my facebook marketplace feed is one of thee most cursed places on the internet. i’ve gotten several genuinely good scores through marketplace, but mostly the algorithm serves me listings on a spectrum that generally ranges from mildly unhinged to obviously and unambiguously haunted.
i’m so fascinated by the items people choose to list, the descriptions they choose to write, the photos they choose to advertise their listings. i can’t believe some of these items were ever even manufactured. i approach facebook marketplace less as a place to purchase secondhand goods and more as a site for anthropological study.
in the last year i’ve started saving particularly notable listings to an album in my phone called “cursed fb marketplace” which i look at occasionally when i need a little giggle or a reminder that the human experience is such a rich tapestry, there are so many different kinds of people in the world and so much i do not and will never understand, etc. i think we could all use a little of that every now and again so here are some of my finds.
i won’t share any listings with images of people out of respect for their privacy even though those are often the most interesting. it’s a lot of photos of men curled up inside large objects like crates and pickup truck beds making baby faces and sucking their thumbs. i’m not kidding and someone smarter than i am should study this.
there are also so many selfies of older women taken way too close to their face so they look like they were taken accidentally and they never have anything at all to do with the listings. they’ll show up on, like, a listing for a boat. really makes you think.
i promise to share some cute/fun/wholesome/silly listings soon, because i do occasionally see those too. in the meantime i’d recommend everyone be careful about the marketplace listings you choose to open because you may unintentionally influence the algorithm to surface only the most cursed content. ask me how i know.
thanks for reading!