Marketplaces

BigFlippa searches three marketplaces: Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, and eBay. Which of them a given Radar can use depends on your plan, and you can switch individual sources on and off per Radar once it exists. You never choose a Craigslist site or category by hand — those are inferred from your territory and your prompt.

The sources

Craigslist

The closest thing to a straightforward source. BigFlippa picks the Craigslist site nearest your territory pin, infers the right category from your prompt, and searches within your radius. Results are sorted newest-first and duplicate postings are bundled, which is Craigslist’s own behaviour rather than something BigFlippa adds.

Craigslist is the one source where the radius does exactly what it says.

Facebook Marketplace

Searches run from your territory pin, but Facebook does not receive your radius, so results can come from a wider area than your territory implies. Facebook also reports when a listing has sold, which BigFlippa uses to mark listings as gone quickly and reliably.

eBay

eBay results are nationwide within the US — location does not narrow them. That makes eBay useful for items where shipping is normal and geography is irrelevant, and a poor fit for anything you would only buy locally. If you want local-only results, say so in your prompt.

Turning sources on and off

When you create a Radar, every marketplace your plan allows is enabled for it. To change that, open the Radar and use the Source marketplaces tiles on the Details tab.

Toggling a source affects only that Radar. Common reasons to switch one off:

• The item barely exists on that marketplace, and the results are noise.
• You want a Craigslist-only Radar because you only buy local, cash, in person.
• One source is producing matches that are technically correct but too far away.

The “No enabled sources” warning

If a Radar is running but every source is switched off, a warning badge appears next to it in your dashboard. The Radar is technically active but has nowhere to look, so it will never produce a Ping. Re-enable at least one source to fix it.

What is chosen for you

Two things are automatic, and there is no manual override for either:

• The Craigslist site. BigFlippa uses the site nearest your territory pin. If you want a different regional site, move the pin.
• The Craigslist category. Inferred from your prompt. If your prompt is ambiguous about what kind of item you want, it falls back to searching for-sale listings generally, which is broader and noisier. Naming the item category plainly in your prompt is the fix — see writing a good prompt.

Choosing sources for an item

A rough guide:

• Furniture, appliances, tools, bikes — Craigslist and Facebook both work. Local pickup is the norm, so keep the territory honest.
• Vehicles — Craigslist and Facebook. Both are strong here, and the listings differ enough that running both is worth it.
• Electronics, collectibles, anything shippable — eBay adds real coverage, since geography stops mattering.

When in doubt, leave everything on for the first few days and switch off whichever source is producing noise. It is easier to judge from real results than to guess.

Related: Territory and radius · Writing a good prompt · Pings and listings