Thinking of building a Trade Me alternative. Tell me why it's a terrible idea

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Forums › Startups › Thinking of building a Trade Me alternative. Tell me why it's a terrible idea

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446 posts

Ultimate Geek
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#3483601 23-Apr-2026 20:30

Have a think about offering a ‘wanted’ model as an adjunct. You might want to do it for some types and at certain times. Maybe only for new items - say Fridges etc.

Like a Dutch auction model.

"Artificial Intelligence" - aka Machine Learning 2.0

Reanalyse

402 posts

Ultimate Geek
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#3483607 23-Apr-2026 21:18

Looking at what I buy , the choice is determined by need, value and can I trust the seller.

I would never buy from Facebook Marketplace due to a lack of trust, Trademe only if I can not find it elsewhere.

I have bought almost all of the discretionary items that I did not know I needed until I saw someone selling them right here on Geekzone.

Why - because if someone has been on Geekzone for a while, I can get to know their personality ( I may not know the name, but from what they post can see how they think and generally get a vibe on who they are) and feel safe purchasing from them based on that.

If you can somehow build someting like that into your Trade Me alternative would really help. But alas think Geekzone may be unique in that area.

nova

263 posts

Ultimate Geek
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#3483612 23-Apr-2026 22:26

The trouble with escrow systems like ping, or what your proposing with stripe, is that it shifts the problem to the seller. A buyer can claim they never got the item, or it was damaged when it arrived, and as a seller you can end up out of pocket.

If I was trying to get into this market I'd be aiming niche, rather than going after Trademe or FB marketplace. You need something that would attract a big customer like Turners, who has the pulling power to bring the users with them.

mattwnz

20563 posts

Uber Geek
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#3483613 23-Apr-2026 22:47

Trademe these day seems to be mainly about property and motors. That is where the money seems to be. Also they killed off their community which was a bit reason many people used trademe.

pdh

498 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 346

#3483618 24-Apr-2026 00:12

I mostly use cash & pickup for TradeMe - buying & selling - removes a lot of issues about the state of the goods at points of offer / shipment / delivery.

Occasionally I have trusted a suitably reputably vendor - to ship me a 200-500 $ item across the country - that's probably my limit.

As a vendor, either on TradeMe or on your proposed system, I would be concerned about the scam purchaser...
'Nah - it never showed up / arrived defective.' is an easier scam if no money has changed hands yet - or is in escrow.

Building some smart guardrails to stop that sort of purchaser dishonesty would be a strong point of difference.

Goosey

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#3483621 24-Apr-2026 06:42

I think you need to consider your marketing plan.

what do you plan to do, how are you going to penetrate the demographics currently using FB?

what simple message and carrot are you going to give them to come visit and or try your site?

are your systems and interface and usability easy if not easier than FB?

People with FB, obviously already have a FB account. How’s your signup process going to help them switch?

Whats the ongoing marketing plan….. some would think running Facebook adverts reach the target audience, they don’t always achieve this.

whatever you do, it has to be easy and simple from day one or you will loose the 1 minute people might use to have a Quick Look forever… if you continually mention “comming soon” to features then you will loose traction.

Have everything match ready first up.

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gzt

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#3483636 24-Apr-2026 08:40

I find TradeMe pretty annoying to use. Minor issues and design choices in the app are the primary reason for that, at the moment. There are a few other things. For that reason alone I'm likely to use an alternative. I'm in no hurry and I don't mind if my listings sit for a while. Based on geekzone comments I'm guessing I'm not entirely alone in that.

Although the TradeMe fee changes are positive and sparked my interest I've discovered I've completely lost the habit of listing things. It's been well over 10 years since I used it to sell everything and anything. I continue to use it buy things I need I can't get elsewhere. I do use it to sell the occasional high value item, less than once a year. I'd like to use it more often but don't for the earlier reasons.

An annual subscription model depending on price might work for me. Tbh I'm not that keen on subscription. Also, you'll lose people who don't use credit cards and I'd guess they will be a good chunk of sellers/buyers and potentially desirable to build volume.

quickymart

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#3483639 24-Apr-2026 08:54

wellygary:

The problem is that Trademe is no long the market leader in the field its FB Marketplace..

Sorry I don't quite agree with that. I know a lot of people who simply don't trust using FB Marketplace and use Trademe instead; if a trade goes south on the former, good luck getting anywhere with Meta. At least Trademe has a support team who are (reasonably) responsive.

I'll grant you that FB Marketplace has its place, for sure (cash pickups of small items) - but it might be a stretch to call it "the market leader" in New Zealand.

https://www.consumer.org.nz/articles/trade-me-or-marketplace-what-s-the-best-way-to-sell-your-stuff-online

Quacko

26 posts

Geek
+1 received by user: 13

#3483665 24-Apr-2026 10:20

I have done thought experiments on this before. The greatest hurdle is achieving critical mass. You aren't going to get listings without a customer base, and you can't get a customer base without listings.

A lot of my bugbears with TradeMe have already been mentioned.

Obviously search and categorisation can be vastly improved.

