How to find underpriced items on Facebook Marketplace

Everyone who browses Marketplace has seen one: the PS5 priced like a PS4, the barely-used table saw at yard-sale money. Those listings aren't random. They come from predictable situations, show up at predictable times, and get worded in predictable ways. Learn the patterns and you'll spot them in seconds.

Who prices things too low, and why

• The mover. “Moving this weekend, everything must go.” They're pricing for speed, not value. Listings with moving, relocating or “gone by Sunday” in them are worth opening every time.
• The upgrader. They bought the new one; the old one is clutter. They often don't know (or care) what it's worth now.
• The gift-receiver and the ex. Items that arrived free leave cheap. “Never used, got it as a gift” is a price built on zero attachment.
• The estate clear-out. Adult kids selling a parent's tools or furniture usually price to empty a garage, not to maximize a sale.
• The typo. A missing digit ($40 instead of $400) or a misspelled brand (“Milwakee”) hides a listing from everyone searching correctly. Fewer eyes, less competition.

Know two numbers cold

For each thing you flip, memorize the local going rate and the eBay sold price. An asking price only looks cheap against a number in your head. SnagSonar prints the typical local price next to every listing, so the comparison happens at a glance — but for your core items you should know it without looking.

Watch the clock, not just the feed

Underpriced listings cluster: evenings after work, Saturday and Sunday mornings, and the start of the month when leases end and people move. A deal posted at 8 pm on a Tuesday can be gone by 8:20. If you can't be watching then, let software watch for you — SnagSonar checks your searches as often as every 15 seconds and pings your phone, so the 8 pm deal reaches you at 8 pm, not whenever you next open the app.

Search like sellers write

Sellers in a hurry write three-word listings: “couch good condition”, “gaming pc”, “dewalt drill”. Long precise searches miss them. Use short keywords plus a price cap, and let skip-words (“broken”, “parts only”, “wanted”) remove the junk instead of making the search narrower. Add common misspellings for your items, or use a tool that catches typos automatically.

Read the listing like a buyer's inspector

Opening the listing, you have maybe thirty seconds to decide. Check: photos taken in a real home (not stock images), a price that's low but not absurd, a seller profile older than a few weeks, and a description that mentions a reason for selling. A plausible reason — moving, upgraded, baby coming — is the single best sign the discount is real.

Then move

A genuinely underpriced listing is decided in the first half hour. Message with a number and a pickup time, not “is this available?” — our messaging guide covers exactly what to say. And if the price looks too good even for a mover? That's a different pattern — read how to spot scams before you drive anywhere.