Common questions

No integration or merge. Facebook doesn’t let outside tools in. Available!™ works alongside Marketplace (and Craigslist and Nextdoor) rather than inside them.

Two ways your Marketplace listings connect to Available!™:

• Bake the QR into your Facebook Marketplace listing photo. We generate a scan-to-buy image (photo + price + QR) on Manage items → Share. Attach it as one of your Facebook photos. Facebook won’t scan images for URLs, so the QR gets through where a text link wouldn’t.
• Two-part reply when someone DMs. First message: answer the buyer’s question directly (“yes, still available, when were you thinking of picking it up?”). After they respond, send the follow-up with the reserve link. Buyers on Marketplace are trained that unsolicited links mid-inquiry are a scam pattern — the first reply earns their trust, the follow-up carries the commit link.

(The QR in a listing photo + the two-part DM reply are the two paths we recommend. Available!™ generates both.)

Facebook never has to change. You stop typing “still available” twenty times a week.

It happens less than you’d think. Buyers verify their phone to reserve, which filters out the casual “is this available?” messages that never turn into a real visit. If someone does flake, your item flips back to available automatically, the next person in line gets a text, and the flaker gets a mark on their phone number. Repeat flakers can’t reserve again anywhere on Available!™.

Nope. Cards are optional. Take cash, Venmo, or PayPal at pickup and never think about it. Turning on card acceptance just gives you an extra option for buyers who prefer that.

Yes. On the item edit page, under Who can see this listing?, pick Unlisted. The item drops off your public sale page and won’t appear in captions, prints, or bundle rollups — but its direct link yesavailable.link/i/<slug> still works for anyone you send it to. Search engines are told not to index the page, so it stays off Google.

Some concrete ways sellers use it:

• First dibs to a mailing list or repeat buyers before the sale opens publicly.
• Estate-sale VIP preview for two dealer regulars 24 hours before public opening.
• Auntie called dibs on the china cabinet — send her the link, keep it off the public grid.
• Test-price a higher-value item with one buyer before committing to a public number.
• QA the photo/title/price with your spouse before it hits the sale page.
• Race two known buyers to the phone-verified Buy Now without the item ever showing up publicly.

Flip back to Public any time to drop it back onto the sale page. If you want the page to 404 entirely instead, pick Hidden.

Selling personal property for less than you paid generally does not create a taxable gain, though individual circumstances and state rules vary. A payment report is not the same as taxable income. Card-payment reporting depends on applicable law and your Stripe configuration. Consult a qualified tax professional for advice about your situation.

Payments completed outside Available!™ (cash, Venmo, PayPal at pickup) don’t go through Available!™’s Stripe checkout. That doesn’t determine whether you have independent recordkeeping or tax obligations. See our longer tax guide for the plain-English version.

No. Buyers see your neighborhood publicly (like “Novato, CA”), never your street. The exact pickup address is texted directly to the buyer only after they commit.

Prefer meeting in public? Set the pickup spot to a Starbucks or a busy corner. No home address in the mix.

That’s the normal case. Sign up, snap a photo, share the link. No “garage sale” setup required. If you end up with more stuff later, you can bundle it into a named sale in a couple of clicks.

They walk away, no harm done. If they didn’t pay by card, no money changed hands. If they did, refund them in one tap. Nobody gets penalized for changing their mind after seeing it in person.

Cancel from your dashboard. If the buyer already paid by card, refund in one tap. If they haven’t paid, the item just goes back to available. The buyer gets a polite text; nobody gets penalized.

So the seller knows you’re a real person actually planning to show up. It takes 15 seconds. No account, no password. Your number stays private. Available!™ never shares or sells it.

About 2 hours before your pickup window if you reserved, or the moment your card clears if you bought outright. Either way, you get it by text. Keeping the address private until you’re actually heading over is how sellers protect their spot from no-shows.

Only if you pay by card. A flat 2% of the item price, added on top and always shown before you tap Pay so there’s no surprise. On a $25 item that’s $0.50; on a $100 item it’s $2.

No fee at all if you pay cash, Venmo, or PayPal at pickup. Full breakdown at /fees.

Walk away. No money changes hands unless you decide to buy. If you paid by card up front, ask the seller for a refund; they can do it in one tap. Passing on an item you’ve inspected doesn’t count against you.

Depends how the seller set that item up. On items that allow both Buy Now and reserve for pickup, yes: someone else can still Buy Now by card and win the item, because paying up front is a bigger commitment than a reservation. You’ll get a text right away — no fee, no penalty — and you can jump to the seller’s other items or start over.

On items the seller marks pickup-only, Buy Now is turned off. Your reservation can’t be bumped by anyone until it expires or you complete the pickup.

The seller marked it pickup-only, which means Buy Now by card is turned off for that item. Reserve for pickup is the only way to claim it. Sellers usually do this on items they want the buyer to see in person first, or on items where bumping a reservation would be more trouble than it’s worth.

Sellers are phone-verified before they can list. If you pay by card, that creates a Stripe payment record. If something goes wrong, contact the seller first; your card issuer may also offer dispute rights under its own rules. We can (and will) block sellers who get reported.

The usual person-to-person tips still apply: meet in public for anything valuable, don’t hand over cash for something you haven’t inspected, and use card checkout when you’re not sure.

Our messaging number (401) 466-7024 is a Twilio-provisioned line in the 401 area code, and 401-466 happens to be the prefix mapped to Block Island. Twilio picks the specific prefix; we didn’t choose the city. Every SMS and any voice call about your reservation comes from this one number so it always looks the same in your thread. It’s us — not spam, not somebody in Rhode Island.

We use your phone number, name, and (if you shared it) email to text you pickup details and confirmation. That’s it. We never share it with other buyers, sellers, or marketers. Full details at /legal.