The FaceBay community page (/FaceBayEN) otherwise known as "Fbay", which was founded in 2010, now has 23,600 members. There are thousands of Facebook pages dedicated to buying and selling items, and the number is growing daily. "I guess this is because people know each other in a small community and it is an easier way to exchange items and name your price." Where to sell "I have tried a number of Facebook groups for selling items locally I find the smaller village pages have more successful and easier results, leading to a smoother transaction. "Having used eBay quite a lot to sell second-hand things with successful results, more recent attempts have resulted in poor auction results with items either not selling or achieving a low price," she says. Chapman from Tunbridge Wells in Kent runs a fabric, gifts and stationery company called Ollie & Roo. "The ease of cash-in-hand, and the security of buying from someone you can communicate with via social media, can prove an occasionally attractive alternative to waiting for items to arrive through the post." "Social media has allowed individuals and independent shops to achieve the visibility and brand loyalty which was previously gained only through traditional advertising or local shoppers," says Noemi Kubiak, of independent price comparison site .uk.