Two facts most rewrites get wrong.
Not five, not a dozen. Two — and each one is wrong in a different direction. Get the first wrong and the advert claims a reputation system doesn't exist. Get the second wrong and it claims protection that doesn't apply to the sale in front of it.
The lazy rewrite treats Gumtree as Facebook Marketplace with a different name.
It's an understandable mistake. Both platforms are general local classifieds, both default to cash-and-collection between two individuals, both carry the same practical safety concerns — meet somewhere public, don't hand the item over before the money clears, keep contact inside the app. Copy a rewrite built for one onto the other and eighty per cent of it is still true.
The twenty per cent that isn't true is where a rewrite either undersells the platform or oversells it, and both directions are documented failure modes rather than harmless rounding. Undersell it — write the advert as if Gumtree has no reputation layer at all — and a seller with a genuine, hard-won rating history gets none of the credit for it. Oversell it — claim Buyer Protection covers a sale that was never eligible for it — and a buyer relies on a safety net that isn't actually under them.
Fact one: the ratings are real, and they're recent.
Since 1 August 2025, Gumtree has run a five-star rating system with an optional written review, available once a transaction or meaningful engagement between two users has actually happened. A "Highly Rated" badge appears on profiles with a strong track record. Reviews have to come from first-hand experience — incentivised or self-submitted ones are banned under Gumtree's own fair use policy — and a user can contest a review within thirty days of it posting.
None of that is invented for a seller who doesn't have it yet. A first-time seller genuinely has no rating history, and the honest advert says nothing about ratings at all rather than gesturing at a track record that isn't there. What the advert should never do is describe the platform itself as reputation-free, because that's simply false as of August 2025 and reads, to anyone who's used Gumtree recently, as a rewrite that didn't check.
Fact two: the protection is real, and it's conditional.
Gumtree's own delivery feature, with Buyer Protection attached, is enabled by default when a seller lists an eligible item — the buyer pays for delivery and protection, Gumtree's own delivery partner handles shipping, and a seller can toggle it off in favour of collection only. It's a genuine escrow-like layer that Facebook Marketplace's local listings simply don't offer.
"Eligible" is doing real work in that sentence. The feature applies to eligible categories and items, up to a stated value limit, and does nothing at all for the local cash-collection sale that's still the platform's default mode. An advert that claims Buyer Protection covers a plain collection sale is offering a buyer false comfort about exactly the moment — handing over cash for an item in person — where comfort actually matters.
Same sofa, before and after.
Title: Sofa for sale. Description: Good condition sofa, message me. Cash only, will consider my assistant collecting on my behalf if you can't come in person, or I can arrange shipping if you pay extra. Photos: one dark photo. Price: no price listed, "make an offer".
3-Seater Grey Fabric Sofa — [ADD FACT: brand/retailer if known]. Grey fabric 3-seater, [ADD FACT: age, honest condition, any marks]. Dimensions: [ADD FACT]. Collection only from [ADD FACT: general area] — happy to arrange a daytime slot in a well-lit spot. [ADD FACT: 4-6 photos in daylight, all angles, any wear shown]. Price: £[ADD FACT], collection only. Payment by cash on collection after you've had a chance to look it over, or a bank transfer confirmed as received before I hand it over.
"My assistant collecting on my behalf" and "pay extra for shipping" are removed outright, not reworded — both are established scam-adjacent phrasings, and Gumtree's own guidance flags forged payment confirmations as a live risk in exactly this scenario. Nothing about Gumtree's delivery feature was added: this item and category were never confirmed eligible, and asserting delivery protection without that confirmation is the exact overstatement the honest version avoids.
What happens after you pay.
- Paste the advert, or give the link. Gumtree ad pages that don't sit behind a login can usually be fetched directly; paste the text if the link comes back empty.
- Top up once. store credit, never more than 40p on this job, spending only what the report actually costs.
- Back comes a scored report. Scam-adjacent phrasing cut outright, a stated collection or delivery arrangement, and Gumtree's ratings and Buyer Protection described exactly as they apply to this sale — no more, no less.
A generation that fails spends nothing.
Fit.
Worth it if
- Your advert mentions an assistant or courier collecting, or shipping if the buyer pays a bit extra.
- You've written "no protection" or "fully protected" without checking which is true for this specific sale.
- Your phone number or address is sitting in the listing text.
- The item might sit in a restricted category and you're not sure.
Not worth it if
- You want it to confirm delivery eligibility for you. It rewrites the advert; it doesn't check Gumtree's own eligibility rules against your specific item.
- You want a rating history invented for a brand-new account. That only comes from real completed transactions.
- Your item is already selling fine and the advert isn't the problem.
What sellers ask before listing on Gumtree.
Isn't Gumtree just Facebook Marketplace with a different logo?
Close enough in shape — local, mostly cash, mostly collection — but not identical, and the gap matters in exactly one place: Gumtree has run a genuine seller ratings and reviews system since 1 August 2025, with a five-star rating and a Highly Rated badge for a strong track record. Writing the advert as though the platform has no reputation layer at all repeats an error already made once, on the wrong platform.
What actually counts as a completed transaction for a rating?
Gumtree's own policy ties it to a completed transaction or meaningful engagement between the two users, and reviews have to be based on first-hand experience — incentivised or self-submitted ones are banned under its own fair use policy. A brand-new seller has none of this yet, and the honest thing to write is nothing about ratings at all rather than implying a track record that doesn't exist.
If a buyer disputes my rating, what happens?
A user can contest a review within 30 days of it posting, under Gumtree's own fair use policy. That's worth knowing before assuming a single bad rating is permanent — it isn't automatically, though the contest process is Gumtree's to run, not something an advert rewrite can influence.
I want to offer delivery — does that mean Buyer Protection automatically applies?
Only if the item and category are actually eligible for Gumtree's own delivery feature, and only up to its stated value limit. Delivery is enabled by default on eligible listings, so it's worth checking rather than assuming — and it's a genuinely different transaction shape from the cash-and-collection sale that's still the platform default, not an upgrade bolted onto it.
A buyer wants to collect for a friend who can't make it — is that the courier scam pattern?
It's worth being cautious about the direction it came from rather than treating every third-party collection as a red flag — a friend genuinely collecting on someone else's behalf is common and harmless. The pattern Gumtree's own safety guidance actually warns about is the seller's side: a seller offering that THEIR assistant or courier will collect payment or arrange delivery to dodge meeting the buyer. That's the phrasing this job strips outright.
Does Gumtree charge for extra photos, the way some platforms cap free listings?
No — there's no per-photo fee, so there's no cost-based excuse for a listing with one dark photo. Gumtree's own selling guidance pushes toward several photos in good light precisely because nothing stops a seller adding them, which makes a single poor photo a choice rather than a limit.
Have the advert read.
Paste it as it stands, or give the link if the page loads without signing in.
Top up once. No subscription. About 28p — never more than 40p.