What matched
The item, the area, and which Spottable search caught it. Enough to triage without opening the app.
Stop doomscrolling Marketplace.
Get an alert when a scheduled check finds a match.
Good local listings sell in minutes. By the time you remember to refresh, the seller has a queue of messages and the deal can be gone. Spottable keeps precise searches running in the background and sends an iPhone alert after a scheduled check finds a match. Available listing analysis adds price and condition context.
Why alerts matter
Marketplace is not a browsing problem. It is a timing problem.
Facebook has the inventory. The catch is that good listings are buried under accessories, stale posts, loose location matches, and sellers who get flooded the moment a fair price appears. If you only check when you remember, you are already late.
An alert closes that gap. Set the criteria once, get pinged when something real shows up, and decide on the lock screen whether it is worth chasing. The difference between hearing about a good deal and being the first message in the seller’s inbox is usually a few minutes of attention you did not have to spend.
The useful bit
A good alert answers “why should I care?” before you tap.
“New listing” is not a decision. A useful Marketplace alert gives you enough to triage from the lock screen: item, price, area, and the first hint of whether it is under market.
Why it matters
Price and market context turn “new listing” into “this one is under market.”
How to act
One tap into the listing with the Deal Checker primed and a first-message draft ready to send.
Where alerts actually help
Use alerts for searches where being early changes the outcome.
Exact-item hunts
Models, sizes, years, trims, bundles, or specs where the wrong match is not worth opening.
Close pickup deals
Listings where being early lets you inspect, pay, and collect before the seller’s inbox fills up.
Reseller sourcing
Searches where price spread, condition, and speed matter more than casual browsing.
Rare finds
Items that surface infrequently, so being notified the first time one appears is the whole game.
Setup
Make each alert specific enough to trust.
The point is not to catch everything. The point is to catch the listings you would actually chase. Every setting should make the next notification easier to trust.
Name the exact thing, not the category
Use the model, size, generation, trim, or material that would make you stop scrolling. “MacBook Air M2 16GB” beats “MacBook” because the alert already starts with intent.
Pick a radius you would actually drive
Set the area to the distance you would jump in the car for tonight. Run rare or hard-to-find items as a separate, wider search so they do not water down the urgent one.
Anchor the price to the deal, not your budget
Do not cap at your maximum spend. Set the alert around the price that would make you reply within minutes. If clean examples sell around $1,050, a $900 listing deserves attention.
Test the search before you save it
Run the query first. If page one is accessories, broken units, or barely related listings, tighten the wording before you turn it into a recurring alert.
Multiple areas
Run several small nets, not one giant one.
A broad radius looks efficient, but it mixes different buying decisions together. A MacBook you can collect tonight is not the same alert as a rare camera two hours away. Keep those searches separate so the urgency stays obvious.
Close enough to act tonight
Keep your tightest radius for listings you could inspect or collect today. A clean alert here should earn an immediate reply.
Bigger cities and high-supply suburbs
Run distant inventory as its own search so it cannot drown out the matches you can actually act on.
High-value categories
For electronics, furniture, tools, bikes, cars, and collectibles, narrow by model or spec. Broad category alerts produce noise, not opportunities.
Misspellings and nicknames
Save the typos, abbreviations, and model nicknames that everyone else misses. Less obvious listings attract fewer competing buyers.
How Spottable does it
Spottable sits between “something matched” and “is this worth chasing?”
Spottable runs in the background and keeps watch on the searches you configure in the app: hourly by default, minute-by-minute on Max. The refresh-and-hope habit goes away.
Every alert opens into the Deal Checker, which weighs the asking price against over a million observed Marketplace listings. You get a fast read on value, risk signals, and what to ask the seller before you tap message.
Market position
See whether the asking price looks high, fair, or under market against comparable listings.
Deal verdict
A quick score and explanation, so you know in seconds whether this one deserves a fast reply.
Risk checks
Spot suspicious pricing, vague descriptions, stock photos, and the details worth verifying first.
Message help
Turn a good alert into a confident first message without burning the first ten minutes drafting.
Keep them sharp
Good alerts get better when you prune them.
- Delete alerts you keep swiping away. Ignored pings train you to ignore the next one too.
- Split urgent hunts from background wish-list searches so the right alerts feel urgent.
- Add a price floor when very low prices usually mean broken, incomplete, or misleading listings.
- Draft a short first message in advance for your sharpest searches so you can reply in seconds.
- Triage every match against the same checklist: seller, photos, description, pickup, price context.
Spottable plans and pricing
Run the Deal Checker for free. Upgrade when you want Spottable watching for you.
The iPhone app requires an active trial or subscription. Plans start at US$4.99/month. Chrome includes 3 free AI analyses per day. Starter and Pro check hourly. Max can check as often as every minute, subject to available watch points.
FAQ
Common questions about Marketplace alerts
Does Facebook Marketplace send push alerts for saved searches?
Facebook can send Marketplace notifications, but Meta does not publish a saved-search delivery guarantee or a user-facing delivery log. Check Marketplace notifications inside Facebook and Facebook notification permission on your phone before assuming the search failed.
How many Marketplace alerts should I create?
Start with three to five narrow searches you would genuinely reply to. Add more once those alerts are producing matches you actually act on. A few sharp alerts beat a feed full of category noise.
Should I use one broad search or several narrow searches?
Several narrow ones. Splitting by model, suburb, and price range means each alert has a clear reason to exist, and you can see at a glance which ones are working.
Where does Spottable fit into Marketplace alerts?
Spottable monitors precise Marketplace searches on its own schedule and sends iPhone alerts for matches. Listing analysis can add price evidence, visible-condition notes, risk signals, and seller questions when enough source information is available.
Next step
Set up one sharp alert. Let Spottable do the watching.
Spottable runs in the background on iPhone. Or use the Chrome extension to deal-check any Marketplace listing as you browse.