Facebook Marketplace Sold: How to Mark an Item as Sold (and Undo It)

Marking things sold sounds like admin, but if you sell regularly it's what keeps your inbox sane. Leave a sold item live and you'll keep answering the same question for days. Here's how the sold, pending and available statuses work, straight from Facebook's own help pages, and what happens to buyers at each step.

The four statuses a listing can have

Facebook lets you mark a Marketplace listing as Dispatched, Sold, Pending or Available. These are the three you'll use most:

Status	When to use it	What buyers see
Sold	The sale is complete	The listing is no longer visible to anyone else on Marketplace, and everyone who messaged you gets a message saying it's sold
Pending	You've agreed a sale but it isn't final yet	Everyone who messaged you is told it's pending, and new buyers see it's pending before they can message you
Available	A sale fell through and you're selling again	Everyone who messaged you before is told it's available again

Mark an item as sold on a computer

1. From your Feed, click Marketplace in the left menu.
2. Click Selling in the left menu, then click Your listings.
3. Click Mark as sold next to the listing.

Mark an item as sold in the Facebook app

1. Tap Menu, then Marketplace. If you can't see Marketplace, tap See more.
2. Tap your Marketplace profile at the top, then tap Your listings.
3. Tap Mark as Sold next to the listing.

Once it's done, Facebook will ask whether you want to archive the conversation about that listing. I'd say yes, as it keeps finished sales out of your way. My guide to deleting and archiving Marketplace messages explains the options.

What happens after you mark something as sold

• Nobody else can see the listing on Marketplace any more.
• Every buyer who messaged you about it gets an automatic message saying it's been sold.
• You're offered the option to archive the conversation.
• The buyer gets a notification asking them to rate you as a seller.

That last point is the one sellers forget. Marking an item sold is what prompts the rating request, so it's worth doing as soon as the buyer has collected, while the sale is fresh in their mind.

How seller ratings work

Since a sold listing triggers a rating, it helps to know the rules Facebook sets:

• Ratings can only be given from the Facebook app on iPhone or Android, not from facebook.com or Facebook Lite.
• Your ratings may become public once you've received five or more eligible ratings.
• Your overall rating is the average of your eligible ratings.
• You can see a rating you've received once you've rated the other person back, or 14 days after you got it, whichever comes first.
• You can't change, delete or hide ratings you receive.
• You have up to 14 days to delete a rating you gave someone, and after that it's fixed.

Facebook also says it doesn't verify whether people bought the item they're reviewing, which is one more reason to rate buyers fairly and keep your own replies polite.

Mark a listing as pending

Pending is for the in-between stage: someone's said yes and is coming on Saturday, but no cash has changed hands. On a computer, go to Your listings, open the listing, click Options and choose Mark as pending. In the app, tap the listing in Your listings, tap Options, then Mark as pending. If you're on the buying side and wondering what that label means, I've covered what pending, ISO and OBO mean on Marketplace.

Changed your mind? Mark it as available again

Sales fall through. If you marked a listing as sold or pending, you can switch it back:

1. Go to Marketplace, then Selling and Your listings (or Marketplace profile and Your listings in the app).
2. Open the listing.
3. Click or tap Mark as available.

Everyone who messaged you before gets a message saying it's available again, and if the listing had been marked sold, those Messenger conversations are unarchived. That's handy: your earlier interested buyers are right back in front of you.

If a listing never went live, see why a Facebook listing gets rejected.

Why you can't delete a sold listing

People often try to delete instead of marking sold, and then hit a wall. Facebook doesn't let you delete a listing once it's been sold. You also can't delete one while an order is pending or waiting to be accepted or declined, or once a shipping label has been made. You can delete a single item that's still available and in stock, or a multi-quantity listing that's never had an order. So for anything that's gone, Mark as sold is the right button.

Not sure what's allowed? Read whether you can sell alcohol on Facebook.

My advice

Make Mark as sold part of the handover. Buyer collects, you mark it sold before you've closed the front door. It stops the messages, gets the rating request out while they're happy, and keeps your Your listings page tidy for the next item. If you're new to selling there, start with my guide on how to sell on Facebook Marketplace.

This guide is part of my Facebook Help: 80 Guides to Pages, Groups, Ads, Stories and Fixes.

Frequently asked questions

How do I mark an item as sold on Facebook Marketplace?

Go to Marketplace, click Selling, then Your listings, and click Mark as sold next to the item. In the app, tap Menu, Marketplace, your Marketplace profile, Your listings, then Mark as Sold.

Can people still see an item marked as sold on Marketplace?

No. Once you mark a listing as sold it isn't visible to anyone else on Marketplace, and buyers who messaged you get a message saying it's sold.

Can I undo Mark as sold on Facebook Marketplace?

Yes. Open the listing from Your listings and choose Mark as available. Buyers who messaged you are told it's available, and archived conversations are unarchived.

Why can't I delete my sold Marketplace listing?

Facebook doesn't let you delete a listing that has been sold. Use Mark as sold instead.