Buyers beware: TikTok user Emma Klein (@imemmaklein) found out that she nearly paid double the price for a used painting on Facebook Marketplace in a recent viral video.
Klein begins the video by directly addressing a couple that recently sold her a painting via Facebook Marketplace.
“This morning, when you posted [the painting] for $80, I hit you up and I was like ‘Hey, I know this is a total shot in the dark—would you be willing to do $30?’” Klein says.
The sellers told Klein that the lowest they would go was $50 for the piece, which she accepted but had to decline. “I was like, ‘Cool, I’m gonna have to pass because I’m balling on a budget right now, but if there’s anything that changes, you let me know,’” she recalls in the clip.
Klein explains that the couple eventually contacted her again, offering to sell at her original offer of $30. She then says she met them, picked up the painting, and brought it back to her place, where a bug promptly crawled out of it.
“I’m, like, going to hang it up, and a tiny little bug crawls out from it, which was weird,” she says. “That is kind of an isolated circumstance that grossed me out, but I don’t think it’s an actual issue.”
While the bug was an isolated incident, the actual issue for Klein was what she found on the back of the painting.
“Anyways, I turned the painting over and inside of it was a tiny tag that that I squinted [at]—I’m like, ‘What is that?’” Klein mimes looking at the tag. “It was from Ross… for $30.”
@imemmaklein Every day im blown away #fbmarketplace #storytime #crazy ♬ original sound – Emma Klein !
Conversation in the comments
Commenters shared more concern about a bug infestation than they did about the pricing mishap.
“I’d be more scared of roaches or bed bugs vs paying too much,” one user said.
“MAKE SURE IT WASN’T A BED BUG,” another commenter echoed.
The official Orkin Pest Control account also weighed in on the potential infestation.
“The relief when you said the bug was not the main issue here,” the account wrote.
While the bug was the main topic of discussion in the comments, some users were curious about the painting.
“Show the painting!” one of the top comments demanded. “What are we watching til the end for?”
Klein posted a response to that comment where she did, in fact, show the painting. It appeared to be almost fully white, with sweeping, textured lines in the same style as a zen garden.
@imemmaklein Replying to @Jill PAINTING REVEAL (ps this is my song playing if anyone wants to go stream ily) #fbmarketplace #storytime #crazystory #crazy ♬ What She’s Like – Emma Klein
What did the Facebook Marketplace seller have to say?
Klein made an update video where she detailed her latest exchange with the Marketplace sellers she bought the painting from.
“Live update to the story—this is all happening very fast,” she starts. “So I go and I send them a picture of the tag, and I’m like: ‘Hey, did y’all know that this was only $30 to begin with?’” The seller apologized to Klein, saying that he hadn’t realized the mistake.
“He was like, ‘I’m so sorry, we have three paintings that are very similar and I didn’t realize that this one was that one,’” Klein recounts. She then says that he seemed really nice, and she told him it was “whatever.” With the price issue cleared up, Klein says that her real concern now is the bug.
“I feel like I should check, honestly, again. I mean, it was just a little fire ant,” she says. “Hopefully there’s not, like, swarms of them. You’d think I’d be able to see them.”
She concludes the video by saying that “all was well.”
“But that was my quick tea—I thought it was gonna be piping hot, but it’s just kind of a quick simmer down,” Klein says. “Which is good, y’know. Communication is key, always, even on Marketplace, y’know.”
@imemmaklein Replying to @Caiti Kirkman #fbmarketplace #storytime ♬ original sound – Emma Klein !
Are Marketplace mishaps common?
While Klein’s experience was an accident that ended with a nice conversation and a net loss of zero, that isn’t always the case.
In a 2023 article for Wired, Amanda Hoover writes about her experience being scammed on Facebook Marketplace. She says received multiple identical messages, all oddly-spaced, asking her to accept full virtual payment for a couch.
“The buyer either says they must pay now, so that I would take the item off the listing, or so that their husband/brother/son/mover, you name it, can come pick up the futon later that day,” Hoover writes. While she didn’t accept any of the offers, she speculates on what would have happened if she had.
“It’s likely these people would have sent a phishing link,” Hoover says. “Either as a text to my phone number or in an email—disguised as communication from Zelle, looking to drain me of more money than the couch is worth.”
Hoover also interviewed multiple internet security experts, who urged users to be wary online—even on sites like Facebook, with seemingly built-in verification and security measures.
“Experts say the constant evolving nature of scams makes them tricky for companies to defeat,” Hoover notes. The scam Hoover experienced is far from the only type on the platform: as of publication, the Better Business Bureau’s Scam Tracker lists 1,794 scams related to Facebook Marketplace.
The Daily Dot reached out to Klein via TikTok and Instagram direct message.
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