Facebook Marketplace vs BoatTrader.com

[Brian Filas]

Just wanted to let everyone know my personal experience with listing my boat. I decided to sell my 2016 FSH190 as I took a job out west and we will be moving soon. Lots of folks said to list on boattrader.com as well as Facebook Marketplace. BT costs $149 and FB is free. The results were stunning. In a week I have had 1 inquiry on BoatTrader. With Facebook Marketplace I had 10 inquiries and 2 offers for full asking price. All of those were on the same day I listed it.

I called to let BT know about my experience and requested a prorated refund and they told me they do not offer any guarantees of results and will not refund anything. They said they only offer refunds if there is a technical issue on their end. So I just confirmed, I could get my money back if they screwed up, but not if their service sucks. While I realize nobody could guarantee a sale, I should at least get some looks. To have a free service outperform a paid service by 10x is insane. I just thought they would be embarrassed by this performance and want to improve their product/reputation. The "talk-off" was so negative and scripted that it leads me to believe they know their results are inferior to other alternatives and they don't care (as long as they already have my money). She didn't even attempt to make me a happy customer. Just said "no" and basically ended the call. I would have taken any recognition on their end and any offer (partial credit, etc.) from them as a positive sign and probably would have not written this post.

So my recommendation, based on my personal experience, is this: The market is hot right now due to cheap money and COVID. Do not waste your money with BoatTrader.com until you have listed on FB Marketplace for a few weeks to see if you can get some free leads. Again, I sold my boat the same day for the full asking price (so that means it was priced right and should have generated some attention on BoatTrader). Now I plan to leave my add up on BT for a few weeks to see if it gets any hits. I am sure others have had some luck on BT, but why waste your money in such a hot market. Would love to hear others' experiences?

 

[AncientCanoe]

Good info for those selling or looking to buy, but you are talking about Facebook like it's some mom and pop start up just because it's free. Of course BT can't compete with Facebook.

 

[Babin Farms]

When we sold our pontoon we had no luck with FB so we talked to Skipper Buds because they had a boat we were interested in. They will post it on minimum 8 different boat sales sites plus their website, handle all of the pics, listings and paperwork. The only thing I had to do was drop the boat off at one of their marinas and wait for the check to arrive after it sold. They take a 10% commission so I told them what I wanted in my pocket and they priced it accordingly. IIRC they sold it in 2 weeks for full asking price. IMO it was well worth not having to deal with it, & I pocketed what I was originally asking for it on FB. This was late last summer before the market caught fire.

 

[Brian Filas]

@AncientCanoe - Your two-sentence response made the point better than I did in 3 paragraphs. I totally agree there is no way BT can compete against a behemoth like FB, and yet they still took my $149. Not saying that is a good thing either. It is sad to see these mega-corporations running all these niche players out of business. But at the end of the day, it is reality.

It is just one last parting gift of some more money down the proverbial drain plug...

 

[the MfM]

Asking for a refund is a bit much imho. Maybe should have given the Facebook listing a day or two before paying for boat trader.

 

[ourlee]

Just wanted to let everyone know my personal experience with listing my boat. I decided to sell my 2016 FSH190 as I took a job out west and we will be moving soon. Lots of folks said to list on boattrader.com as well as Facebook Marketplace. BT costs $149 and FB is free. The results were stunning. In a week I have had 1 inquiry on BoatTrader. With Facebook Marketplace I had 10 inquiries and 2 offers for full asking price. All of those were on the same day I listed it.

I called to let BT know about my experience and requested a prorated refund and they told me they do not offer any guarantees of results and will not refund anything. They said they only offer refunds if there is a technical issue on their end. So I just confirmed, I could get my money back if they screwed up, but not if their service sucks. While I realize nobody could guarantee a sale, I should at least get some looks. To have a free service outperform a paid service by 10x is insane. I just thought they would be embarrassed by this performance and want to improve their product/reputation. The "talk-off" was so negative and scripted that it leads me to believe they know their results are inferior to other alternatives and they don't care (as long as they already have my money). She didn't even attempt to make me a happy customer. Just said "no" and basically ended the call. I would have taken any recognition on their end and any offer (partial credit, etc.) from them as a positive sign and probably would have not written this post.

