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Selling your home on Trade Me March 2, 2011

Posted by Michael Carney in : property , 1 comment so far

You don’t have to look far to find gloomy property numbers (from a seller’s perspective).

The February 2011 NZ Property Report published by Realestate.co.nz shows 11,395 new listings coming onto the market for the month, down 20% compared with February last year. The market continues to be weak and the recent 12 months is the lowest level of activity with just 133,883 new listings in the recent 12 months, down 3% compared to the same period 12 months ago.

Meanwhile actual property sales hit a new, record low (3,252 sales in January 2011).

Despite that. there’s no shortage of hopeful sellers. Currently there are more than 68,000 properties listed on Trade Me Property. Of course, some have been there a while — the oldest listing we found (and we didn’t look that far) dated back to March 2007. Real potential buyers (bless their cotton socks) have to struggle through a lot of virtual mean streets before they stumble across your [much-loved, reluctant seller, hurry] property.

Curious about with how many you’re competing? By area, here’s the breakdown:

Northland 7118
Auckland 18410
Waikato 8456
Bay Of Plenty 5477
Gisborne 227
Hawkes Bay 2213
Taranaki 1087
Manawatu/Wanganui 3843
Wellington 4726
Nelson/Tasman 1246
Marlborough 1413
West Coast 1647
Canterbury 6308
Otago 4952
Southland 1578

So how exactly are you hoping to get your house sold right now?

START HERE

We refer you first to the Second Edition of TRADE ME SUCCESS SECRETS, where Chapter 13 (“Location, Location, Creation”), devoted to the topic of selling on Trade Me, takes you through 21 Steps to get your property up and running on Trade Me. We’ll share some of the key points from that chapter shortly, but first some homework for you to do before you even consider how your real estate gem should be listed on Trade Me Property:

1. Profile the best buyers
To whom would your home most appeal? Be realistic – is it ideal for a couple with a young family, hopeful first home buyers, elderly citizens, empty nest baby boomers, swinging singles? This is a vital first step — once you identify the very best prospects for your mansion, you can focus all your attention on the attributes that would appeal to such prospects — eg schools & parks for young families, indoor/outdoor one-level living for the seniors, easy motorway access for business couples, and so on. In this market, one size definitely doesn’t fit all.

2. Know your competitors – in the neighbourhood
Get yourself to as many Open Homes as possible in your neighbourhood (head here for upcoming Open Home details), and see what sorts of houses you’re competing against. Listen to the chatter of other visitors to understand what they’re looking for — just resist the opportunity to invite those visitors to come and see your own home (“much nicer than this one”), or you’ll blow your cover and get yourself kicked out by a disgruntled agent or home-seller!

3. Know your competitors – online
Use Trade Me’s Advanced Property Search to:

(a) Identify properties in your Region/District/Suburb

(b) refine your search by numbers of bedrooms and/or bathrooms and/or price

(c) refine further by type of dwelling

and then (d) make it easy on yourself by setting up an automated alert to catch new competing houses coming onto the market

4. Agent or DIY?
Should you use an agent or sell your home yourself? That’s for you to decide – but typically in this sort of market you need as much help as possible, so we’d recommend opting for an agent. Just understand that you’ll need to put in a massive amount of additional effort yourself to get your house sold in a timely manner — you’re the one with everything at stake.

5. Finding the right agent
How to find the perfect agent? The best way is to get recommendations from friends whose judgement you trust (and who’ve enjoyed selling success AFTER the downturn). Ask your friends directly or just put the word out on Facebook (but watch out for sneaky suggestions from friends of friends of friends who you don’t know — they might turn out to be real estate agents themselves).

So what should you look for in an agent? Our thoughts:

6. Finding the flaws
We’ll assume you’ve found the ideal agent (such optimism!). Ask them to evaluate the condition of your home — and to be brutally honest. How does it look compared to other homes they’ve sold successfully? Is it in a good enough condition to sell? What needs to be painted, repaired, replaced? Also ask informed friends to give their opinion. Then fix what you can. Buyers can afford to be much fussier these days, either demanding large discounts for smallish faults or simply walking away entirely.

7. Checking Out Common Structural Problems
In this world of leaky buildings, we can’t afford to overlook structural maintenance. The Building Research Association of New Zealand identified these common maintenance problems:

INTERIOR

EXTERIOR

Fix first and avoid litigation later. And keep the receipts — proof of timely maintenance is a great selling point (and it just might make prospective purchasers think twice about your competitors’ homes if they don’t have good maintenance records).

8. Make It Special
Your home needs to stand out from the crowd — to look so special that buyers are quickly won over. If you can, hire an hour or two of an interior decorator’s time and ask them to look over the inside of the house and (based on their years of experience) suggest ways to make the house as desirable as possible (for a small outlay). In a similar arrangement, invite an architect to give his/her point of view on the exterior. A few hundred dollars or so spent wisely just might add thousands to the final sale price.

9. Make your home sparkle
Buyers mostly lack imagination (with apologies to those who don’t). And they often can’t see past surface problems like untidy backyards, dark corners or small fixit jobs. Solve the problem for them, with a bit of elbow grease and (perhaps) a few dollars spent wisely.

10. Get real on pricing
Ask your agent to do their homework on pricing, identifying recent sales in and around your area of comparable homes. Decide whether you can live with the results.

11. A gift with that purchase?
Prospective buyers walk into your Open Home and see a glorious large-screen TV. The agent, seeing their interest, gets right to the point: “the lucky buyer of this home also gets the TV”. Or a killer stereo system. Or the late-model car in the garage. Or power and water paid for six months. Gardening/pool/maid service for a year. Or a free trip to Fiji, once all the unpacking’s over. It’s a small additional cost to you (compared with the value of the home) but it’s amazing how the Wow! factor impacts on otherwise rational home buyers.

12. Brief the agent properly
Do all your homework on your house, as recommended in Chapter 13 of TRADE ME SUCCESS SECRETS (Second Edition). Write up all the features and benefits of your home and run through it with your agent. Don’t forget to focus on the things that matter to your best prospects.

Okay, time to turn to Chapter 13 for some of that advice on exactly how your property should be listed. You’re probably tempted to leave it to your agent to stick your details on Trade Me.

