TradeMe oh TradeMe search

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RunningMan

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#3049005 11-Mar-2023 17:59

k1w1k1d: A good example of this is the number of internet routers listed in the power tool category.

That's because that is where TM defaults to putting them, and you need to override it. The even bigger issue though is it automatically restricts searches to the same categories and it isn't obvious it is doing it so ignorant buyers will miss out on many relevant matches. Pick any other marketplace site and they offer some suggested categories to restrict to after displaying your search which means you can get to meaningful results quicker.

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gzt

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#3049017 11-Mar-2023 18:32

loceff13:
floydbloke:Right here is my first go-to for tech (and beyond) buy/sell online classifieds. Somewhat limited audience and goods maybe, but you're pretty much guaranteed to be dealing with honest grown-ups.
I think the must set a price rule sucks and I avoid selling alot of stuff here comapred to at GPForums buy/sell etc where they allow pricecheck/offers in threads.

I believe the reason is NZ law requires auctions to be licensed. Getting into auction territory may start bumping into that law as well as introducing some silly arguments probably.

neb

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#3049031 11-Mar-2023 19:39

xpd:
And FB is FULL of scammers..... trying to sell an item there now, and its amazing how many scammers hit me up for it. Dragged one along this morning for a ride. Played along right until they sent me the link for the money.

Not just scammers but also plenty of timewasters, and unlike TM there's no dispute-resolution process or safety guarantees. TM may take a hefty cut, but for that you're getting some measure of guarantee that things will be OK. With Facebook OTOH...

Geektastic

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#3049040 11-Mar-2023 20:20

One thing that always irked me was an inability to search property for sale where minimum and maximum land areas were applied.

So if I want only to see houses with between say 5 acres and 10 acres, I can’t.

neb

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#3049045 11-Mar-2023 20:26

Beccara:
Oh dont get me started on the listed "in Auckland" but the ad states international shipping, no way to filter them out. If I wanted to wait a month for an item i'd goto ebay or aliexpress

Yeah, you have to read the ad very carefully to identify dropshippers. "Ships from China" is an obvious giveaway, but so are quoted shipping times of 9-16 days and/or odd shipping costs that don't match any common NZ courier/post prices.

neb

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#3049047 11-Mar-2023 20:30

RunningMan:
The whole TM searching is woefull compared to the old site. Go back 3 or 4 years (about the time the current CEO started?) and the site used to work pretty well. Searching worked as expected, filters could be applied, but with the new site variant it's just broken. Search returns things that aren't in the words you searched for, and silently restricts the search to some random category that it thinks you want to search for, even if that excludes 90% of the relevant results.

You forgot to mention the utter braindamage of the dual search bars, where one, the one you want to use but that TM directs you away from, searches TM and the other one, that you get dropped into by default, searches some random subset of TM that you're not interested in. "Oh, you looked for a plumbus for your kitchen? Here's some results from used cars instead". And then you wonder why you're getting garbage results until you realise that you've been moved yet again from the standard search bar into the random-results one.

neb

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#3049050 11-Mar-2023 20:33

k1w1k1d:
I also find TradeMe's search rather difficult, but that is often caused by the seller listing in the wrong category. A good example of this is the number of internet routers listed in the power tool category.

That's not necessarily the seller, it's TM's auto-suggested category. Like their return-garbage-results second search bar (see my previous post) it catches you unless you take explicit steps to avoid it each time you use it.

Wheelbarrow01

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Chorus

#3049418 12-Mar-2023 21:28

Geektastic: One thing that always irked me was an inability to search property for sale where minimum and maximum land areas were applied.

So if I want only to see houses with between say 5 acres and 10 acres, I can’t.

You can indeed set a land parcel size as a search parameter - but only from the Trademe Property phone app (but not the standard TM marketplace app):

Image preview

I wish that the size/quantity of garaging was a searchable parameter. At the moment I have to resort to a multitude of keyword searches:

"three car garage", "3 car garage", "triple car garage", "triple garage", then repeat all with "garaging". All 8 separate searches return vastly differing results, so no choice but to perform all 8 searches or risk missing one of interest.

Then rinse and repeat for 4 cars (because let's face it, who wouldn't settle for more garaging if it's on offer? 😄)

Maybe other people don't care about garages as much as I do. But it's the first thing I look for.

deadlyllama

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#3049452 13-Mar-2023 09:08

Wheelbarrow01:

Geektastic: One thing that always irked me was an inability to search property for sale where minimum and maximum land areas were applied.

So if I want only to see houses with between say 5 acres and 10 acres, I can’t.

You can indeed set a land parcel size as a search parameter - but only from the Trademe Property phone app (but not the standard TM marketplace app):

Maybe that's the answer, the real money is in property listings, viewed on mobile phones, and everything else is a bit neglected as a result?

If the customer is real estate agents, and poor search means more calls to real estate agents...

tripper1000

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#3050145 14-Mar-2023 15:51

There are some fundamental and aggravating flaws in the TM search system. Saved searches do not function the same as live searches when you use the modifiers.

For example if you use the NOT statement to filter erroneous results and then save the search, the emailed results do not obey the NOT statement and all the junk results are included. *&^%

With regard to the jumping straight to a unwanted category, I struggled so much with the new GUI that I just modify the HTTP address directly. Once you have a search just the way you want it (if that is possible) you can favourite the address to save the nausea next time.

reven

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#3050151 14-Mar-2023 16:04

you can use bidbud.co.nz, which is an alternative UI for trademe, with much better auto bidding. it has a more powerful search which lets you set a price range.

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