Everyone once in a while readers have forwarded Facebook Marketplace ads with a jeep for sale. But, for the most part I have ignored this resource. I just didn’t think there was much there. I was wrong.
There are a large number of vintage jeeps for sale that I haven’t seen listed elsewhere. I’ve listed a number of them in posts for today. However, I know not everyone has a FB account, so that doesn’t create a dilemma for some folks. I don’t have an answer of that just yet. I also don’t have a system yet for efficiently searching the Marketplace on a national basis, so I don’t know how using the Marketplace will effect my time.
To see what is possible, I plan to do research into the Marketplace platform. It would be great if I could automate some of this stuff, making less work for me and more jeeps for readers. We’ll see how it goes!
This is an example from the Dallas Craigslist with a simple “Willys” search. Hopefully, FB will be allow complex searches like I do on Craigslist.
By all means Dave please see what you can do.
Great work Dave !
Cool idea.. I think more content isn’t a bad thing, but working out the logistics is another story.
Every once in a while, I use “Search All Craigslist” to see what’s out there and the name says what it does.. Searches ALL of Craigslist. Hop on the Google machine and type it in, pick one and check it out. For example, I just searched for Willys PTO and 478 hits came back. It’s far from perfect and you may have to weed through some that are deleted, old or what-not but you get the idea.
If FB can help the ‘no updates’ situation. I’m in. Lol.
It’s free like Craig’s list so I’ll use it before eBay but Marketplace is quirky, works on the phone but I have to back door it on the tablet. What is needed is an app that combines all the Facebook yard sale groups – good stuff can be out there but unless you luck upon it you never see it
I probably should add that I’m not necessarily a fan of Marketplace, just acknowledging that folks are using it in larger numbers than I’d anticipated. Using Marketplace could potentially reduce the risk of encountering a scam, given there is less anonymity, but FB’s data mining of you with your every visit and click disturbs me.
I prefer Craigslist’s simplicity and its mostly benevolent purpose. On the downside, the anonymity provides more opportunity for scams, etc.
eBay, meanwhile, is doing it’s damnedest to cut out affiliates who send potential bidders their way. I am an eBay affiliate and when I send someone to an auction, I used to get a small sales commission if the bidder I sent won the auction. A couple years ago eBay decided to only pay a commission if the bidder is sent 24 hours or less before the auction ends, a nonsensical change. Worse, eBay has partnered with the rebate cash sites (ebates for example) so that if a buyer chooses to pay eBay through a rebate site, the affiliate commission is wiped out entirely, going instead to the rebate site and into the buyer’s pocket. This has enraged eBay affiliates, but eBay management has remained unmoved. However, I still point folks to eBay, because there is unique vintage items that get posted there which I don’t see elsewhere. Unfortunately, starting prices seem much higher than a few years ago and the number of unique items has fallen.
Thanks for the info Dave, was not aware of FB marketplace. It seems very useful, not only for Willys stuff, but all vehicles and parts.
Dave,
Not sure what your technical abilities are but you may want to check out Mozenda. it’s a web page scraping technology that can grab the content and prepare it for your site. Thanks for all the work you do in providing us ewillys content!
sdm
Thanks for the suggestion Stephen. It looks like that requires Windows, so that would block me from using it (I could install an emulator, but I’ve never been all that pleased with them). Also, to use it on a large scale, the fees would likely keep it from being affordable (I operate on a very slim budget). However, maybe I can locate something similar on the Mac side that is open source.