Don’t. They may be the world’s greatest real estate agent, but most of them are — how shall we put this — Trade-Me-challenged. Even if you get them to do most of the actual donkey work, guide them through the following steps (we’re assuming you/they know how to find the Property section on Trade Me):

13. The headline
Your first decision is the Listing Title (we call it the headline) – how to describe your pride and joy. We recommend that you leave the headline until last, after you’ve worked your way through the rest of the listing detail. Then you’ll be in a much better position to decide exactly what makes your property special so that you can flag those qualities in the headline.

14. Choose your location
Noting a location is simply a matter of selecting from the appropriate drop-down boxes. Simple — unless you live in an area that straddles two of the districts offered as choices by Trade Me. Though it’s tempting to simply nominate the more sought-after district, we recommend you do a search on Trade Me for homes listed in the two districts under consideration. Who will you be competing with in each district? Will you be the worst house in the best district? And (if there are similar homes listed) how does the pricing compare? Don’t decide where you live until you’ve done all your homework.

15. Details matter
The listing form asks for lots of detail — number of bedrooms & bathrooms, floor area, land area, rateable value, yadda yadda. Give as much information as you can– if prospective buyers can’t easily find out what they want, they’ll quickly skip to the next listing. Not only that, but — because most of us use the Search facility on Trade Me — if prospects search for a keyword such as “bath” or “study” and you have such amenities but haven’t included them in your listing, the search engine will simply pass you by.

16. Rateable Value
This is an optional field (but not for you). Potential purchasers assess the rateable value as a useful comparative (and objective) measure when considering the relative values of various properties. Add in the numbers.

17. How Much?
Trade Me asks you to choose an Expected Sale Price. This number determines whether your property will feature in the results when a searcher nominates a price range. Be realistic. Be very realistic. If your house doesn’t show up in the search results for those people who might be interested in your property (and could afford to buy it), you might as well be invisible.

18. The Description
Good old Chapter 13 goes into this in far more detail than we could possibly hope to canvass here. Let’s just say that your job is to make potential buyers fall in love with your home. You don’t have to be a Mills & Boon author, but you do have to sell the sizzle.

19. Say Cheese
Pictures are so very important — for many prospective visitors, the Trade Me photos are their first (and perhaps only, if they don’t like what they see) view of your house. Chapter 14 deals to photographs, with hundreds of words about capturing your property at its best. Here, we’ll just say: tidy up around your house first, capture the main features of your home and above all show that it’s a warm and inviting place that many would love to own.

20. Promote, promote, promote
Once you’ve completed your listing, get the word out there. Our research tells us that people still look at their local Property Press and (to a lesser extent) the local paper, so get your listing details into those publications. Ensure that your agent gets the details into RealEstate.co.nz and their own agency website. And, of course, get your (enhanced) listing on Trade Me Property. Are you on Facebook? Tell your friends your home is on the market. Got a video tour of the house? Pop it up on YouTube.

21. Make your home incredibly inviting
It’s Open Home time. You should make yourself scarce during session times, but make the home as inviting as possible first.

22. Responding to those insulting low offers
You’ll get offers well below what you think your home is worth. Develop a thick skin. And then think creatively — are there ways to do a deal leaving money in or swapping some chattels or exploring other options? In this market, you need to Think Different.

Even if you follow all our advice, your home will still take time to sell. Patience, we’re told, is a virtue …

PS We’re currently putting together a special report on “How to make your home sell (and help potential buyers fall in love with your home)”. It covers the whole property-marketing process in much greater detail, and includes a Brief for you to fill out and give to your agent, as well as a helpful guide to giving your property the right kind of TLC to make it look its best for potential purchasers.  If you’d like to be advised when that report’s available, please add yourself to our free newsletter (simply sign up using the Subscribe box at the top of the page)

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Check that Feedback before you click February 2, 2011

Posted by Michael Carney in : feedback , 1 comment so far

WHAT INTENDING BUYERS SHOULD DO BEFORE THEY BID

Once you’ve found something you like on Trade Me, it’s tempting to move directly into Buying Mode and bid for that sucker.

Not so fast.

First, check out the seller (look at the box at the bottom of the listing labelled “About the seller”):

On the other hand, if they have amassed reasonable feedback from selling, take a closer look.

From the feedback pages you’ll be able to see:

Check the details carefully — not all buyers share the same values. For example, in the screenshot above, a blue neutral feedback is given because the purchaser was unhappy with the courier (but was very happy with the seller).

Once you’ve satisfied yourself that the seller is reputable, then (and only then) should you consider moving into bidding mode — although, as we’ve noted elsewhere, there’s more homework you should do before you place any bid.

FOR HOW LONG CAN YOU POST FEEDBACK?

Trade Me member arthurdent2 investigated the matter and contributed these comments recently on the Trade Me Message Board:

I’ve asked questions on here from time to time about this issue and got two different answers:
1. It is 45 days to the exact closing time of the auction in hours and minutes.
2. It is 45 days until midnight of the day the auction closes.

I contacted Trade Me and they weren’t sure either -they asked me to let them know if I found the answer!

I did a couple of experiments on auctions that I wasn’t going to place feedback on because the buyer had not completed the trade. I clicked the ‘Place Feedback’ button and then, without entering any text in the box, clicked ‘Submit Feedback’. That brought up a message reminding me to enter text but also confirmed that placing feedback was an option at that time.

I went through this process at 4 different times:
1. Several minutes before the 45 days to the minute was up.
2. Several minutes after the exact closing time.
3. Several minutes to midnight on the 45th day.
4. Several minutes after midnight on the 45th day.

Conclusions:
1. The auction disappeared from my SOLD ITEMS PAGE on the 45th day at the exact auction closing time. Feedback could therefore not be placed FROM THIS PAGE after that time.

2. STARTING FROM THE AUCTION PAGE, the Place Feedback button was still visible up until midnight on the 45th day and feedback could be placed. Several minutes after midnight the feedback button was no longer available.

Awesome, thanks arthurdent2!

HOW TO ATTRACT GREAT FEEDBACK (IF YOU’RE A SELLER)

There are no guarantees that buyers will say really good things about you, but here’s how you can at least improve your chances:

If you give good, lengthy, helpful feedback to buyers (before they’ve even received your product), you’ll often be rewarded with a reciprocal good deed — and even if you aren’t, the Feedback formula above is still worth following. You might just be noticed by other potential purchasers.

What about if you’re a buyer? How and when should you leave Feedback?