So my recommendation, based on my personal experience, is this: The market is hot right now due to cheap money and COVID. Do not waste your money with BoatTrader.com until you have listed on FB Marketplace for a few weeks to see if you can get some free leads. Again, I sold my boat the same day for the full asking price (so that means it was priced right and should have generated some attention on BoatTrader). Now I plan to leave my add up on BT for a few weeks to see if it gets any hits. I am sure others have had some luck on BT, but why waste your money in such a hot market. Would love to hear others' experiences?

I’ve been boat shopping for months, using BT exclusively. I’ll also add they leave boats online for WEEKS + that are sold. So excited to shop on FB. Keep us posted on your hits the next few weeks. Good luck out west. Both sons 1&2 live in LA and we love it.
Cheers Rick

 

[Captain_Ron65]

I shopped for a used boat for about 3.5 months this summer. I started out using Boat Trader and Boats.com and I found very limited listings in my area (actually overall the listings were limited). I then tried FB Marketplace and the number of listings was significantly higher. I also found that the status of the listing was more accurate and up to date. I finally found my boat a few weeks ago. I found that if I didn't contact the seller within 24 hours of the listing and then schedule time to see the boat within a day or two, it would be gone. It's definitely a seller's market.

 

[ourlee]

I missed so many. I'm on BT all the time. My wife is irritated with me while we watch a movie together and I continue to shop. But after we lost HER fav boat by a few hours, she puts up with it.

 

[Captain_Ron65]

One other point, Boat Trader and Boats.com have way better capabilities for refining your search so that you narrow down to what you are looking for. FB Marketplace search is terrible and you have to scroll through tons of listings that aren't even close to what you searched for to find matches.

 

[ourlee]

I'm giving it a shot tonight

 

[Dixie Highway]

Post it on here, that’s where I had success.

 

[GTBRMC]

I had good luck selling my boat on Craigslist back in 2017 (posted it on both Chicago and Northern Michigan regional sites). Also posted here.

 

[Sean R]

I sold and found my new to me boat here?

 

[Brad460]

I had good luck selling my boat on Craigslist back in 2017 (posted it on both Chicago and Northern Michigan regional sites). Also posted here.

FB has basically made Craigslist irrelevant...

 

[GTBRMC]

FB has basically made Craigslist irrelevant...

Well, I sold my boat for my desired price within a couple weeks of listing on Craigslist.

I made no claim about relative merit vs. Facebook, was pointing out another option.

 

[Mhamann75]

Within 12 hours I sold my boat on BT last month.... had at least 12 inquiries in that time.sold 2018 AR190 for 31k

 

[Zizzou 192]

Ballston Lake man charged after attempting to steal a boat he found on Facebook Marketplace

GLOVERSVILLE, N.Y. (NEWS10) — A Ballston Lake man was arrested after an investigation found he attempted to buy a boat off Facebook Marketplace using fraudulent checks. State Police said the …

www.google.com

This was a big deal around here recently.

 

[portlandbucfan]

Dont understand refund part. Why would Boat Trader give you a refund? I would never think to ask, more power to you for trying.

 

[captainhook]

The first problem with Facebook Marketplace is that sellers are absolutely bombarded with idiot low ballers, and an infinite number of people either intentionally or unintentionally (it’s just a button people click by accident) asking “is this available?” Between fielding all of that shit, there are some legitimate buyers. This leads them to becom overwhelmed often and either sell it to the person at the top of their message list, or just become completely frustrated.

The other major problem with it was mentioned above—the search results are absolutely a shitshow, displaying motorcycles, cars, houses, trampolines, XBoxes, weightlifting equipment, etc. on a search term not even related to any of those items. Two of the same searches back to back will not yield the same results. Sometimes a result is exactly what you’re looking for yet it will only show up (if at all) in the “Other people also looked at...” section. Facebook by default sorts by “recommended,” though adjusting to “newest” or “nearest” often doesn’t help either. This isn’t helped by the fact that sellers often do a terrible job on the listing either.

Bottom line is that Facebook Marketplace can be awful for both buyers and sellers.

 

[Babin Farms]

Agree. I’m selling a 40’ ladder for $350 and someone just asked if I’d take $150. Ummmmmmm.....NOPE!!