I try to avoid FB as often as possible despite being in the age range of people that live on it (I prefer to live on Pinside, ha ha ). However, it seems impossible to not use FB from time to time as businesses don't seem to maintain their websites anymore--they've nearly all resorted to using FB almost exclusively for up to date information, events, etc.

While I've never used the FB marketplace myself, it seems my significant other gets much better responses on FB these days instead of Craigslist. Quicker sales and less scam BS.

Facebook is a useless place, I hate it and rarely look at it. That said, I just logged in and had a look at the Pinballs for sale group. Yep, there are a lot of nice looking machines in there, and most of the prices look reasonable. That’s a closed group and it has more than 10,000 members. It probably would be worth tracking it if you are looking to buy. But then you have to suffer Facebook.....

You could just unfriend everyone and just join the pinball groups. FB is whatever you want it to be.

Yeah, Facebook is pretty good about not showing you posts from people who you never check in on. I pretty much only see people I’m close with and a crapload of viral videos to watch when I’m bored. The market is fun too.

Nice try Tom. What about Myspace?

No.

Can't wait for the day FB crashes and burns, already in the downward spiral.

facebook-historical-user-count-graph (resized).png

man just look at that downward spiral ....

Clearly you are unaware how many accounts are fake or duplicate right? FB has been pushing fake numbers to keep the ad revenue coming in. FB even admits they have 83 to 140 million false accounts and that was 3 years ago.

first of all, they aren't the ones creating the fake accounts. they are trying to get rid of them. second ... 100 million fake accounts is a drop in the bucket. read the chart. they've got 2 billion active users per month after subtracting fakes.

you desperately wanting a company to die and it actually dying are two different things.

I got on Facebook just for the pinball groups. I have 0 friends added. I’m about to complete my second trade. I trust people on Pinside a lot more. There’s a lot of people on Facebook who will low ball you or ask for way to much but that’s not so bad. So it can be useful but a lot of times, you see the same people and ads on Pinside anyway.

You could consider starting a "Get Off My Lawn" closed group. It would be fun!

And how much FB traffic is in the United States? Less than 20%. You planning on buying a pin in India?

I have no horse in the race, I'm merely pointing out that FB is going the way of MySpace and the trend is accelerating. Businesses are finding that traffic via FB and Google are fools gold and have stopped advertising on those platforms. Millennials are dropping FB like a hot rock, the old people hang out there. I have three so can vouch for that too.

If you don't understand the people who have a financial stake in plumping up the numbers are providing the numbers.. well the only advice I can give you is never ask the barber if you need a haircut.

Please provide evidence for your assertions.

wow he's so mad at facebook.

1) You could try googling "facts about facebook" for starters.

2) Here are one or two pages :

https://zephoria.com/top-15-valuable-facebook-statistics/
https://venturebeat.com/2014/02/03/facebook-has-no-idea-how-many-fake-accounts-it-has-but-it-could-nearly-140m/

Please read most articles carefully and note that FB... is often cited as the source for data which they have already admitted is suspect.

Oh and the statistic for total FB traffic in the US is 17% not 20%.

I deal with a lot of business owners and millennials, all are moving or moved away from FB. Too much drama and not enough business for the money is the common refrain. Kids use the hell out of Snapchat and move to the next big thing almost monthly.

Whos mad? I'm a realist.

The giants of interwebs come and go all the time, it is the only constant. To imply the FB market is going to replace Ebay, CL, forum sales and shows for buying physical pins is ludicrous. It is a factor but hardly the major player.

Remember when Altavista was the number one search engine? Or the ICQ chat program?

I bet you don't but I have been around the tech fields long enough to remember them. Now they are just road kill on the information highway.

If you don't believe the numbers, why cite the article? odd logic.

Interesting that your articles basically say the opposite of what you are saying:
"According to SEC filing, for the first time, Facebook’s U.S. ad revenue will be larger than the biggest traditional media companies trailing only behind Google. "
"Worldwide, there are over 2.07 billion monthly active Facebook users for Q3 2017 (Facebook MAUs) which is a 16 percent increase year over year"

Regarding the fake accounts - so what? Subtract the 5% or whatever and you still have a crazy big number.

Well you lost that bet. Just as an example ... back in 1997 i built the largest science data search engine on the internet at the time. Hundreds of thousands of search requests per month (which was a ton at the time, especially for the niche of science data specialists). I've worked in this industry for 25 years. Big swing and a miss on your part trying to play the expert card.

1) I pointed out by their own admission there is a crazy number of fake accounts and also pointed out it is in their best interest to inflate the numbers. They are providing the data and if they say it is 11% I'd suspect it is higher than that. What part of "they have a financial stake in inflating the numbers" isn't clear? And there is no effective over sight. It isn't like FB has a clean track history, they admit to manipulation of users and information.

2) They made a lot of money on ad revenue, so? What does that have to do with pin sales?

3) Again, only 17% of FB traffic is in the USA, how does this translate into pin sales and available pins on the market for you and me? The number of users worldwide is a somewhat useless metric in regards to the subject we are discussing. The majority of people on FB in the USA are women trading selfies.

Then I'm sure you will be able to rattle off dozens more examples.

Damn, people will argue over anything.

Pop on, look at a couple pics of your brother’s kids, note how fat the girl you loved in high school got. Log off. Doesn’t cost you anything.

examples of what? nobody believes your assertion that facebook is in a "death spiral". i don't have anything else to add.

What's the best way to use Facebook for pinball buying and selling? I don't really use Facebook so would appreciate the guidance.

