I love scouring Facebook Marketplace for a used bargain. Local sellers seem happy to list items at reasonable prices in order to encourage a sale, and I don’t have to worry about delivery costs or bumps in the mail. It’s also nice to inspect in person, before you buy.
That’s especially important when you’re buying a high-ticket price item, many of which are far more attainable on the second-hand market.
Apple Vision Pro
The Apple Vision Pro is a mixed-reality (XR) headset that starts at $3,499 and has received a single refresh in its two-ish years on the market. The first model was powered by Apple’s M2 system-on-chip and released in February 2024, sporting 16GB of RAM, 256GB of storage (in the base model), and two drop-dead gorgeous OLED panels that run at up to 100Hz.
In October 2025, Apple updated the headset with a new M5 system-on-chip, a slightly faster maximum refresh rate of 120Hz, and a new dual-knit headband that is said to better distribute the weight of the unit on the wearer’s head. This underwhelming update appears to have done little to silence critics of the headset, with its eye-watering price tag being a sore spot for many XR-curious folks.
Despite the two models being very similar (and the M2 chip still offering excellent performance), I’ve found the 2024 Apple Vision Pro for around half the price of the 2025 model on Facebook Marketplace. Some of these are enthusiasts who have upgraded to the new model, but there are plenty of other people who bought the AVP, decided it wasn’t for them, and left it in a box for two years.
Personally, I’m going to need to wait for the AVP to drop to less than half its MSRP before I’m tempted.
Full-frame mirrorless cameras
The newest full-frame cameras are amazing, but so are the models that came out five or ten years ago. Full frame means that the sensor is the same size equivalent as 35mm film, allowing lots of light to enter the scene, and offering a true 1:1 focal length equivalent as an old film camera in a digital format (without the digital crop factor seen on APS-C and similar).
Earlier in 2025, How-To Geek writer Patrick Campanale pulled the trigger on a full-frame camera from 2018, which cost around the same price as a new APS-C mirrorless. $1000 is a decent chunk of change—about half the price of what Sony is asking for its newest a7 IV body alone—but if you find a good deal, you could score a kit lens, some batteries, and a carry case too.
While camera lenses tend to hold their value, camera bodies depreciate relatively quickly. Photographers and videographers spend their careers building up an array of lenses that they keep forever, while camera bodies get swapped out and upgraded as the technology matures.
Thankfully, there are plenty of bargains to be found as enthusiasts upgrade and look to recoup their costs along the way.
Vintage audio
I’m a big fan of vintage amplifiers, and I’m always eyeing up some silver monster with chunky knobs and bouncing VU meters on eBay or Facebook Marketplace. The good news is that these relics of a bygone era still sound great today, and there are still plenty of bargains to be had.
Unlike CRT monitors and televisions, which have seen astronomical price hikes as retro gaming enjoyed something of a renaissance, the vintage stereo market appears to have been humming along steadily. You might be lucky enough to find some remarkably beautiful amplifiers and speakers at reasonable prices if you keep an ear to the ground.
Brands like Marantz, Sansui, Pioneer, Technics, Yamaha, Luxman, Akai, Rotel, Harman Kardon, Bang & Olufsen, Kenwood, and Sony are all worth getting out of bed for. I scored a lovely Teac amp back in the late 2010s for peanuts, and I still can’t believe how good it sounds. You might even find you have a project on your hands if you fancy doing a bit of restoration.
Make sure you match your speaker’s impedance and power rating with your amp’s output, and you can even look into building out a whole separates system and adding cassette decks and turntables if you’ve got the room. Since these amplifiers take simple two-channel stereo left and right inputs, adding modern conveniences like Bluetooth audio is trivial.
Electric vehicles
Electric vehicles are gadgets, right? They’re certainly super-expensive brand new, anyway. They also happen to depreciate at a shocking rate, which is bad news if you’re hoping to drive one out of the showroom and great news if you want to pick up a used “bargain.” Just be aware that your EV will keep depreciating like a gas car, but at a faster rate.
Of course, there are some things to keep in mind when you’re buying a used EV. Perhaps the most notable is the condition of the battery, since this can be a very expensive maintenance item when the time comes. On top of this, you’ll want to put in the same due diligence required of any used car by checking service and accident history, credit status, and going for a test drive to make sure you enjoy the driving experience.
There are some other things that are specific to EVs, too, like whether or not you can charge at home, what your local charger network looks like, and how your insurance policy will be affected. If you’re serious about saving money on an EV, you might also want to look at some of the most reliable EVs you can buy used.
I recently spent a few weeks tracking down a used table saw with my dad for a project. As my dad had worked with wood for his whole life, he already knew exactly what he was looking for. We considered buying something new at first, eyeing up quality brands like Milwaukee and budget ranges like HART at Walmart (here in Australia, that means Ozito in Bunnings Warehouse).
It was quickly apparent that even the cheapest new tools couldn’t compete with a Facebook Marketplace bargain, at least not for the single project that we were planning. So a few weeks of scrolling, messaging, and a few disappointments paid off when we came across the perfect listing for an Evolution table saw at better-than-half price compared to buying it new.
The saw itself had barely any use on it, still came with the original box, and had a purchase date that was less than two years old. The hardened blade was in brand new condition, which was ideal since replacing it would have cost around half what we paid for the saw.
This is a prime example of how you can save a lot of money on a pricey item by scouring local marketplaces and being patient. It’s especially true if you’re only going to be using these items for weekend projects and DIY, rather than every day as a trade. Even so, I saw my fair share of industrial-grade saws at comparatively reasonable prices.
Just remember that your first power tool purchase is more important than you think.
Marketplace is basically the only reason I ever open Facebook anymore. If you love searching for bargains as much as I do, make sure you follow a few basic rules.