On the other hand, if the seller is a ratbag and simply doesn’t meet his/her obligations, you should seriously consider giving that red-face negative. The Trade Me community is self-policing but relies on all members to do their part.

If, despite all the above, you do receive negative feedback:

And of course you can (and should) try to rectify the situation — the trader has the ability to remove the feedback they posted.

Trade Me will not review negative feedback unless:

If you feel that any feedback has breached these terms, you can report it to Trade Me (as long as it’s not more than 30 days old).

And one more thing: you can be held legally responsible for damages to the trader’s reputation under New Zealand law. So keep your feedback factual.

The Feedback system isn’t perfect – but it’s a very useful guide to other members of the Trade Me community and helps keep us honest. Imagine how much better behaved we’d be in real life if we all had to walk around wearing Feedback ratings given to us by our colleagues and customers! ["don't ask that salesperson to serve you, look how many red faces he has!"]

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Wisdom of the Boards January 20, 2011

Posted by Michael Carney in : trade me , add a comment

Many Trade Me users have not yet discovered the Trade Me Message Boards, a hotbed of discussion, argument, rhetoric and often extremely funny comments about a desperately diverse range of topics.

We encourage you to check out the Boards for yourself (especially the topics that interest you). As a taster, here are some useful snippets of information from a long ago and far away (March 2007) discussion thread that sought to explain some of the real meanings behind the descriptions and abbreviations that appear from time to time on Trade Me (contributions credited by user name):
  • IMNSHO
    In My Not-So-Humble Opinion. (wootha)
  • CRS
    Can’t Remember Stuff. . . applies to those of advancing years with short term memory loss when wrapping 50 packages on Saturday morning. (oberkat)
  • BuyNow
    DecideNow and PayWhenever. (wootha)
  • Postage
    second only to religion as a cause of wars. (wootha)
  • Pass the Parcel
    a game sometmes played by NZ Post.The winner keeps it! (raker)
  • Fastpost
    quaint historical custom whereby goods were delivered in the same week they were posted. (wootha)
  • Keyword spamming
    using lots of words not related to what you have listed in an auction. Very useful in really annoying many on TM. Dirty dog, Hermes, Paris Hilton,Gucci, and so on. (raker)
  • S=R
    an alphabet in trouble. (giraffeinfall)
  • S=R=BN
    alphabet in serious trouble. (wootha)
  • Dropshipping
    your purchase is dropped off a container ship in the middle of the ocean and arrives by tidal action. Can also mean parcel comes via Nigeria, China, Middle East, Africa and ….( not necessarily in that order). (raker)
  • pick up only
    ask for it to be posted (giraffeinfall)
  • TYPO
    whne our fingres are tooo fast or fat and we clikc post message before we raed whta we typed… (jalmac_traders)
  • BNWT
    Brand New With Tags (just as soon as I find them & can manage to poke them back though that tiny hole in the garment tag after I’ve washed it cos I wore it out to this rave the other night & some plonker threw up all over it but …..).(mazalinas)
  • One day after winning the auction
    is NOT a long time to wait to hear from the seller/buyer. (bookette1)
  • “happy to combine postage”
    Instead of two lots of $3.50, It’s now only $7.95 for both to be sent together… (andyandlois)
  • Watchlist
    where you keep a list of All the watches you want to buy. Not to be confused with Watchers. They can be imaginary people who never bid on your auctions. (raker)
  • Other stuff you may like
    Other things you can’t afford… (andyandlois)
  • Refund
    When you were supplied with the correct sized clothes you asked for, don’t fit because you are in denial about your real size . (mmm12)
  • Shy Buyer
    “When I’ve paid I will forward you my details” (wisconsin)
  • Broke Buyer
    “Thanks you letting me buy your auction, sorry I can’t pay for two weeks, hope that’s OK” (wisconsin)
  • Affluent Buyer
    Pays but never answers your emails about where to send the goods. (wisconsin)
  • Small Buyer
    “hi, I did a buy now on your auction for 3 *** but I only want one. Can you sell me just one” (wisconsin)
  • Large Buyer
    “Hi, I just won an auction for 24 beads but I actually want 28, can I get 28 for the same price” (wisconsin)
  • Silly Sod Buyer
    “ah I accidently bid on your auction. Can you please remove my bid?” (raker)
  • *Whoosh*
    when someone doesn’t get your underlying message. (bopeep80)

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Seven Smart Trading Tips for 2011 January 11, 2011

Posted by Michael Carney in : buying, selling, trade me, trademe , 6comments

Ready to do things differently on Trade Me this year? These seven tips will help you buy better and sell smarter in 2011.

A. BUYING

1. Don’t settle for the first item you find.
When you have your heart set on buying something, it’s tempting to grab the first product that meets all your needs. If it’s a rare collectable (perhaps a handwritten note from James Cook to the British Admiralty with details of a fabulous long-lost treasure stashed somewhere in Gisborne), then by all means grab, grab, grab. Otherwise, do a little homework first, before you place any bids.

For example, let’s  hypothesize that you are looking for a set of petanque boules, to while away those long summer nights (we picked petanque because it was one of the first items we stumbled upon when we began browsing on Trade Me today).

Perhaps you, like us, found this listing:

The product looks good, the price (at $23.99) seems perfectly reasonable for a new set and the seller has a 99.8% rating. All systems should be Go, right?

Well, that would be true if you were browsing in a shopping mall — but this is Trade Me. The rules are different.

How so?

Well, for a start, unlike in a retail environment (where stores need to sell products to make a living), many Trade Me sellers aren’t in it for the money. Sure, most of us would like to make a few extra pennies selling our surplus wares on Trade Me — but that may not be why we’ve listed our goods on the site. Sometimes, we just want to be rid of the stuff cluttering up our attics and garages and shelves (or perhaps our significant other has hinted at GBH “if I have to look at that moosehead one more time”). So items that might be worth a lot more get listed for a low price just to get rid of them.

Secondly (and sorry, there’s no tactful way to put this), not every seller knows what he or she is doing — in other words, they haven’t read TRADE ME SUCCESS SECRETS. As a result, you never know when you’ll find valuable artifacts listed with a low starting price (and no competing bidders). That’s especially true if sellers have done a poor job of describing the product in their listing — or the photos look like they’ve been taken underwater.