I seem to have hurt your feelings, my first down vote.

Comeback in a year and tell me how great FB is doing. I know 3 people on FB, the rest have fled (myself included) as it has turned into a cesspool of mindless rantings and selfies of plates of food. Don't know about you but that doesn't sound like a recipe for success.

my feelings are fine. just like facebook.

You can just search for groups. Look for anything pinball or arcade related. A lot of then will be national but you may be able to find some local ones as well. I also have neighborhood yard sale groups in my feed. Once in awhile a pin or something cool for the game room will pop up.

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Back to the topic. Facebook is great for buying and selling. I've had much better luck on there with all my recent transactions. And no fees like pinside

Personally I just don't like to use Facebook, so I don't. No big deal. Although some people that are very close to me use it regularly and simply cannot understand why I am not on there. For example, this morning I just made a nice breakfast with 2 fried eggs and some toast. I could have taken a photo of that and put it on Facebook! So everyone could see my FAB b-fast. Would have been so cool. But I didn't

But I have always said that Facebook did affect my daily life in a really positive way. Before Facebook rolled around, a large variety of family members, friends, and general acquaintances had a habit of sending me a barrage of emails every day with what they thought were funny jokes, hilarious pictures, stupid news stories, etc. That effectively went to zero now that they do all that on FB.

So I got that going for me. Which is nice.

Not to bother with it. Mediums to connect come and go. Privacy concerns outweigh the usefulness of that particular platform for me.

I just sold 5 games recently, I put them on facebook and pinside. 3 sold via facebook and 2 on pinside. I think facebook has become a very good place to buy and sell games.

Which one was it Pez?

I've had great success using facebook to find pinball machines. I have a few wanted ads out on Facebook and just found a great deal on a STNG.

Interesting, I never considered facebook but that's probably because I don't use it. Is there any price police garbage over there? That's the main reason I rarely ever list my pins for sale here.

I don't think facebook is taking over as the place to buy and sell. But it is definitely another tool in the bag. I think anybody that is buying or selling should use facebook as one of their multiple options when looking for a game.

Pretty much this. You also don't have to join any groups to buy/sell. I'm only in two Ohio arcade/pinball groups and left alot of the others due to too much/too little activity going on. The public marketplace is worth checking frequently, and you can even set alerts for search terms to popup as things are posted. I usually see a few good and a few GREAT deals per week on there. Not the only thing I look at but there are alot of people that sell on there, especially non-pinball/arcade collectors that wouldn't even know places like this exist. It's been a good resource for sure.

FB now has a whole generation caught in the social validation loop......

All seeking that small hit of dopamine with each like received.

Wonder what comes after generation mute?

Its great for finding stuff outside the core audience. The cross over of arcade vs pins, etc.

The problem is the platform itself is horrible. Horrible image quality, no high res... poor search, no real retention, no metrics, etc.

It's good to reach more people (so in a lot of ways, its like Craigslist, but way better) but as a tool its bad. Probably a lot more sales happening there across the various groups than places like here.

The quality of the audience is subjective... I mean, for the longest time everyone considered pinside the inflated-price place... not the informed buyer place.

I see all the same ads I see here and on craigslist on Facebook. It's just another place to sell the same stuff.

I do think I've reached a few on facebook I didn't reach here, but with even more frustrating results.

I posted a Funhouse there...got about 5 messages asking if it had "a brand new playfield" or "new cab decals?"

Sure...the game has all that stuff I just decided I wouldn't mention the thousands of dollars in new parts I put into the game.

I have no idea why but I've found the FB audience to be even picker, needier, and price policier than here.

I like face book for a bunch of reasons. I agree it is what you make of it. Isn't everything.

I don't use it to find pinball sales. The event system in place on Facebook is nice.

All pinball in my area is finding its way to Facebook. It is allowing for or fostering pinball interest and perhaps growth.

It's interesting. Facebook.

yea, there does seem to be a newer crowd of pinball folks on Facebook whihc adds some extra frustrating questions. I actually thought the price policing was better than pinside and people where more quick to tell the price policers to go eat one than on pinside.

I noticed the same thing. Someone posted they would trade their Spider-Man for my Metallica Premium and a stranger told them off, lol. Deals seem to better on facebook. I just picked up a lotr for 4100, good luck woth that on pinside

Saw that one in the Ohio group, nice pick up! Out of my price range but looked like a good one.

I lucked out earlier this summer and was the first person to respond to this lady's Facebook Marketplace ad for a nice price on a Doctor Who. I flew over to her house to pay and pick up. As I was leaving, she looked at her messages and had 9 other people message to say they wanted it. Every once in a while they'll be a good price on the FB Marketplace. I've also had great luck on Offer Up and Letgo.

I don't buy and sell much. But just put 4 Roses on FB, Craigslist, Let Go, and Pinside. Sold off of FB. But had interest from all 4 sites. So agree it is just another tool in the bag. As for the other comments re FB, it is good to check once a week or so to catch up with family and friend updates, a few occasional jokes, and needling the other political side when they post stupid stuff they don't fact check.

I invented the internet so...

I didn't know Al Gore was on Pinside

There are fees, but you don't see them. They're collecting and selling your internet activity. Facebook privacy policies are amongst the worst on the internet.

That sucks. I hope they don’t use it to show me ads for products I actually would buy.

I did this. Unfriended all friends and family. Now I just see posts/pics of:
Pinball
Mame arcades
Fantasy football
Some geek movie sites

Life is good. Mom was angry.