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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Master Geek
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#3483691 24-Apr-2026 11:23

pdh:

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.

We're adding a pickup flow: exchange location suggestions, in-app meeting coordination so the agreed price and item are on record and verified identity on both sides before the meetup. Making local deals safer than Facebook is a separate job from making shipped deals trustworthy and we need to do both.

scam purchaser point: you're the third person to raise this and I'm taking it seriously. The escrow model as most platforms implement it is effectively a buyer's weapon. We're building the seller-side version: buyer dispute history visible before you accept a transaction, mandatory timestamped evidence for any damage claim and new accounts can't immediately run the scam on a high-value item, and mutual ratings that actually carry weight. The pitch to sellers is going to be that we protect them as hard as we protect buyers.

yudumcan

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#3483693 24-Apr-2026 11:30

Goosey:

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.

The message for FB isn't about fees, it's about scams. "Sell locally, get paid safely". And the channel to reach them is the NZ buy/sell Facebook groups, organically, not paid ads.

The signup friction point is easy to solve: Facebook and Google OAuth from day one, browse without an account, no form to fill in. If someone arrives from Facebook they should be signed up in one tap.

We'd rather launch with half the features and have all of them work perfectly than launch with everything and have "Coming Soon" tag. The first 60 seconds are the only seconds that matter for most people who arrive.

One question: when you've tried a new app or marketplace and it won you over quickly, what was it that did it? Was it the speed, finding something you wanted, the signup flow? what's the thing that made you think "okay, this is worth my time"?

yudumcan

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#3483694 24-Apr-2026 11:37

gzt: 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.

The AI listing tool is the direct answer to that: take a photo on your phone, get a complete listing in under 60 seconds and you're done. No reason not to try it for the box of stuff in the garage. and it'll be available to all occasional sellers or stores.

On the credit card: worth clarifying that it's card payment not credit card, so any Visa or Mastercard debit card works with Stripe. That's almost everyone in NZ with an eftpos card. Bank transfer remains free with no fees, just no protection attached to it.

On subscription: occasional sellers like you would be completely free, no subscription, no listing fees, no success fees ever. The subscription is only for stores with 20-30+ active listings who want the full analytics and AI toolkit.

gzt

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#3483704 24-Apr-2026 12:34

yudumcan: We'd rather launch with half the features and have all of them work perfectly than launch with everything and have "Coming Soon" tag. The first 60 seconds are the only seconds that matter for most people who arrive.

What is your minimum launch feature set at this time?

Goosey

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#3483709 24-Apr-2026 13:15

I get mighty peeved when I buy something from a web seller and within minutes get bombarded with emails, and email every other day.

Things like “hey it’s Pete from blah blah blah and I just wanted you to know blah blah blah”.

it’s that type of marketing that people simply switch off from.

people just wanna know the deals/ price / product.

yes your situation is vastly different but much the same.

Eva888

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#3483726 24-Apr-2026 13:54

I also like the idea of a 'wanted to buy' feature. Swap might be useful although no idea how you would structure to get a fee for these.

Many don’t like or trust Facebook so security would be a most important feature and trust the biggest draw card. I’ve had good luck buying electronics off TM but it’s a minefield of shady listings and especially fakes. AirPods brand new, boxed being the scammy favourite.

Wish you luck, but attempting a startup alone is hard, you need a team with skin in the game to bounce ideas off and brainstorm with, especially to talk you out of bad ideas and give a different point of view - most of all for moral support when the road becomes difficult.

What you improve upon can also be easily adopted/copied by your opposition, can you survive this scenario. TM is probably reading this thread right now and thinking how to implement.

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Handle9

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#3483731 24-Apr-2026 14:12

yudumcan:

On subscription: occasional sellers like you would be completely free, no subscription, no listing fees, no success fees ever. The subscription is only for stores with 20-30+ active listings who want the full analytics and AI toolkit.

So how do you make money? If you aren’t charging fees are you selling user data?

sleemanj

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#3483747 24-Apr-2026 14:58

I don't see any indication that you have even considered how to make enough to even cover operating costs, let alone make enough for marketing, or dare I say it, profit.

I wouldn't even bother without several millions of dollars in advertising budget alone just to get off the ground.

With that said, 3-4 years ago, 90% of my sales were on Trade Me, today less than 10%. Perhaps that's just me, but I really don't think so. Trade Me's fees and poor UI choices have driven people away. If you were really serious...

