Digital Dumpster Diving
A Grad Student’s Guide to Facebook Marketplace
I’m unreasonably proud of furnishing almost my entire apartment with second-hand finds. I learned the joy of sifting through discarded items on the side of the road early on. It was quite often that on the way home from soccer practice my parents would pull the car over to inspect a piece of furniture or a lawn mower that someone had chucked to the curb. Even now, my father still FaceTimes me, beaming over an old tile cutter he found that, with an oil refresh, works just like new.
The Cambridge curb isn’t quite as fruitful as the streets of my hometown (with the exception of Allston Christmas on September 1st), but I’ve found a comparable rush in trading the curb for Facebook Marketplace. I’m here to share the lessons I’ve learned from 15+ years of searching for gems among used items.
Know your Goals
Are you looking to furnish your apartment on as low of a budget as possible?
Do you want your apartment to give “I have a full time, well-paying job” on a grad student stipend?
Did your microwave break and you need a replacement like this week?
Knowing what you are looking for will inform when you should look, your requirements for the item itself, what a “good deal” means to you, and how long you are willing to wait for the perfect post to surface. I’ve both frantically Uber-packaged a computer monitor from a seller to my apartment and rented a Zipcar to drive to Lowell to pick up my dream vintage slipper chairs (priced at $50 and reselling online for $4,000–I drooled).
Find the 5 furnishings in this photo from Marketplace
Timing is Everything
September 1st is almost universally moving day in the Camberville/Boston area–the streets are full of home furnishings that residents were too lazy to sell or move to their new apartment. If you go on Facebook Marketplace in the days before, there are plenty of “Free for anyone who will pick up” posts. These pieces can be great for filling a space, but there’s also an advantage to beginning your shopping a bit earlier. In my opinion, the month of August is the sweet spot when the pieces are nice enough to be worth planning ahead, but there’s still a sense of urgency to motivate lower prices with move-in day approaching.
In wealthier neighborhoods like Brookline, people aren’t as worried about getting their money back and tend to throw in extra items just for the convenience of you removing it from their space.
Consistency is Key
If you think that scrolling on social media gives you a dopamine boost, try obsessively checking Marketplace multiple times a day searching for the perfect dining room table at a good price that has just been posted 20 minutes ago.
Everyone else on Marketplace is also looking for a bargain, and unlike Goodwill, the best items aren’t going to be hidden among the piles of stained t-shirts. The algorithm advertises to everybody, so your best bet at stellar finds is consistency, patience, and a willingness to pick up the item as soon as possible.
Research & Assess
My biggest Facebook Marketplace hack is Google’s reverse image search: it’s an instant way to get an idea of the value and quality of a piece and inform your negotiations without being a furniture, lighting, or appliance connoisseur. I’ve included a few examples that speak for themselves.
If you can’t find the item online, my tried-and-true method of getting more details on a piece is to ask the seller where they got it from. This question can give you some information on the history of the piece, how well it’s been taken care of and if the seller even knows much about what they’re selling.
Interfacing with the Seller:
A surefire way to be ignored is to use Facebook’s autofill opening message of “Is this available?”. My strategy for a quick reply is to express extreme interest, give a pick up time, and ask a question. For example: “Hi! I am super interested in this dresser! I would love to pick it up this evening after 5 PM. Do you know if it is solid wood?”
Most people are eager to sell their pieces, so offering a quick pick up is a great way to get priority over other interested parties and sway some leverage in negotiating a price.
It’s also a good idea to screen the seller. If you click on their profile, you can see if they have any reviews and also just get a general vibe check. It gives me some peace of mind to see that a seller is another student or a mother and it can also provide some intuition about negotiation strategies. If a seller has multiple listings, you can bundle to get better prices.
Inspect
You’ll have to define your own personal tolerance for buying items that aren’t in brand new condition. For me, I don’t care if there are some M&M’s in the crack of the couch cushion but I am, for example, picky about the condition of wooden items. There are some obvious red flags to avoid but here are a few additional factors to consider:
- Know your woods: Laminate is thin wood that has been glued on top of other material like particle-board to make a piece seem like it is wooden. Solid wood furniture pieces typically will be of better quality and last longer–they’re usually heavier too.
- Double-check disassembled items: If it’s a flat pack item and has been disassembled, make sure all the parts are there to be reassembled and that the fixtures haven’t been damaged.
- If it’s fabric, clean it: Pretty much any time I buy second-hand furniture with fabric I make sure there are removable covers.
- Plugin lighting: Ask about the lightbulb, the wiring if it is vintage, and the outlet compatibility. Is the socket compatible with normal light bulbs? Is the bulb the fluorescent white that department stores use?
- Beware of bikes: There are a lot of bike scammers on Marketplace in Boston. It’s always a risk to buy a used bicycle given most of us aren’t bike mechanics. If you want to buy a bike, make sure to ask if it recently had a tune-up or consider bringing a bike-savvy friend along with you.
Lightning Round
In conclusion: frames are always cheaper on Marketplace and sometimes it’s worth it to buy the art just for the frame; there is a big culture of selling clippings on Marketplace for $2-5 that are easily plantable; and you can find the best deals in bulk by searching “Estate Sale” or “Warehouse Sale”. Now stop reading and start scrolling; the perfect coffee table (or maybe just a decent microwave) is out there waiting for you.
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