system.
They offer an excellent support team and even provide a call back service.
Cons
It’s not fast to create your listing. eBay has many fields that require information when creating an ad to sell an item. I feel they have over complicated it.
So there you have it, a quick wrap up of some of the difference between Facebook Marketplace, Gumtree and eBay. In summary, if your item is low priced, and it’s popular, and you need to sell it fast – use Facebook Marketplace. If you’re not in a rush to sell and can wait up to 6 weeks, sell it on Gumtree if you have a valuable item and need to feel safe use eBay.
Here are some other money saving related posts you may be interested in:
Buying and selling online – Part two
A good agent will save you thousands of dollars when selling your property
That is fantastic advice – thank you SO much!
No worries Monika, be sure to read the part two post. Hopefully it will help you further.
Thanks for the advice.
I think gumtree is declining with buyers moving to FB marketplace. E-bay has huge global coverage, but has become expensive since it charges tax.
I sold an electrician’s knife to an electrician and a set of kitchen to a young family for their new home. FB marketplace now blocks and accesses all my posts, because, they claim I sold restricted or prohibited items. the problem is inconsistent rules, I see 20 other ads for kitchen knifes. They release the ad after a day and then sometimes block and release it again. So anything that is sharp can land a seller in trouble. Regards
I agree and I’m also experiencing this when I’ve listed some of my items on FB. Hence why I go across more than the one marketplace. I even add a bit extra when I sell on ebay to cover their listing and seller fees.
Thanks for the guidance; very helpful.
Thanks Emilia you have taught me more about online selling in one article than I’ve learned in 58 years of living – yours sincerely Alex!
Not a problem Alex. I love trading online so am happy to hear you found the post helpful.
Marketplace is inconsistent, I’m trying to sell a mobility walker and Fb marketplace us blocking it saying you can’t sell health products yet there are other mobility walkers for sale so what’s different about those, I’ve even worded the add the same and they still keep blocking me
Hey Laura, I’ve noticed FB seems to be a lot more strict when it comes to allowing specific things to be sold on their marketplace compared with eBay and Gumtree. I have seen various hacks to get around this, like spacing out the title of the item for sale, using numbers instead of letters etc. This has happened to me when I was trying to sell my breast pump 🙂 I simply gave up on FB and instead listed it on eBay and Gumtree. Have you tried listing your mobility walker for sale on eBay and Gumtree?