Offer furniture delivery on Marketplace without giving away the profit

Delivery can sell a sofa, or quietly eat its profit

On Facebook Marketplace, large furniture often sits because buyers can't move it. Offering delivery solves that, but it adds driving, lifting, time and risk to a sale that was priced as a pickup. Before you write "delivery available" on a dresser listing, decide what a delivery costs you, what you will and won't do at the buyer's door, and how payment works when the item is on your truck.

This guide builds a delivery offer you can price and repeat.

Step 1: Decide whether to offer delivery at all

Delivery makes sense when:

• The item is large enough that most buyers lack a suitable vehicle.
• You have a vehicle, straps, blankets and, for heavy pieces, a second person.
• The sale price leaves room for the time and fuel a trip takes.

It makes less sense for low-value pieces, long distances, or homes with stairs you can't assess in advance. Pickup only is a legitimate choice; the local pickup guide covers that route.

Step 2: Price the delivery separately

Set a delivery fee from your own costs rather than folding it into the item price, so buyers who collect don't pay for it. In this chosen example, your own estimated vehicle cost is $0.40 a mile, the round trip is 24 miles and the job takes 90 minutes including loading, driving and carrying in.

Both the $0.40 per mile and the $15 an hour are example values; use your own. If a buyer is 40 miles away, the same method gives a different fee, which is why a per-distance band works better than a flat promise. The true hourly tool and the fees and margins manual can help with the arithmetic.

Scope check: Write down what delivery includes before agreeing to it: to the front door, into the ground floor, or upstairs. Each step adds time and risk. Assembly, removal of the buyer's old furniture and wall anchoring are separate jobs you can decline.

Step 3: Measure before the trip

Furniture deliveries fail at doorways. List the item's height, width and depth, and for sofas also the diagonal depth. Ask the buyer to measure their door, hallway, stairs and lift before you set off. The furniture measurements guide shows where to measure.

Step 4: Settle payment before unloading

Meta's Marketplace safety page warns that buyers may request refunds without actually paying and says to always check your account to confirm payment, even if they send a screenshot of the transaction. For deliveries, agree the total, including the delivery fee, in Marketplace messages before you set off, and confirm payment in your own account, or count cash, before you carry the item in. The payment verification guide covers this in detail.

Step 5: Handle dressers and children's furniture with care

The CPSC's clothing storage unit FAQ explains that the STURDY rule, aimed at reducing tip-over injuries to young children, covers free-standing units such as dressers and chests at least 27 inches tall and at least 30 pounds, with at least 3.2 cubic feet of enclosed storage, manufactured after September 1, 2023, and requires an anti-tip device to be packaged with those units. If a dresser came with its anti-tip kit, include it and say so. The CPSC's resale FAQ says sellers cannot knowingly sell products that don't meet the law and advises checking recalls before taking a product into inventory or selling it; the recall check manual shows how.

Step 6: Write the delivery terms into the listing

A clear line avoids long chats: "Pickup in [area]. Delivery available within 15 miles for $35, to ground floor only. Payment confirmed before unloading." Keep your exact address private until the sale is agreed, and arrange daylight times.

Common mistakes

• Including delivery in the price for everyone.
• Agreeing to stairs without measurements.
• Unloading before payment is confirmed in your own account.
• Promising assembly or anchoring you're not equipped to do.
• Leaving out a dresser's anti-tip kit.

Price it, scope it, get paid first

Delivery is a separate service: price it from your own time and miles, write down what it includes and confirm payment before the item leaves your vehicle. Done that way, it sells large furniture without giving away the profit.