You MUST line up a full assortment of sellers with thousands of listings at attractive prices BEFORE you open the doors, if you open the doors to a website with a handful of listings, INSTANT FAIL you lose.
No drop shippers, goods must be in New Zealand, they must be dispatched by courier within 7 working days.
All users need to have their identity verified in some manner to try and keep out the scammers.
Sort by price+postage to make sure the playing field is level
Buyer protection at least as good as ping.
You will need to have a mobile app from day one, not just a website - the common folk demand it.
You will need to have a fully function website from day one, not just a mobile app - the professional sellers demand it.
Bidding makes it complicated, I'm not sure it's necessary to have an auction system, only casual sellers use it.
Charging fees before you have a strong market presence would be unwise, you will need a load of cash to burn to keep the lights on for at least a year or two.
You will need a fully functional API for professional sellers, again from day one.
A GOOD full text search. Categorisation is a PITA, search is king.

---
James Sleeman
I sell lots of stuff for electronic enthusiasts...

mattwnz

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#3483754 24-Apr-2026 15:25

So many have tried and failed. Zillion was a big competitor at one point.i don’t know what the point of creating another site is when trademe and facebook meet the markets needs these days, so there are really now two main players. Plus a lot of people actually sell on neighbourly. Unless the site has a massive number of users people won’t use it because people will be wasting their time listing on it.

quickymart

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#3483807 24-Apr-2026 19:33

mattwnz:

So many have tried and failed. Zillion was a big competitor at one point.i don’t know what the point of creating another site is when trademe and facebook meet the markets needs these days, so there are really now two main players. Plus a lot of people actually sell on neighbourly. Unless the site has a massive number of users people won’t use it because people will be wasting their time listing on it.

I searched back a bit and found a few interesting historic reviews. So many Trademe competitor sites dead and gone now:

https://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/digital-living/587492/Trade-Me-alternatives >> a review of all the alternatives as they were in 2009, 0 of them are still running today

https://archive.ph/Qe5qO >> Sella buys Zillion in 2010

https://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=48&topicid=61772&singlepage=yes >> and from our very own site. Interesting reading the comments from Sellanz - I wonder if he could have forseen what would have happened not even 3 years later? 🤔 (looks like he then started something called Shop HQ which was then acquired by The Warehouse and seems to have been shut down).

Linux

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#3483808 24-Apr-2026 19:38

Online Trade & Exchange as well

Samsung

Shop now on Samsung phones, tablets, TVs and more (affiliate link).

gzt

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#3483809 24-Apr-2026 19:54

Wikipedia for this one says since 2005

https://www.lixtor.co.nz/

It looks dead .

quickymart

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#3483810 24-Apr-2026 19:55

gzt: Wikipedia for this one says since 2005

https://www.lixtor.co.nz/

It looks dead .

Pretty close to it:

I tried some of the categories with listings apparently there but there's nothing for sale.

gzt

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#3483812 24-Apr-2026 19:56

This one is either in stealth or dead or both..

https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU2411/S00370/kiwi-entrepreneur-launches-campaign-to-tackle-secondhand-trading-scam-risks-in-new-zealand.htm

yudumcan

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#3483840 24-Apr-2026 23:43

Handle9:

yudumcan:

On subscription: occasional sellers like you would be completely free, no subscription, no listing fees, no success fees ever. The subscription is only for stores with 20-30+ active listings who want the full analytics and AI toolkit.

So how do you make money? If you aren’t charging fees are you selling user data?

Two ways we make money. First, stores and regular sellers, businesses with 20 or more active listings pay a subscription of around $25–30 a month for AI listing tools, analytics and a proper store dashboard. Individual sellers listing their own stuff always list for free, no subscription but there'll be optional bump feature like TM for $2-3

Second, optional buyer protection. When you pay by card, you can choose to add buyer protection for a small tiered fee $2 flat on anything under $50, around 3–4% above that. That covers return shipping if something goes wrong. It's optional. Bank transfer is always free with no protection, same as TM always was.

That's it. No ads. No selling your data to anyone. No third-party data sharing. We're building a NZ-only marketplace, not an ad platform. The business model is: stores pay for tools, occasional sellers pay for listing upgrades, buyers optionally pay for protection.

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