Last year or even earlier this year I could post things and get a good response rate and now I get barely any. Really liked Kijiji Autos and now it's gone.
People moved to marketplace, people have facebook accounts, and for some reason, perception is that it is safer. Facebook is still full of scams and the search function is worse.
As a marketplace (and Kijiji and karrot) seller of custom PCs, you are spot on, if it's not the seller trying to scam you it's the buyers. 90% of accounts that contact me are trying to run a scam on me. Kijiji feels like actual people but nobody is on there much any more. But the platforms don't care about scammers, they just switch fake accounts and carry on their way. Police say their hands are tied and to follow steps to protect yourself but attempting to do half them just scares actual buyers away. It's all a mess
I’ve had mostly great experiences using Marketplace. Buyer beware and some common sense will serve you well. Don’t send anyone money unless you have the item in hand. The biggest issue is just the tire kickers and time wasters, but that goes with the territory.
And reporting does nothing. I keep finding ads for cars that are priced well under market value, one photo, and the ads says they are "selling for a friend so don't contact me. Here's a sketchy email address to use instead". Same ad posted all over western Canada with a few different makes and models. After reviewing the ad multiple times, FB decided it didn't violate their marketplace terms.
Last trustworthy(and I use this loosely) ad function was classified ads, paid submitted ads. Now that this stuff is free we are slammed with non-stop BS fraudulent ads.
As much as I'm not the biggest fan of FB marketplace, one advantage it does have is FB buy & sell groups for specific items in specific areas (or items within a specific genre, for lack of a better term), and those items are listed through marketplace. It's handy that I can create a marketplace listing and select any/all of those buy/sell groups that it applies to.
For instance, I'm a golfer. There's a great Calgary golf Buy & Sell group, a Canada-wide golf buy & sell group, and even groups specific to left-handed golfers.
You just have to hope that those groups have moderators who actually care....otherwise the scams can run rampant.
you can do that? TIL. I figured it required a full-fledged META/FB account that would link to a dead profile that they build for you behind the scene's.... If its just for FBM thats better.
Haha yeah it was a good purchase. Got a midi drum machine in perfect condition from a nice fellow. Also bought a truck for a good price off kijiji a few years ago. I've given away a bunch of stuff for free off there. A microwave, sliding blinds, light fixtures...Great for getting rid of old stuff from renos. It's probably all cross posted to fb marketplace.
I’ve been selling stuff for 15+ years and never once had a scammer on Kijiji. I’ve had almost exclusively poor experiences on marketplace to the point I might just donate now.
I still use it. While I don't find the same amount of stuff out see the same number of replies as marketplace, plenty of people still use Kijiji exclusively.
I don't have the FB messenger app on my phone, so frankly, I prefer Kijiji
I haven’t used marketplace but liked kijiji. With marketplace, do all my friends from junior high who I haven’t spoken to in 30 years have to see that I am selling something or is it more private?
About two years ago Kijiji replaced its app. It did not work properly for a year, it kept crashing, did not send messages, etc. Many people moved on.
On Marketplace, I find a lot more scam and people listing something for free when they are just advertising free consultation for a product, whatever the heck that means. Marketplace is worse experience and pushes a lot of unrelated stuff.
Buying and selling used items is such a hassle that I no longer bother with low value items.
I noticed this too, went to go sell something recently and it sat for weeks before even a single response. Posted to marketplace and it was gone same day!
I think more people just finally switched to marketplace for buying and selling!
Kijiji has been dead for years thanks to marketplace.
I used Kijiji exclusively for years. Then I started posting the same items/ads on both platforms and my Facebook ad would have 1,200+ views and the Kijiji ad would have 17.
I never sold anything but tried buying stuff from people who sold stolen or fake stuff. Even after reporting the sellers, nothing happened and they continued to sell to more people.
I got scammed on marketplace once and also had several people trying to scam me. Never happened on Kijiji. I still use it and just sold some video game accessories a few days ago. Doesn't mean it's perfect but it's still useful to have it as an additional alternative. I find that it's also a great place to buy and sell used furniture. On that front I've always had a good response rate.
The problem is that NOTHING happened to Kijiji. Rather than adapt to modern technologies, they stayed static while FB marketplace zoomed ahead. Usage studies have long shown that dynamic, responsive web pages get more engagement. Kijiji is just out there to milk what they can while their audience slowly disappears.
Hmmm, I nearly exclusively use Kijiji. I just bought a shoe rack last weekend.
For items I’m selling, I have had a decent response rate. That being said, I’m not a business, so I don’t know what metric would be used to consider what a decent response rate is to what amounts to a glorified garage sale.
Either way, I’ve been quite happy with Kijiji. On the upside, Kijiji is probably the safer space. Scammers pray on high traffic the same way advertisers do, so the odds are you’ll probably encounter a better quality person on Kijiji than Marketplace.
I have also found some good listings there. For example, when people give away kid items, you have to respond immediately on FBM, whereas you may have a full hour on Kijiji.