When I'm looking on TM I'm almost always looking to buy from individuals, not companies or drop-shippers and I hate trying to sift through the listings. My ideal would be to be able to exclude retailers (regardless of whether they are selling new or used). I don't know how you would best distinguish, perhaps by limiting the number of active listings per account.

A wanted section is also a good idea, but you would need mechanisms in place to prevent abuse.

Also bear in mind that these issues are actually quite easily fixed by TM. I'm sure they could roll out new categories and improved filtering in a matter of days.

cddt

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#3483681 24-Apr-2026 11:01

I've been selling a lot of secondhand goods through TM and it's pretty smooth nowadays with the courier integration. Bought a few things too over the years without being scammed...

FBM is a pain since you can't even browse it without an account, haven't been bothered to sign up.

yudumcan

106 posts

Master Geek
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#3483683 24-Apr-2026 11:04

dpf81nz:

I've seen a few competitors come and go over the years, they never really got any foothold

TBH the biggest issue with Trademe was the high fees, but they are a lot more reasonable now since they reduced them and I'm more likely to start using it again. Plus theres various buyer protection, its really easy to just list stuff, get paid via Ping and book a courier to pick it up from your house etc all through the app

The main thing that would stop me using a new competitor would be the small % of traffic that trademe gets so it'd be a lot harder to sell my item

I only ever use FB Marketplace for local pickup/pay via cash situations, for anything other than that its a scammers paradise

The traffic concern is the hardest problem to solve. The approach we're thinking about is cross-posting, founding stores would list on both platforms simultaneously, so there's no risk to the seller during the early period. You're not betting on our traffic, you're just also on ours. Does that change your thinking at all, or is it still a non-starter until there's a genuine audience?

And the FB Marketplace, that's exactly the gap we're trying to fill. The $50–$2,000 range where you actually need to trust a stranger

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yudumcan

106 posts

Master Geek
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#3483686 24-Apr-2026 11:11

Reanalyse:

Looking at what I buy , the choice is determined by need, value and can I trust the seller.

I would never buy from Facebook Marketplace due to a lack of trust, Trademe only if I can not find it elsewhere.

I have bought almost all of the discretionary items that I did not know I needed until I saw someone selling them right here on Geekzone.

Why - because if someone has been on Geekzone for a while, I can get to know their personality ( I may not know the name, but from what they post can see how they think and generally get a vibe on who they are) and feel safe purchasing from them based on that.

If you can somehow build someting like that into your Trade Me alternative would really help. But alas think Geekzone may be unique in that area.

We're going to think about how to build a community layer that makes personality visible, not just star ratings. if you've bought from someone or just liked their style ot the things that they sell, their new listings show up in your feed. The "I didn't know I needed that until I saw them selling it" this behaviour is what we want to enable.

One question: the Geekzone trust came from years of posting history. For a new platform, what would give you enough of a signal early on to take a chance on someone? Is it time on platform, the quality of their listing, something else?

yudumcan

106 posts

Master Geek
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#3483688 24-Apr-2026 11:17

nova:

The trouble with escrow systems like ping, or what your proposing with stripe, is that it shifts the problem to the seller. A buyer can claim they never got the item, or it was damaged when it arrived, and as a seller you can end up out of pocket.

If I was trying to get into this market I'd be aiming niche, rather than going after Trademe or FB marketplace. You need something that would attract a big customer like Turners, who has the pulling power to bring the users with them.

Valid points. On escrow: you're right that the model as we have planned it is more buyer-friendly than it should be. We're adding also seller protections like: automatic protection against "not received" claims when delivery tracked and is confirmed, buyer dispute history visible before you accept a transaction and timestamped seller photos as the baseline for condition disputes. The goal is that a seller who does everything right cannot be fooled by a bad buyer.

Quacko

26 posts

Geek
+1 received by user: 13

#3483689 24-Apr-2026 11:19

Quacko:

I have done thought experiments on this before. The greatest hurdle is achieving critical mass. You aren't going to get listings without a customer base, and you can't get a customer base without listings.

A lot of my bugbears with TradeMe have already been mentioned.

Obviously search and categorisation can be vastly improved.

When I'm looking on TM I'm almost always looking to buy from individuals, not companies or drop-shippers and I hate trying to sift through the listings. My ideal would be to be able to exclude retailers (regardless of whether they are selling new or used). I don't know how you would best distinguish, perhaps by limiting the number of active listings per account.

A wanted section is also a good idea, but you would need mechanisms in place to prevent abuse.

Also bear in mind that these issues are actually quite easily fixed by TM. I'm sure they could roll out new categories and improved filtering in a matter of days.

Just adding to my earlier comment.

The challenge is not building the platform. Building a secure commerce/auction/classified site with integrated payments and shipping has never been easier.

The challenge is getting adoption. It's an order of magnitude easier for TM to simply add or improve their site than for a new disruptor to gain critical mass.

gzt

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#3483690 24-Apr-2026 11:19

Trust rating from TradeMe will help. You'll need to verify the account ownership, hard but not impossible. Imo it is fair use with consent like that.

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