Shropshire Star

Talking Telford: Embracing a new age of digital wheeling and dealing with Facebook Marketplace

Here’s a brainteaser - where in Telford can you buy a rice cooker, a settee and a Ford Focus in one afternoon?

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A car and a rice cooker, two recent Facebook Marketplace purchases

Okay, that was a trick question: this fantastical retailer of dreams isn’t a physical place at all but a virtual marketplace - a Facebook Marketplace.

I was somewhat sceptical when Facebook rolled out its buying-and-selling app and a new tab appeared on all our phones through which we could suddenly create a listing for anything we wanted to sell, or browse for any second-hand treasures our neighbours might be selling on the cheap. Wouldn’t this new service naturally devolve into a wretched hive of scams and seediness, I thought, a worse version of Craigslist for the Farmville crowd?