This was posted 3 months 16 days ago, and might be an out-dated deal.

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Free Selling on $1 Reserve General Items Sunday 24 August @ Trade Me

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Free Selling on $1 Reserve General Items Sunday 24 August @ Trade Me
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suspense on 21/08/2025 - 10:46 trademe.co.nz (147 clicks)
Things you need to know
General items promotion:
  • Applies to listings started from 12:00 am until 11:59 pm on Sunday 24 August 2025.
  • Discount applies to success fees on general items only, any other applicable listing fees still apply.
  • Discount applies to relists, but only if they are relisted on the day of the promotion. Only applies for the first listing period.
  • This promotion is available to casual sellers only (not in-trade).
  • Car parts are included, however large machinery listed in the 'Business, farming and industry' category are not (e.g. tractors and trailers).
  • Limited of 100 listings applies.
  • Full terms and conditions
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closed Comments

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  • mcaekey on 21/08/2025 - 11:11
    +1

    These are not worth the risk in most instances.

    • Jizah on 21/08/2025 - 11:15
      +8

      I gave some stuff away on Facebook last week, but it was exhausting dealing with scammers and time wasters. These $1 reserves are good for those, but that's about the extend of it for me.

      • mcaekey on 21/08/2025 - 11:21

        Makes sense I suppose. I've just had stuff that was likely worth $30 and sold for $5 so the fees were better.

    • FiveOneFive on 21/08/2025 - 11:35

      Its good for garage sale style clear outs, shipping low value items at buyers expense is far better than engaging with back and forth arranging pick up etc.

  • jinxnz on 21/08/2025 - 19:29

    This is timely as I have a few things that I've been meaning to get rid of (2 Alldocube iplay50 tablets) following upgrades.. too many devices in the house qee need to downsize). Shame it the listing fee is not applicable for all listings though as only a few things are suitable for this category.

  • coffeee on 21/08/2025 - 19:51

    can you put a reserve and buy now to an $1 item to manipulate the price wanted? ( i know this gets asked alot)

    • Barserk on 21/08/2025 - 23:31

      Yes, but not for this 1$ reserve sell.

    • pdevonporf on 22/08/2025 - 14:59

      Yes, you can get a reserved friend to put a bid on it, which is quite a common tactic.

    • Stoic on 22/08/2025 - 15:13

      This promotion is free selling if the reserve is $1 so if you put start of $1 and a reserve that's more than $1 it won't be free selling.

      You can put a $1 reserve and put a higher buy now and if someone goes straight to the buy now it'll also be no success fees.

      • Solarys on 24/08/2025 - 12:31

        Buy Now is EXCLUDED this time!

        You have to run it as a pure auction with $1 start and reserve. If you put a BN price, you will still be charged a fee, even if it sells by auction.

  • Martini on 23/08/2025 - 16:58

    I've not done the $1 Reserve thing before. Do you list things with no reserve but a $1 starting bid? Or do you list with a $1 starting bid and $1 Reserve? Or some other approach? [Sorry for such a dumb question …]

    • Jabber on 24/08/2025 - 11:01

      No reserve, $1 starting bid

      • Martini on 24/08/2025 - 11:52
        +1

        Thanks very much, Jabber! :-)

      • Martini on 24/08/2025 - 13:49

        … Although I have now received an e-mail reply from TradeMe Customer Support saying:"For the promotion today, you'll need to manually pop $1 into the 'reserve price' box to qualify".

        So in their view, just $1 starting bid and no reserve does not qualify (as I feared).

        So I went and edited the 7 listings I had done, and inserted $1 Reserve Price in each - and was then charged 25 cents for having a reserve price in 6 of them! (oddly, not 7). Not sure if to laugh or cry …

        • ks123 on 01/09/2025 - 22:23

          This looks like it is not consistent or maybe targeted or for re-listed items or who knows!
          I didn't receive any emails from Trademe, but, after seeing all these comments was a bit reluctant, but previously I wasn't charged a fee when I started with $1 no reserve listing. So, I tried my luck with three items,

          1 with $1 start bid (no reserve set, but buy now set) - Sold via buy now as it was very low too, NO Success fee

          2 with $1 start bid (no reserve set, but buy now set) - Sold via auction started with a $1 bid, NO Success fee

          3 with $1 start bid (no reserve set, no buy now set) - Sold via auction, started with a $1 bid, NO Success fee

          All were new listing, didn't set reserve as $1 manually as that would have cost 25cents each.
          So, probably whoever received email from Trademe were charged the success fee if it was not listed with their requirement, which seems weird though.