Our first smart buying tip for 2011, then: look around before you bid.

And the easiest way to do that? For that advice, turn to Tip #2 (about which more in a moment).

But first, sticking with our petanque example: if you looked around on Trade Me, you would have found quite a few listings for petanque.

Are any a better deal than our original find? To work that out, sort your results by price:

Lo and behold, a couple of potential petanque bargains emerge immediately:

[Even though the second seller shown above has listed a $50 Buy Now price, he/she has still started the auction at $1 with no reserve (the yellow flag indicates that any bid of $1 or more could take home the prize) -- so you could well end up with a very low-cost petanque set.]

Add both prospects to your watchlist and keep your bidding powder dry until just before the end of each auction (see Tip #4 below for more details).

2. Use the Search facility properly.
At the top of the page on Trade Me, you’ll find the Search box. If you’re a Trade Me regular, you no doubt use the Search box all the time — but you’re probably not taking full advantage of all the capabilities available to you.

Trade Me Power Searchers know that:

There are more than a million listings on Trade Me every week. Using smarter search strategies to find the items you really want should make life a lot easier and avoid your having to sift through the 999,999 items that really aren’t you.

3. What’s it worth?

Despite the fiscal optimism of many sellers, if a product is priced too expensively on Trade Me it mostly won’t sell. So how do we judge what products are really worth, before we decide whether or not to bid on them?

We use the Trade Me Time Machine and take a look back to see what similar products sold for on the site.

Okay, Trade Me don’t really call it a Time Machine — but it serves that purpose. The path to the time machine is via the little link on the right of the search button labelled “More options”.

Click on that link and you’ll be taken to an Advanced Search options page that enables you to search what Trade Me calls “Expired Listings” — auctions that have closed.

If we search closed auctions for petanque, we find (amongst other results), auctions that closed recently with petanque sets going for $1.50 — so we know we just have to be patient to score a good deal.

4. Hold your breath — and your bid

This is the most important buying tip of all: don’t bid until the last few minutes of any auction. Otherwise you’ll just end up attracting other bidders.

For more information, may we respectfully point you in the direction of Chapter Six of Trade Me Success Secrets. It deals with the topic in far more detail than we can address effectively here.

B. SELLING

Finally in our roundup, three selling tips to guide you through 2011. NB: Follow the links to some of our most popular past columns — it may be a New Year, but much of this advice is timeless.

5. The Six Little Words

These six little words, added to your listing, can double the number of prospective bidders for your auction: “add this item to your watchlist”.


6. What should you sell on Trade Me?

So you’ve decided to get serious about Trade Me and make some real money on the site. But what should you sell – and where can you find goodies at the right price to make a good profit anyway?

Start here.

7. When bad things happen to good auctions

Sometimes, Trade Me auctions sell out in a flash. Other times, not so much.

You polish up your headlines, take some great photos and write sizzling words that (you figure) will have people bidding like crazy. You kick-start your auction with great hope and check back in a day or so later.

What? After all your good work, how could this happen? No bids! See here for what to do next.

The Seven Tips

Okay, that’s our lot this time round. If you’d like even more advice, check out the column on the right of this page to:
  1. Sign up for our free newsletter;
  2. Get your own copy of TRADE ME SUCCESS SECRETS; or
  3. Find out about our Advanced Selling on Trade Me online ecourse, starting soon.

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What Kiwis want for Christmas November 30, 2010

Posted by Michael Carney in : Christmas, auctions, selling , add a comment

So you want to make a few extra pennies for that Christmas break? What better way than selling a few goodies on Trade Me!

Hold on a minute, though — before you run off and start baking those gorgeous Christmas cakes (caution: may contain nuts, if you’re following the recipe), pause a moment and let’s have a look at what prospective buyers have been searching for in recent times. We just might find inspiration which will help guide our choices …

First let’s sneak a peek at the very hottest choices on Trade Me — the Top 15 Most Popular Searches on Trade Me are carried every month in the Trade Me newsletter, so that’s a good place to start.

As you’d probably expect, the iPhone (#1 in October), iPad (#5) and iPod (#9) are amongst the most sought-after goodies on Trade Me (as enthusiastic but cash-strapped consumers look for bargains). Unless you’re an authorised Apple orchard, you probably don’t have access to those products at a price that makes the igadgets worth reselling. However if you are able to source useful accessories (eg cases & covers) at a hot price, the continuing popularity of the core items suggests that there’s still good demand for add-ons.

Another technology on the Most Wanted list: GPS (#8), the ideal gift for the male of the species. Finally, a technological compensation for the genetic aversion to stopping and asking for directions.

If your prospective customers’ tastes run more to fashion than firmware, perennial favourites that keep making the bestseller list on Trade Me include Karen Walker, Country Road, Trelise Cooper and Roxy. Demand is clearly there; your challenge is to arrange supply at a profitable price point.

If we dig beyond the published Top 15 list and take a look at the fifty most searched-for items on Trade Me (this time for September 2010), here’s what we note:

If what we ‘ve covered so far doesn’t do it for you, let’s take a look beyond Trade Me, at what consumers are searching for through Google. We can’t drill down very far for New Zealand searches, but we can for Australia so let’s take a look at what was hot across the ditch in the last seven days:

To figure out more popular items worth selling, head to Google Insights for Search and do your own crunching.

PS Merry Christmas!

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Doing your Christmas Shopping on Trade Me November 2, 2010

Posted by Michael Carney in : Christmas, buying , add a comment

What? Too soon?

Bah humbug — many savvy shoppers were snapping up Christmas stocking goodies a couple of months ago. But for those of us who aren’t quite so prepared, here are some helpful hints on shopping for the festive season on Trade Me.

Something Old, Something New

Around half of the products for sale on Trade Me are new (and the proportion of new stuff grows at Christmas-time). So don’t worry that you’re only choosing from used goods. Of course, pre-loved pressies can be great, too — for example, a Star Wars card autographed by the voice of Darth Vader, the legendary James Earl Jones, just might be the thing for the geek in your lfe.

Or perhaps your nearest and dearest is a royalist? Check out such goodies as this Chuck and Di cup:

CHRISTMAS SHOPPING ON TRADE ME
PART A: IF YOU ALREADY KNOW EXACTLY WHAT YOU WANT TO BUY

Sometimes we know exactly what sort of gift we want to buy. Gives us a warm, fuzzy feeling inside. So buying that gift is more a matter of knowing exactly where to find it and how much to pay.

