Some adopt it to lighten their material overflow, others to make ends meet, track deals online, feed their curiosity or limit the weight of the frantic production of new objects for the planet with a click. . Since the pandemic caused the craze for second-hand items to soar, virtual souks have become popular.
Like social networks, these cyberbazaars have become a formidable tool for anthropological exploration. During 2021, more than a billion people across the planet used MarketPlace, Facebook’s resale site, to sell off or search for an item, mostly used.
The pandemic has not only propelled online shopping of all kinds, but it has also accelerated the slow death of the garage sale, shunned in favor of the cyberbraderie, dematerialized (more sanitary) and accessible to all, at all times, with supporting photos and files.
The art of trading 2.0
Once limited to the nonchalant curiosity of neighbors in a driveway, access to your trails and other dusty trinkets is now offered to an unlimited number of strangers, even to the tens of thousands of people who live within a radius of 20 km from your place. Those who have known the ancient era of garage sales and their share of shy onlookers, barguarding lip service, can only note the great gap that the online clearance sale has created, and its share of buyers to say the least. directives. Online trading is second to none. As with all social networks, he changed the codes, with more or less subtlety.
How to ignore the profiles of buyers and noses quite similar and unique that do not fail to recruit these cybersouks. Among them, we particularly note the “expeditious” of the Web, which telescopes any entry into the matter, in particular the polite “Is it still available? “, In favor of” I take it. 20 piasses. OKAY ? “
MarketPlace regulars will also have noticed the emergence of the insomniac and insatiable loafer, glued to his cell phone at night, including the number of questions – “How tall? Are you heavy Where do you live ? – is usually exponential past midnight.
The text message mode also opens the door to the “intrusive chatterer”, unconditional of the commentary, which sometimes punctuates the commercial publication of various comments and digressions of his own: “I always wanted one of the same, but a red one is really beautiful. My sister-in-law had one, but she sold it without telling me. Could you like it? “
Although this nice variation online grapeshot on virtual bazaars usually results in zero purchase, still better than this one than the assault of the buyer which one could qualify as “quarrelsome”, limit mytho, which plays on the emotional rope to slash the prices and turn the iron in the gaping wound of your guilt. “Send $ 30. No job at the moment, disabled in addition. Pleeeezz! “
As we can see, online barguignage is not immune to the crowd of malotrus who abound on social networks, where the lack of varnish is to match. Fortunately, online haggling brings out the best and the worst in mankind.
Moreover, nothing beats an ad “To give” to explore the thousand and one facets of humanity highlighted by these online shops for the user. From the young mother to whom we would give the moon, to the thousand times grateful immigrant family, to the inveterate profiteer who pushes the cap a little far while watching you load her convertible car or climb her damn mattress to the second floor at the risk of a ride kidney. “A little slipper with that?” “
New online stalls also offer unique opportunities to dilate your spleen with just a few clicks. Lots of wobbly ads can be found on Instagram accounts MarkettePalace, delicieux_marketplace and other funny addresses. The comedian Olivier Martineau also relays the pearls caught at random, brandishing “Tayeure” or “peneu à vandre”, when it is not a superb antique “grand mophone” or a “hoaité” cotton, sold off to the highest bidder. .
The improbable acrobatics performed to bite a mirror without propelling his belly or his face on the Internet are also worth their weight in gold and are also enthroned on the list of comic failures shared on Instagram. So, many are those who browse MarketPlace on the lookout for hilarity triggered by the incongruities and hiccups of this great bulletin board of humanity, where e-sellers of a day do not always master the art of marketing. , neither the formula, nor the photo framing. And sometimes none of the three.
It just goes to show that resale platforms do not only rewrite the rejections of our past material obsessions, they also give rise to their free share of immaterial smiles, giggles and self-deprecation. Among the most timely winks caught on theft in recent days: “Turkey for 20 people for sale. Would swap for one for 10 people! “