Facebook Marketplace is nothing than scam selllers

Caveat emptor ... AKA buyer beware. Good that you recognize this even if you were or were not aware of this exact term.

I suspect that quite a few people selling on Ebay, Craigslist, and now Facebook Marketplace are... if not out and out criminals/conartists ... are pretty shady and irresponsible. Learning these lessons the hard way, maybe you spend less time fishing these murky and toxic sale waters for any allegedly legitimate deals.

Finding a legitimate seller whose selling exactly what they're claiming to sell (sans ulterior motive) is pretty rare on these sites. Not as rare as ... winning the lottery I suppose but not really worthy of your time in the long run.

I don't know why ebay is like your side of the pond but I've had very few problems. Over ten years of buying and only two bad experiences, each time the money was refunded. I use paypal for everything. I would say 99.9% of sellers are legit.

Me too on this side of the pond - I have only had good experiences on ebay - never tried Facebook market place because I really do not use facebook other than to look at pix from family members.

I do make sure they are rated well before I purchase. Always got what I ordered and when they said it would come - I also have found that most are quite honest when you are buying used - they tell you exactly what might be not perfect on the product.

One of my best purchases was a retired American Girl doll. It was cheap because the hair was a mess but the body was in very good condition. Remembering when my daughter's cousin tore off the head of her other American Girl doll you can send to the "hospital" and they repair it. So we did the same - voila - a perfectly new doll came back or at least it appeared so for the price after paying hospital fees and combined with the ebay purchase of a regular American Girl doll. Believe it or not because now it is in perfect condition and retired - I could sell it for double the price.

Another annoying thing is good in the picture but personally it is very far from the picture shown to you.