1. Search
Start your quest by searching for the item (let’s be incredibly creative and describe it as a ‘widget’) on Trade Me. Make a note of who’s selling widgets and at what price they’ve listed each widget.

2. Browse
Browse in the widget category for misspellings, products without pictures and other items that won’t show up in searches (for more details, read our earlier article on how to find bargains on Trade Me).

3. Verify
Check out the feedback of the widget sellers. Look for any recent negatives. Cross out any sellers with poor reputations, highlight those with better than sterling customer service. Add the good ones to your “favourite sellers” list to be emailed details of their new listings.

4. History Check
Go to the Trade Me Search Box and click on “More Options”. Use the advanced search facility (with “Expired Items” selected) to see at what prices those widgets previously sold (or didn’t sell). That will give you an idea of the actual value of the widget in the Trade Me marketplace. (NB If your widget is rare or obscure, there may be no recent auction listings).

5. Real World
Don’t forget the non-virtual world. Check out widget pricing in actual stores or in printed catalogues. And see what the Recommended Retail Pricing is, perhaps by phoning up widget stockists.

Get ready to buy
Having down all your homework, you’ll now know what sort of price to pay for your widget. Identify target auctions, hurry up and wait.

Hold your breath – and your bid
As you move into Bidding Mode, may we respectfully point you in the direction of Chapter Six of Trade Me Success Secrets. It reveals the most important secret of buying successfully on Trade Me, and deals with the topic in far more detail than we can address effectively here.

CHRISTMAS SHOPPING ON TRADE ME
B. IF YOU HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA WHAT TO BUY

What types of gifts would your family/friends/significant others like to receive this holiday season? This is what American consumers told researchers last season:

This data from BIGresearch’s Consumer Intention & Actions study

Specifics
Want more specific advice? Google “most wanted gifts 2010″″ and you’ll find a variety of lists of the Most Wanted, for men, women, kids, teens, you name it.

And finally, if you’re buying for kids, check out top toy lists such as this one:


The Toyworld Annual Top 20 Hot Toys for Christmas 2010 (listed below in alphabetical order):

1/ BABY born; – A life like doll that can drink, wet her nappy, eat and use her potty, cry and squeak and be bathed Suitable for ages 3+

2/ BAKUGAN – This is a collectable battle game with characters that pop open when they’re rolled onto a game card! Suitable for ages 5+

3/BARBIE The timeless and ever popular Barbie range features the latest for 2010 including Fashion Fairy Tale Barbie who flashes when you press her dancing queen belt. Suitable for ages 3+

4/ BEYBLADES – Let it Rip with Beyblade Metal Fusion – the ultimate battling top. Collect, customize and compete like never before with a new, metal gear system! Challenge friends around the global with Beyblade virtual battles on line – www.beybladebattles.com Suitable for ages 8+

5/ BIKES – Always a favourite under the Xmas tree. New colours and styles to choose from. Suitable for ages 4+

6/ HOT WHEELS RANGE-Collectable diecast to massive playsets which encourage hours of fun. Suitable for ages 4+

7/ LEAPFROG RANGE – Educational early learning products that enhance oral, sound, colour and motor skills for toddlers. Suitable for ages 6 – 36 months

8/ LEGO AND LEGO GAMES RANGE – Creative building can be enjoyed by all age groups from preschool being Duplo to City or Technic for the older enthusiast. Lego’s New Games offer a new and exciting way of game play. Suitable for ages 3+

9/ LITTLEST PET SHOP RANGE – How BIG is your Littlest Pet Shop collection? This brand provides the ultimate choice for girls who love to collect. Girls simply can’t get enough of these quirky, edgy and cute pet pals and the playsets and accessories that make the experience complete. Newly released Blythe doll, fashionista and pet sitter, adds a whole new dimension of play Suitable for 4 Years – & Up

10/ MY LITTLE PONY RANGE – Sugar and spice and friends for life My Little Pony core cast live in the fun-filled world of friendship choose from Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Toola-Roola, Cheerilie, Scootaloo, Starsong, or Sweetie Belle – or collect them all! These ponies make the perfect friend for any little girl Suitable for ages 4 years and up

11/ NERF RANGE – Win every battle with Nerf! When you’re in the heat of battle, you need a high-performance blaster that will have your back – whether it’s a Supersoaker water blaster to drench your friends, or a dart blaster N-Strike arsenal, Nerf has the blaster for you! Beware of imitations – its Nerf or Nothin’ this Christmas Suitable 6 Years – & Up

12/ PAPER JAMZ GUITAR – Pick up Paper Jamz Guitar and instantly become a Rock Star. Active Graphics Technology allows you to jam out by simply touching the surface. Built in speaker. Also has connection for earphone or amplifier. Age range: 8+

13/ PLAYWORLD – OUTDOOR PLAY EQUIPMENT – three, four and six swing and slide sets and trampolines provide a complete outdoor fun centre for your garden. Suitable for ages 2+

14/ POCKET MONEY COLLECTABLES – Mighty Beans, Zoobles, Party Animals, Gogo Crazy Bones. Cheap ranges that kids love to collect. Suitable for ages 4+

15/ REMOTE CONTROL (RC) RANGE – Includes cars, helicopters, boats and new and exciting innovative product such as Vectron Wave which flight mode is control by the palm of your hand. Suitable for ages 5+

16/ SCOOTERS – still a popular favourite, kids can ride to school and have hours of fun with their very own scooter. Suitable for ages 5+

17/ SYLVANIAN FAMILIES RANGE – collectable range of miniature dolls. The design of the range sets it apart from most of the other alternatives that are available and the unique little animal families, each with their own story, give children hours of pleasure (and many grown-ups too!). 4 years and older Ages

18/ THOMAS WOODEN RANGE – The Thomas Wooden Railway’ is designed to grow with your child’s increasing ability and creativity, so the fun and adventure always stay fresh. Suitable for 18 MONTHS +

19/ TONKA CHUCK MY RUMBLIN TRUCK – Your boy’s best buddy. Rumblin’ Chuck knows when he’s picked up, pushed around, or loaded up and says fun phrases for each. With over 50 phrases and sound effects, plus a bonus stock book (all that and he does wheelies too! Suitable for ages 3+

20/ ZHU ZHU PETS RANGE. Collectable characters which have their own unique personalities. With their whimsical sounds watch them scoot, scamper, bump and boogie across the floor or through their hamster habitat. Suitable for ages 4+ For more information visit www.toyworld.co.nz

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7 Key Facts for serious Trade Me sellers October 1, 2010

Posted by Michael Carney in : auctions, selling , 2comments

If you want to get serious about selling on Trade Me, take note of these seven key facts about Kiwis buying stuff online.