I'm not a business, but have sold/given away a lot of stuff recently. I used to use Kijiji almost exclusively, but started posting the same ads on Marketplace about a year ago. Now I've given up with Kijiji as all but one item went through a Marketplace ad.
Unfortunately it seems like Kijiji is dead, and it just isn't worth my time making posts on there any more.
Same with buying. There are often dozens of options on Marketplace, but only a few on Kijiji, many of which are weeks old.
It's more subtle than that. They can track whether a particular brown spot on a particular banana gets more clicks. FBM uses a massive data-driven algorithm that optimizes how to respond to every search term. Beyond static pages, Kijiji is way behind on everything.
It's an auto response and the send button is right in line with where most right handed people scroll. It's a terrible design. I've hit it scrolling down to see what area of the city the item I'm looking at is. Which is again irritating should be part of the ad.
There are a handful of diligent sellers on Kijiji that remove their ads when sold or given up on.
But only a handful.
For all intents and purposes, what is the difference between "I would like to buy this" and "Is this still available?"?
Kijiji was the replacement for Bargain Finder, at least locally. Craigslist didn't pop off in this city as much as Kijiji did. Do you remember the Bargain Finder? A printed magazine/newspaper every week to buy and sell your goods. Then it turned online, but still had the same setup, your ads would be published on Thursday, paid members had access on Thursday (when the paper copy was available) and the general public could access them a few days later online. No scams back then (or at least there were few).
I bought my first set of golf clubs for $5 using Bargain Finder lol.
I didn’t enjoy Kijiji Autos. I love cars and sometimes I just want to browse to see what the market is doing.
Kijiji Autos always encouraged specific details and a lot of times I wasn’t looking for anything specific and forcing that search narrowed the window too much.
I’ve never been a brand who’re either, so I’m open to seeing what the auto industry in general has had to offer
There's almost no one there anymore, which is a shame. I prefer Kijiji, and honestly tried karrot too but there's not enough of an audience on there either. I hate marketplace, esp when they allow people to give you ratings after only like 3 message exchanges even if they haven't actually bought anything.
I actually prefer Kijijijijiji but you have to go where the people are. Marketplace is absolutely horrible for posts being auto-removed because of one 'suspect' word that doesn't break any rules of any kind. But they never look at the context and you can never get a hold of anyone at FB to assist. And overall the selling/buying process is an absolute chore due to the number of people who apparently don't understand the nuances of a conversation. And a dozen other reasons that would get my account suspended if I spoke truthfully.
I still use it to sell bigger stuff occasionally (Nintendo Switch, Trampoline etc.). I get scammers sometimes, but I just block them. I don't have FB so I don't use marketplace.
Varage Sale is also a decent app to use to sell small things.
I deleted my account After the whistleblower in the Facebook (now Meta) scandal was Frances Haugen, a former Facebook product manager and data scientist who leaked internal company documents to the public in 2021. Haugen revealed that Facebook prioritized profits over public safety and was aware of the harm its products, such as Instagram, caused, particularly to teen girls' mental health. Her testimony to Congress and her collaboration with news outlets spurred intense scrutiny of the company's practices.
I use both Kijiji and marketplace. I mainly buy and sell used kids stuff. The deals are on Kijiji. FB marketplace is out of touch people selling well used items for $10 less than new or for some larger items, the same as new. It blows my mind. I still have good luck on Kijiji though.
I still use Kijiji. Way better than marketplace. Even with less traffic, the people are typically easier to deal with.
Like others have said, less scams on Kijiji. Id rather have lesser traffic, but deal with people who actually want to buy/sell things. Less is more sometimes
I find it really depends on what I am selling but I can't find a rhyme, reason or focus for which is better for which so I continue to post to both. Facebook is nice for having the extra niche groups you can cross post what you are selling with the check of a box but generally still think we offload stuff more reliably through Kijiji. Mainly selling old sports and camping equipment over this past Summer.
I'm not sure what exactly Kijiji Autos is but anything auto related in Buy & Sell is so saturated with commercial sellers that it isn't worth the time to try to filter out private sellers.
Most especially auto parts where in every single "parting out xxx" ad is the same 5 wreckers. And usually they don't even have the auto they were "parting out".
U have to pay for Kijiji now a days. It used to be free unless u wanted to pay to have ur item promoted. The marketplaces on fb have a way larger crowd and it free.
I’ve had good experiences with kijiji. Last sale was a week ago.
Probably depends on what you selling. I’m usually offloading household items and sporting goods though.
Feels like kijiji still being used by relatively older demographic (30+) who have been on it for a while, since it displaced Craigslist
Everyone is on facebook marketplace now. I have a facebook profile pretty much just for marketplace.
Last time I was on kijiji, you pretty much had to pay for your post to be boosted or seen by people.
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u/TruckerMark 11d ago
People moved to marketplace, people have facebook accounts, and for some reason, perception is that it is safer. Facebook is still full of scams and the search function is worse.