As we all know, getting the items you need (or want) for a new baby gets expensive quickly! So it’s always a great idea to try to buy second-hand gear first before purchasing something brand new.

Like most busy parents, I don’t have tons of time to monitor websites for used items every day. Instead, I prefer to set-up alerts for the specific items I’m looking for at the moment. I’ve already shown how to do this with Craigslist.

But Facebook marketplace has also added an alerts feature! And it’s another great way to score second-hand items for a great price. Here is a quick tutorial on how I set up alerts on the Facebook Marketplace platform.

Keep in mind you will need to have a Facebook account in order to complete these next steps.

Navigate to marketplace section of Facebook on the app

Once you have loaded the Facebook app on your mobile phone navigate to the marketplace section. To do this click on the shop icon at the bottom of the screen (it is the icon in the middle).

Search Marketplace for the item you want

In the top blue portion of the app you will see a section where it says “Search Marketplace”. Enter the item you are looking for in this blue box and then click “Search”.

Toggle the search notification button

Any available items matching your search criteria will be shown. And underneath your search box you will see an alert section to get notified when new items matching your search criteria are posted. You will want to toggle the search on so that it turns blue.

Scroll and look for a notification box (alternative option)

Sometimes Facebook does wonky things and you may not have an option to toggle the search criteria on or off. However, once you scroll through the listing results a bit there will occasionally be a black notification box that pops up on the bottom on the screen. It’ll say “get alerts when items matching [your item name] are posted”. Click “turn on” to turn the alert feature on.

Then once an item is listed matching your search criteria you will be notified! It’s as simple as that.

Facebook is constantly making changes to the Marketplace portion of their app. So over time they may add, remove, and change features. We will try to keep this post up to date. But by the time you read this some of the features may have changed or look a little different.

This post was last updated on March, 29 2018