1. More of us are now shopping online. In April this year the Nielsen Company was reporting (in its 2010 Online Retail Report) that 45 percent of New Zealanders (and 57% of regular Internet users) are online shoppers.

The implication for Trade Me sellers: your market is bigger than ever — but it also includes a segment of potential purchasers who are new to all this, and consequently still nervous about shopping online. So you still need to be on your best behaviour as a seller and offer reassurance to those who are newbies.

2. We’re shopping online more often. 35% of New Zealanders who shop online made six or more purchases on the Internet in the past 12 months, an increase of 12.7 percent on the previous year.

That’s good news for Trade Me sellers. Those who are already buying online are now buying more often — great for those who offer products that can be repurchased on a regular basis.

3. Here are the Top Ten types of products purchased online, according to that Nielsen 2010 Online Retail Report:

You may not be able to sell Airline Tickets (for security reasons, most air tickets cannot be resold) but all the rest of the categories are fair game.

4. These six little words, added to your listing, can double the number of prospective bidders for your auction: “add this item to your watchlist”.

5. Auctions that have a $1 start and reserve price attract 20 times more bids than other auctions.

6. The five Trade Me categories that showed the most growth over the past twelve months were:

  1. Mobile Phones
  2. Business, Farming & Industry
  3. Health & Beauty
  4. Antiques & Collectables
  5. Computers

7. The consumer’s ability to pay (or willingness to do so) still plays a role in determining the success or failure of our auctions. Our latest consumer research study (September 2010) tells us that Kiwis are still watching their pennies.

Kiwi consumers aged 25-54 have cut back on:

PS Apart from these seven sets of facts, there are a few other things you need to know if you want to sell successfully on Trade Me. For further homework, may we encourage you to check out our Trade Me Success Secrets book or (if you’ve already mastered that) our online course on Advanced Selling on Trade Me.

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The Single Most Important Buying Secret August 31, 2010

Posted by Michael Carney in : buying , 1 comment so far

The one essential piece of advice you need to know before you bid for anything on Trade Me is this:

You shouldn’t bid at all until the last few minutes of any auction.

It may not be much fun for the seller. And you won’t get caught up in the thrill of the chase. But this is by far the best strategy for buying on Trade Me. When you find something you like,  add it to your watchlist, wait until 15 minutes before the auction is due to end and then follow these five simple steps:

1. Decide on the maximum amount you want to pay.
Unless the auction item is the long-lost silver watch that Lloyd George gave your grandfather, you need to set yourself a limit on what you’re prepared to pay. Deduct the shipping costs. That’s your Maximum Bidding Amount.
2. Check the current bidding.
Open the auction listing page and check the current bidding. If it’s already over your budget limit, step away from the computer. Otherwise, proceed to Step 3.

3. Refresh the auction listing page every minute or so.
Keep refreshing the page until four or five minutes before the auction closes.

4. Place your bid.
Place your Maximum Bidding Amount in the box labelled ‘Minimum next bid’ and (vital!) tick the AutoBid box. Double check that you’ve put the correct dollar amount in the Bid box and that the AutoBid box is ticked.

5. Click ‘Place Bid’.
You’ll be asked to confirm your bid. Check it, click to confirm, then walk away.

So what just happened?
You set a budget and used Trade Me technology to do the bidding for you, up to the maximum amount you specified. You either won or lost the auction, but the odds are in your favour. You will win more auctions using this strategy than with any other Trade Me buying strategy.

WHAT’S SO GREAT ABOUT THIS STRATEGY?

A number of things:

1. You won’t spend more than you planned.
Discipline yourself upfront and stick to the maximum you think the item is worth. Then walk away. Yes, you will lose some auctions using this strategy. But those are auctions where someone else is prepared to pay more than you believe the item is worth. Congratulate yourself — you didn’t let your emotions run away with you. And you’ve still got your money in your pocket, ready to bid another day.

2. You won’t set off a red flare alerting other bidders.
Just one early bid on an auction will draw other members like bees to a honey pot. ‘What are we missing out on?’ Surfers skimming through Trade Me tend to head first towards the auctions with bids, figuring there must be something going on, if others have been inspired to bid. The more bids, the more interesting the item looks. Bidding early also tips off any other potential buyers who had placed the auction on their watchlist, increasing the likelihood that they’ll be more active when the auction is about to close.

3. Trade Me’s AutoBid system does all the work.
As the name suggests, the AutoBid system is used to make automatic bids. When you enter the most you are prepared to pay as an AutoBid, Trade Me will keep you in the lead, by the minimum allowable bid increment, until you win the auction or your AutoBid is exceeded. You won’t have to sit there watching, making a bid, watching, bidding again, watching, bidding, chewing your fingernails. Relax — your trusty companion is on the job.

WHAT ARE YOU UP AGAINST?

There are four other primary Trade Me buying strategies:

1. Nibbling
Users place a bid early in the auction, just enough to take the lead. They don’t bid again until they’re outbid, at which point they nibble away with small increments, just enough to try to take the lead. How do you respond to these users? Ignore them. If they nibble away enough to push the auction beyond your Maximum Bidding Amount, good luck to them. Otherwise they’ll be left behind when your late bid kicks in just before the auction closes.

2. Pre-emptive high bid
Some members believe that if they bid high at an early stage they’ll scare away other bidders. They may — or they may simply raise the cost of acquisition for everybody else, if it’s a popular item. If other bidders are indeed discouraged from joining the bidding, that’s good news for your late bid.

3. Early AutoBids
These Trade Me members have mastered the AutoBid but place their bids relatively early in the auction, often because they’re not going to be at the computer when the auction is due to close. Unfortunately, their bid does increase the visibility of the auction to casual Trade Me browsers and they risk escalating the auction pricing well before the end game — essentially an automated nibbling process. Nothing you can do but stay out of the way.

