How to sell on Facebook
Facebook marketplace rules
When you sell on Facebook, you need to follow what’s called ‘Commerce Policies.’ These outline the rules of what’s allowed and not allowed to be sold on their pages and marketplace. Here’s what to avoid when selling on Facebook, according to the company's rules:
- Not a real item: It’s against the rules to post something that doesn’t physically exist on the marketplace, such as a joke post, lost or found or news. This doesn’t apply to pages of course, but specifically the marketplace.
- Services or event tickets: Facebook has strict policies on selling services (such as cleaning) or tickets for events. However, sometimes this is allowed with written permission from Facebook – but you’d need to get in touch with them directly for this.
- Description and photo don't match: You can’t post a picture that doesn’t fit the description of an item being sold.
- Animal for sale: You can’t post animals up for sale or adoption on the marketplace, or on Facebook pages either
- Healthcare: Anything medical isn’t permitted for sale on Facebook marketplace.
- Before and after pictures: You can’t post before and after photos on Facebook marketplace – for example, if you were selling a piece of gym equipment, you couldn’t accompany the post with before and after weight loss pictures.
It’s important to remember you can be banned permanently from Facebook marketplace if you violate the rules – so if you’re looking for more information about Facebook marketplace policies, take a look at the help centre.
Selling unwanted items locally
Selling your unwanted items on Facebook is super easy – and it’s especially useful if you can’t deliver, or don’t want to go too far out of your way if you do.
You can use your own profile, marketplace or buy and sell pages to sell your stuff locally. If you have a lot of local friends on your Facebook profile, it’s not against the rules to ask on your status if anyone would be interested in purchasing your item.
However, you may get more interest when using the buy and sell pages. Just search for buy and sell pages that are specifically for your area (this is usually the name of the group). Or, you can add your location to a marketplace description, and outline the reason you’re selling locally (can’t deliver, can’t travel too far, etc)
How much does it cost to sell items on Facebook?
Selling on Facebook is absolutely free, making it an attractive route when selling items. Facebook is social media platform that’s free to join, so there’s no monthly payments – and they don’t take a percentage of the money you make from selling using the site either.