I only just really noticed Facebook Marketplace exists and managed to pick up a small bargain with the aid of a native speaker (my Mandarin is minimal). However, one thing that’s really confusing me is that so many of the products on display there are listed as one dollar.
I can think of a couple of reasons why this might be - maybe there are fees associated with the price of something for sale, and listing it for the lowest price possible is a way of getting around that. Or maybe a business is offering multiple things at different prices. Or, maybe, people here expect a potential buyer to make an offer first.
I checked out Facebook Marketplace near my home back in the UK to see if people did the same thing, but instead all I saw were pretty reasonable prices, leading me to suspect this might be a Taiwanese thing.
I’ve got no way of knowing, since when I click the ‘translate’ button all I get are a few details about each item for sale. Can anyone tell me why so few things on FB Marketplace list actual prices?
Often it’s that the seller (note: not business, although it can be) is listing multiple things at the same time, often it’s that the seller doesn’t want to list the price because they want people to contact them instead (kind of annoying IMO, but I notice that a lot with Pinoy sellers etc.), sometimes it’s just that the seller is lazy/doesn’t know how to use the platform, sometimes it’s so the item appears earlier in the list when ordered by price (because FB Marketplace isn’t really regulated, at least in the countries I’ve used it, so they can list whatever price they want). I think it is necessary to insert an actual price on the platform - a seller can’t leave that field blank or insert a range.
There are no fees associated with it, at least for regular person-to-person sales. If you want to find out more about the specific item, you need to contact the seller (I’d personally use English, which usually works in my experience, and if they don’t speak English I guess I’m not buying the thing).
Really annoying Taiwannese/Chinese thing they do…
They want you to contact them for the price! some peculier reason they work on the assumption you must really want the item to contact so give a higher price.
One benefit to it also keeps away the wankers with toooooo much time on their hands to bother you about a items price they have no intention of buying.
I use Face book marketplace a lot to buy and sell, truthfully the Taiwanese are better to deal with than British in UK.