4. Edge-of-the-seat late bids
More and more members — especially those who’ve been around for a while — adopt the late-bidding strategy, but often want to be there at the kill so they are able to place their own bids manually in the last few minutes. It’s a fine strategy if they really, really want that auction item, but they end up bidding against the machine (ie, your AutoBid), and either drive up your final cost before pulling out or win in the end but pay more than you believe the item is worth. What can you do about these people? Nothing much — but at least you’re emotionally detached.

What about other late autobidders?
There will be other bidders out there who use the same winning strategy we’ve outlined, either as a result of their own experience or (hopefully) because they read this article (or our TRADE ME SUCCESS SECRETS book) as well. What can you do about them?

In the end, it comes down to two elements. Firstly, be as informed as you possibly can about the true value of the item you’re chasing. If the item is worth more to you than to them, your Maximum Bidding Amount will be higher and you’ll win.

Secondly, when you set the dollar value of your Maximum Bidding Amount, don’t round the total off. If you’ve decided that $40 is what the item is worth, toss in another 27 cents (or 59 cents, or 83 cents) or some uneven number that will take you just above what would seem a natural cut-off point. That may be just enough to win you the auction because people typically gravitate to nice round numbers.

Sure, this strategy isn’t as much fun — or as adrenalin-pumping — as a down-and-dirty bidding war but winning within your budget makes it all worthwhile!

SO IS THERE A RECOMMENDED STRATEGY IF YOU ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY MUST WIN?

Sure there is. And you can either read about it within the pages of TRADE ME SUCCESS SECRETS — or sign up for our free newsletter [use the signup form on the right hand side of the page] and we’ll cover it in our next issue!

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What does it take to sell stuff on Trade Me in 2010? August 19, 2010

Posted by Michael Carney in : auctions, trade me, trademe , 2comments

This internet thingy is catching on. The latest (August 2010) Media Trends Report from Roy Morgan Research shows us that buying stuff online is now pretty widespread in New Zealand:

used-internet-for-buying

So 58% of us have used the internet  for buying things.

What sorts of things are Kiwis buying online? Again, Roy Morgan Research to the rescue:

Top Ten Products Bought Online
(within the last three months, Jan-Dec 2009)

Trade Me’s influence is clear — most of those products (largely excluding travel, which can be found on sister site TravelBug) are readily available through our favourite online auction site.

So have the dynamics of selling on Trade Me changed, now that there are more than a million and a half items regularly listed on the site?

Better, Faster, Cheaper (pick all three)

Once upon a time, sellers could get away with offering products on Trade Me that were EITHER Better OR Faster OR Cheaper. Now we need to try and deliver across all three metrics — competition in most categories is as intense on Trade Me as it is in the real world (if not more so).

And customers today are more demanding. They want perfect orders, shipped and delivered on time.

What’s a “perfect order”? According to Edward Marien of the University of Wisconsin, customers are looking for:

  1. The Right Product in the
  2. Right Quantity from the
  3. Right Source to the
  4. Right Destination in the
  5. Right Condition at the
  6. Right Time with the
  7. Right Documentation for the
  8. Right Cost.

US consumer products giant Procter & Gamble has its own definition of a perfect order: “a product that arrives on time, complete (as ordered), and billed correctly.” By P&G’s internal calculations, the company estimated that an imperfect order was costing it an average of US$200 each time.

The company found that additional costs for getting things wrong included:

Those are industrial-strength concerns, of course. The Trade Me equivalent would be:

All in all, it’s better to be an overachieving seller, delivering more than you promised.

Seven tips for improving your Trade Me sales

In many ways, though, delivering on The Perfect Order is really just about the hygiene factor — getting things right after the sale.

If you want to increase the percentage of your listings that actually sell, start with these seven tips:

  1. Always include shipping costs in your listings.
    American research shows that one in five online shoppers abandon their purchase because shipping costs aren’t shown alongside the product costs. Today’s consumer doesn’t want any hidden surprises.
  2. Tell visitors why they should shop with you
    Unless you”re offering a one-of-a-kind product that’s simply unavailable elsewhere, chances are you have competitors on Trade Me selling similar products. So don’t rely on the product attributes to do all the selling job — tell your browsers why they should choose you. Talk about things such as value for money, your excellent customer service record, the merits of your organisation (not just your product).
  3. Include Customer Reviews
    According to Nielsen’s NZ Social Media Report (July 2010), 1.92 million Kiwis now look to their fellow Internet users for opinions and information about products, services and brands. It’s not that they don’t trust sellers — they just trust their fellow consumers more. So incorporate the words of your customers into your listings, If you have really flattering feedback, feature it prominently in your listing (don’t expect visitors to check out past praise in your feedback — they won’t, they’ll just look at the percentage of positive feedbacks).
  4. Have a highly-visible, no-hassle returns policy
    For many potential buyers, a money-back-guarantee will make the difference in convincing them to go with you rather than a competitor. Yes, there is the risk that your products will be returned to you, sometimes in unsaleable condition — but if you’re delivering The Perfect Order (as defined above), your percentage of returned orders will be much lower than your percentage of increased sales achieved as a result of your returns policy.
  5. Check Out Your Competitors’ Images
    What are your competitors doing well that you might copy (and indeed improve upon)? Take a look at their listing photos — are they sharp, professional, attractive? Do they show key aspects of the product that yours don’t? If you put your photos and theirs side by side, which look more interesting, desirable, show off the product features best?
  6. X-Ray Your Competitors’ Words
    Start with their headlines. What features have they highlighted? What keywords have they used? Are they using subheads as well? Are there any headlines which sound better than yours? Then take a look at the main body of their listings. How compelling are the words they use? Are there any benefits they’ve emphasised that you’ve overlooked? Review what others are doing, and then polish up your own stuff.
  7. Use Real-Life Stories to bring your listings to life
    It’s one thing to have nice marketing copy describing a product — but it’s far more compelling to see real-life tales from other customers describing how they use the product. Once you have a base of happy customers, invite them to contribute their stories. Even if most won’t, you just might find some real gems. [Okay, you can't do this with every product, but where you can, it's worth the effort].

Tip of the Iceberg

What we’ve covered here is only part of the story of what it takes to sell effectively in 2010.

If you want to join the 15,000 or so professional sellers that Trade Me estimates conduct business on the site, you need to dig rather deeper.

