June 27, 2021

A Funny Story About Facebook Marketplace

I'm not sure what to title this, other than "a funny story"--because that's just what it is!

As you know, I love Facebook Marketplace. I've sold things on there, but mostly I love to find furniture. I bought most of the furniture in my house from Marketplace, saving a ton of money and finding some really cool pieces I never would have found elsewhere (like my 1976 couch and coincidentally matching chair!).

Yesterday morning, I opened Marketplace to search for something--I honestly can't even remember what it was--and a bunch of "Listings for you..." popped up. Marketplace basically uses an algorithm to show you listings you might like based on previous interest in items (not surprising). It always shows me furniture, which distracts me from what I was intending on doing (which is why I can't even remember what I had planned to search for yesterday).

I started looking at tables that looked like they could work for playing cards/board games in the garage. When the weather is nice, it'd be fun to be able to play games out there, but I don't want to spend a lot of money on a table that is just going in the garage. So, Marketplace.

I saw a table that looked pretty perfect--the base of it had a little storage cubby. I figured it'd be convenient to put cards and whatnot in there. It was only $20, so I sent a quick message to the guy who was listing it, just asking if it would fit in a pickup truck, assuming it was still available. His name was a little odd, and I wondered if it was real (I know some people use a pseudonym for things like Marketplace, for privacy reasons, which I understand). The name just stuck out to me because it was one of those funny names--I don't want to say exactly what it was, but it was a name like "Hugh Jass" (not quite so obvious, but you get the idea). 

I didn't hear from him right away, and I had to get ready to go to Brian's house. I was at Brian's until after 11:00 pm. I had completely forgotten about the table that I'd inquired about... until today, when I got a message from the guy. All it said was, "Call me" and he left his phone number.

I laughed and thought, "Sorry, I'm not going to call a random creep on Facebook." I figured the table just wasn't meant to be.

About five minutes later, my cell phone rang and it was a number I didn't recognize. At first, I thought, "Oh no! Could that guy somehow have gotten my number from Marketplace? I don't think they can do that, can they?" But I told myself to calm down, it was probably a spam call.

I answered... and thankfully, it was just my cousin who I'd seen at Brian's the night before. (It was really fun to see several of my cousins that I hadn't seen in years!)

He said he was a little surprised that I hadn't mentioned anything about the table to him at Brian's house, and I was totally confused for a second--what table? What was he talking about? And then it hit me--HE was the "random guy on Facebook"! He's always been really funny, and it did not surprise me at all when he told me the name he used was his pseudonym on Marketplace.

He realized how creepy it sounded after he said to call him (he had been thinking I knew it was him up until that point). So he called my mom to get my phone number and explain. I was cracking up--seriously, what a coincidence! There are SO many people on Facebook Marketplace--and it's not like my cousin lives very close--so it was just crazy that he happened to be the person I messaged about the table.

So, we had a good laugh and now I'm going to get a free table for my garage ;)

For the life of me, I could not come up with a photo for this post. So here is a picture of Estelle, enjoying my favorite piece of furniture I bought through Marketplace...

6 comments:

  1. Lol what are the odds! That's too funny, its a small world sometimes!

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  2. Wow! That's wild. Also, I think I have that very orange chair you love. It was my mom's and it's in our basement TV room.

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    1. It's SUCH a great chair--not only do I love the color, but it's super comfortable!

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  3. There was a bit at the end of the news a while ago, someone who bought online furniture, thought they had a bargain then ended up with perfect dolls house furniture. It was quite funny.

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    1. That's so funny--I was looking through some furniture ads and I thought a couple of them looked slightly "off" for some reason. Looking closely at the photo, I realized they were doll furniture! I only buy the stuff that I can see in person beforehand ;)

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