  • La102 on 24/08/2025 - 07:14

    I'm totally done with TradeMe. Last listing's I did had 30 views and a copy paste on marketplace hit 200+ in one day. You do get some annoying people or scams (listing a car will guarantee scam dms) but eventually you'll learn the best counter is to say let's meet up and discuss face to face. I've recently sold $2500 of items on marketplace to tidy up the garage and all were nice people and happy to work out deals and pay me for delivery too. In terms of shopping I haven't opened trademe… At all… For a while..

    • kfr23 on 24/08/2025 - 11:02

      That's cool, but for anything higher value Marketplace isn't worth using. Views on Marketplace are meaningless, you're just likely to get 'is this still available?'. It doesn't matter the value of the item, they will always try and get it for significantly cheaper than your asking price. Item is free? Buyer won't bother showing up.

      $1 reserve auctions on Trade Me are best for things that you are trying to get rid of.

      • danvelopment on 24/08/2025 - 11:06

        Yeah, irony is that TradeMe is the better place to get rid of cheap/free stuff because when it closes you have a "contract" of sorts written down and a feedback system people usually care about. So whilst $1 reserve buyers are often scum of the earth, and will try and turn up on their schedule and make your life hell, it will go.

        Cheap/free stuff on Facebook fields an unlimited waste of time and it'll probably still be sitting around weeks later despite multiple people booking a collection with you unless it's a high demand item that has proven value.

        Facebook is good for slightly cheap, mid-range stuff.

        The weirdest dynamic is that cheap stuff always attracts the worst people who make life, and transactions, difficult. Whilst expensive stuff almost never has any issues, people will schedule collections or shipping, almost never complain and will turn up exactly when they say. So you're often better setting a slightly higher than market price and just waiting for it to sell and you get both more money and a smooth sale.

        • wildchild on 24/08/2025 - 11:10
          +2

          Cant believe youre calling $1 reserve buyers scum of the earth… on cheapies 😭

          I sell a fair bit of stuff for $1 reserve and 99% are lovely! Some stuff I think will go for way more has often sold for a few bucks, but other times it goes for more than expected! Definitely have to be willing to take $1 for anything listed for that though.

          • danvelopment on 24/08/2025 - 11:13

            @wildchild: I have had almost entirely good experiences with stuff priced normally, and almost entirely bad experiences with stuff sold $1 reserve.

            My track record speaks for itself, the most common is that they'll ignore descriptions, payment options and will either just turn up whenever they want if you give your address (then have a huge whinge if you're not home), or will try and book a pick up with you with a massive window during work hours and/or cancel after you've waited around all day for them.

            Bank Transfer or Ping only [brings cash, spends 20 minutes inspecting the item and pointing out issues that are clearly in the description and trying to negotiate you down]

            Being cheap doesn't require you to be a garbage person.

  • Solarys on 24/08/2025 - 12:17
    +1

    Apparently, Buy Now is EXCLUDED from the promotion this time!

    I just listed something with $1 reserve and a BN price, and I was still charged a fee. I don't know if it was a glitch in their system or a change they failed to specify, but their terms were very unclear and misleading either way.

    I have submitted a request to see what they say about this.

    • Solarys on 24/08/2025 - 12:35

      I got a reply from TM, and they said you have to list your items as pure auctions with $1 reserve to not pay success fees this time.

      In other words, you cannot add a Buy Now at all, or you will still be charged a fee even if it sells by auction.

      • Martini on 24/08/2025 - 13:56

        It seems odd, though. If the no-fees-for-$1-reserve concession is to stimulate things being sold (rather than continued re-listings clogging up the site), the sale will also occur if the Buy Now is exercised, and - importantly - the Seller will have had the (very real) risk that other bidders would come in at much less …

        • ks123 on 01/09/2025 - 22:20

          This looks like it is not consistent or maybe targeted or for re-listed items or who knows!
          I didn't receive any emails from Trademe, but, after seeing all these comments was a bit reluctant, but previously I wasn't charged a fee when I started with $1 no reserve listing. So, I tried my luck with three items,

          1 with $1 start bid (no reserve set, but buy now set) - Sold via buy now as it was very low too, NO Success fee

          2 with $1 start bid (no reserve set, but buy now set) - Sold via auction started with a $1 bid, NO Success fee

          3 with $1 start bid (no reserve set, no buy now set) - Sold via auction, started with a $1 bid, NO Success fee

          All were new listing, didn't set reserve as $1 manually as that would have cost 25cents each.
          So, probably whoever received email from Trademe were charged the success fee if it was not listed with their requirement, which seems weird though.

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