Here are just some of the questions that professional sellers have asked (and found out the answers to) and most of us don’t know:

If you’d like to significantly improve your Trade Me sales performance, allow us to introduce our new course:

Course TM-1: Advanced Selling On Trade Me

This is a seven-week eCourse providing a comprehensive masterclass on selling on Trade Me. The course presumes you are already familiar with the basics of selling on Trade Me (if there are a few gaps, you can do your homework with our own TRADE ME SUCCESS SECRETS book).

This is an ONLINE-ONLY course — you can take part from anywhere, in your own time.

This eCourse is conducted on a web-based e-learning software platform, enabling course participants to proceed at their own pace, accessing materials online. This particular eCourse provides content in a variety of multimedia forms, including videos, slideshows, flash-based presentations and PDF files. No special software is required to participate.

Course lessons are released weekly, for participants to access in accordance with their own timetables. Interaction with the course tutor is enabled through the platform software tools (with telephone backup if required).

TIMING
This eCourse started on Wednesday August 18, with the delivery to participants of Lesson One. New lessons are delivered weekly on Wednesdays.

LATE ENTRIES
Late entries are accepted within the first three weeks of course commencement (up until September 8).

COURSE CREATION AND TUTORING
This course has been created and will be tutored by Michael Carney, author of the best-selling book about buying and selling effectively on Trade Me, TRADE ME SUCCESS SECRETS (now in its second edition).

WHO SHOULD TAKE PART
Anyone who wants to sell as effectively and profitably as possible on Trade Me.

——————————————————————————–

The full course details are at http://trademesuccesssecrets.com/ecourses/ but here’s a sneak peek:

COURSE CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

LESSON ONE: ABOUT THE BUYERS

LESSON TWO: PRODUCTS THAT SELL

LESSON THREE: TOP SELLERS & THEIR STORIES

LESSON FOUR: GETTING NOTICED

LESSON FIVE: KILLER CONTENT

LESSON SIX: HOW MUCH?

LESSON SEVEN: GETTING THINGS DONE

CONCLUSION

——————————————————————————–

INVESTMENT

This seven-part eCourse is available for $297 +GST ($334.13 total). However we offer a special highly-reduced rate:

EARLY BIRD SPECIAL: SAVE $100

Pay just $197 +GST ($221.63 including GST) if you book and pay before MIDNIGHT NEXT WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 8.

Bookings are confirmed on receipt of payment, which can be by bank deposit or credit card. We can raise an invoice in advance if you need it.

If you’d like to pay by credit card, here’s the link to sign up for the Early Bird Special (via international credit card processor PayPal): CLICK HERE TO PAY.

We also offer a couple of instalment options, if you’d rather not pay up front:

  1. Pay five monthly installments of $70 per month (total to pay, including GST, $350): CLICK HERE FOR THIS FIVE-MONTH PAYMENT OPTION
  2. Pay twelve monthly installments of $30 per month (total $360): CLICK HERE FOR THIS TWELVE-MONTH PAYMENT OPTION

If you would prefer to pay  by bank deposit, or require an invoice before making payment, please send an email to info@successsecrets.co.nz with your contact details.

(The service provider will be shown as Netmarketing Services Limited in your transaction and on your credit card statement)

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

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Feedback Etiquette June 29, 2010

Posted by Michael Carney in : auctions , 13comments

Feedback is a really important contributor to the smooth running of business on Trade Me.

Although these days we’re all pretty comfortable with the notion of buying and selling stuff on our favourite auction site, it still requires a leap of faith: we’re sending money to people we don’t know, for goods we haven’t seen.

Without some variation on the Feedback system , we’d be completely in the dark about the trustworthiness or otherwise of those on the other end of the trade.

The Feedback system isn’t perfect – but it’s a very useful guide to other members of the Trade Me community and helps keep us honest. Imagine how much better behaved we’d be in real life if we all had to walk around wearing Feedback ratings given to us by our colleagues and customers!

We had an enquiry from a reader which raised some useful questions about Feedback on Trade Me:

C.U. from Martinborough wrote:

“I’ve been wondering why everyone who’s browsing my Trade Me feedback (which is good and part of the ‘getting to trust someone’) can actually see what I had purchased or sold. I don’t (a) think it’s anyone’s business, (b) think it matters and (c) find it helpful if you’ve (for example) bought something as a surprise present.”

Thanks for the question, C.U. Firstly, to the issue of the surprise present: I’ve sold a few copies of my TRADE ME SUCCESS SECRETS book to bidders who intend to give the book away as a present — I usually know in advance because people ask me to sign the book “Happy Birthday [O So Lucky Recipient]“.

On those occasions, I usually hold off giving feedback until I receive it from the buyer, to avoid tipping off the recipient in case they have access to the buyer’s Trade Me account. Similarly, you should specifically ask sellers to delay feedback if you intend to give the item as a gift.

To the more philosophical question of why feedback should link through to item details:

If you’re a buyer considering whether a particular seller is trustworthy, even when they have a number of positive feedbacks it can be really important to see exactly how they gained those feedbacks.

A whole industry sprung up over on eBay, selling downloadable items for one cent each, purely to build feedback. As a result, it has been really easy on eBay to build a host of positive feedbacks with minimal cost and little effort [although the rules over there have since been changed to try to stamp out the practice].

Trade Me don’t allow downloadable items to be sold on the site, so that particular problem is avoided here in NZ; but you can still amass positive feedback for limited expense by buying a pile of $1 items, paying promptly and requesting positive feedback. Your feedback total looks good but you haven’t actually done much to deserve it. So, when you set out to sell a high-value item, the feedback numbers can mislead us about exactly how trustworthy you are.

In such circumstances, it’s really important for prospective buyers to have the ability to see for themselves exactly how you acquired that glowing feedback score.

Also, from a purely commercial point of view, if I’m a potential buyer interested in buying a widget from you, it’s useful information for me to know how much you earned from earlier widget sales. I don’t want to overpay!

So what’s the best way to give Feedback?

Some pointers on Feedback etiquette, firstly for sellers:

For buyers:

If, despite all the above, you do get negative feedback:

Trade Me will not review negative feedback unless:

If you feel that any feedback has breached these terms, you can report it to Trade Me (as long as it’s not more than 30 days old).

And one more thing: you can be held legally responsible for damages to the trader’s reputation under New Zealand law. So keep your feedback factual.

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