Working on Trade Me
December 26th 2006 07:56
Since I left work, one of things I've done reasonably successfully, is sell books on Trade Me, New Zealand's version of Ebay. (In fact, Ebay hasn't taken off in NZ nearly as well because of Trade Me, which is a huge thing here.)
At first we hunted through the hundreds of books in our house and sold off those that we knew we'd never read again (even though there was always that feeling that we just might), and then gradually we've gone to garage sales and bargain shops and so forth, and picked up books at good prices.
Not every sale has gone well. Sometimes I've been forced to sell under my cost price, which isn't good, but in general we've made a bit of cash on the sales. And it's kept me sane in those days when the job scene seemed almost non-existent.
I found the book, Trade Me Success Secrets, by Michael Carney, both very useful and too detailed. Some of the information stands you in good stead. Some of it is more a generalisation about how to go about things, even though it seems like good advice at first.
His site is also a bit of an oddity. In the book he talks about being able to find a number of things on his site, but the site opens with an apology that they're running a little late with this section - and that's how it's been as long as I've known about it!
My wife has this idea of turning our bigger lounge into a secondhand shop, that's open just when we feel like it - in fact, it would mostly sell by email. I kind of like the idea, but at the moment it might be a bit of a problem. She's just got herself a table tennis table for Christmas (and balls and bats, of course) and there ain't no room in that room!
At first we hunted through the hundreds of books in our house and sold off those that we knew we'd never read again (even though there was always that feeling that we just might), and then gradually we've gone to garage sales and bargain shops and so forth, and picked up books at good prices.
Not every sale has gone well. Sometimes I've been forced to sell under my cost price, which isn't good, but in general we've made a bit of cash on the sales. And it's kept me sane in those days when the job scene seemed almost non-existent.
I found the book, Trade Me Success Secrets, by Michael Carney, both very useful and too detailed. Some of the information stands you in good stead. Some of it is more a generalisation about how to go about things, even though it seems like good advice at first.
Carney's book
His site is also a bit of an oddity. In the book he talks about being able to find a number of things on his site, but the site opens with an apology that they're running a little late with this section - and that's how it's been as long as I've known about it!
My wife has this idea of turning our bigger lounge into a secondhand shop, that's open just when we feel like it - in fact, it would mostly sell by email. I kind of like the idea, but at the moment it might be a bit of a problem. She's just got herself a table tennis table for Christmas (and balls and bats, of course) and there ain't no room in that room!
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Comment by Always Eighteen
Always Eighteen
Something has always stopped me from selling and buying from websites like Ebay. I guess I should finally give it a go some time. I haven't heard of Trade Me... I'll have to check it out.
Are you still unemployed? If you are, I can relate. The only thing I've currently got going is a low paid internship.
Drop by my blog sometime. Merry Christmas and best of luck for the new year.
Comment by Anonymous
Trade Me is a New Zealand site - though I think Australians can join in (we still luv you guys over there!). When Ebay first came on the scene it was very popular here, and there are still a lot of people using it, but many people find Trade Me a lot more reliable - and it's a lot easier to solve any problems because it's all so local.