Cheap Items to Buy & Resell to Build Trade Me Feedback & Experience?

Liger Zero on 20/02/2025 - 18:33
Last edited 20/02/2025 - 21:52

I'm looking for cheap, low-effort items to buy in bulk and resell on Trade Me to build up feedback quickly. Trade Me requires around 1,500 feedbacks before allowing direct shipping to buyers, and that’s something I’m working towards. (Not dropshipping - I’d fully own the stock myself, and it's not low-effort AliExpress/TEMU stuff)

Note: This isn't a long term plan, I already have a line of existing products that sell well w/ good margin, but Trade Me won't let me ship those items direct from overseas (they consider it dropshipping) until I've accumulated more experience & feedbacks (1500+).

The products I currently sell are a mixture of general electronics/computers/phones etc but for this I'm after:
* Items that cost as little as possible (ideally $1-$2 each, max $5).
* High demand so they sell fast
* Non-fragile so easy to ship
* Things that don’t require much after-sales support

I don't mind if I just break even after expenses since this is just about building feedback & experience in Trade Me's eyes.

Any ideas?

Cheers

General Discussion

Comments

  • mr-deal on 20/02/2025 - 19:56
    +5

    Don't take offence, but if you are asking these questions for a product re-sale business you already have failed your business.

    The reality is having to complete with Temu and bulk re-sellers (some of who only try to get 10-15% margin) you have very little chance of succeeding with low value products.

    The more SKUs you have, the more complex it becomes as well. Don't forget Trade Me high volume listing surcharges, and gallery/gallery plus fees before the actual success fees and payment fees.

    You would probably be netting below minimum wage for a period of time.

    Also, you need to consider the courier charges and how that can affect viability and overall sell-through rates. I.e. a $2 product that costs $8 to send, which someone could just buy for $3 on Temu delivered… Well, most buyers will lean towards Temu (especially in the current climate).

    Your best bet is trying to bundle products in a way no one else is doing.

    • Liger Zero on 20/02/2025 - 21:51

      Hi, thanks for your reply but I missed out a critical part in my post (I'll edit it now).

      The usual products I sell are high value ($400-800) but I want to transition to a business model where instead of importing it and shipping it locally, I'd like to ship straight from my overseas warehouses to buyers. I am not trying to find new products to sell for profit. Trade Me have said I need at least 1500 feedbacks before they will allow me to switch to this model as they consider it drop shipping, even though I would own all the inventory already.

      I've already considered trademe fees etc, I've been selling on TradeMe for a while now. Small products are also reasonably cheap to send these days, around $5 via NZ Post DLE (business account). Yes obviously I would be competing with existing dropshippers and TEMU etc which is why I wanted to see if anyone had any ideas. Again, if it breaks even I'm fine with that, I'm just trying to build up feedback so Trade Me will allow me to ship direct to customer for my existing range of products.

      I'm just trying to find something to sell to build feedback, I don't mind making minimum wage or breaking even. Let's not focus on whether it’s viable long-term (which I agree, it isn’t for profit). I'm just keen to hear ideas for low cost items/high turnover items to build up feedback quickly. I'm probably even okay making a small loss as I make a decent profit on the usual line of products I sell.

      • mr-deal on 21/02/2025 - 13:41

        Adding that information does make a difference. But still, as some who has run and advised different companies, I know the pitfulls of your strategy.

        So just some general thoughts based on reading the thread as I don't think you have thought this out well enough:

        1. Selling a large range of cheap products will 'cheapen' your Trade Me account and hardly be trust factor or the social proof for customers you think it will. Just a high rating may work for SOME customers but not those who actually read your feedback. Would you yourself pay $800 to have something shipped from abroad from a guy who sold 1000 listings of $1 packs of seeds (using the example from below)?
        2. Not holding stock in NZ will cause obvious shipping delays and there are GST implications as you won't be the importer. IE. You will pay GST on sales, but not be able to claim GST on imports.
        3. Why not focus on your own website first to test the fulfilment model? Trade Me's direct shipping policy is about vetting companies who actually have a proven ability to deliver goods - I know foreign companies who had approval for Trade Me with 0 starting feedback, based on sales from their own ecommerce store, Amazon, eBay etc.
        • Liger Zero on 21/02/2025 - 14:08

          Hi mr-deal

          1. It doesn't matter, it's not about trust factor or social proof. It's about Trade Me requiring me to have at least 1500 feedback before they will consider me for drop shipping. I think you may have missed this in my original post. I've had 200 sales in the past few months from selling high value goods and will continue to do so, this is just to help me get there quicker. Edit: Just to add, even if it was about trust most people don't scroll through feedback and look at each individual listing. They just look at maybe the most recent few listings (which will be my high value products at that point), whether you're in trade, a top seller (which I have generally qualified for) and feedback ratio. I don't really think that's an issue even if that was my goal (but it's not).

          2. The international courier service I use is very reliable. I've had many shipments and they probably arrive on the day expected 80% of the time (usually 7 days), and the other 20% a day or two after. Yes there may be customs delays but I am happy to include that as part of my business model and set correct expectations. I sell niche, high value items that have essentially have no competition on Trade Me (I don't want to specify what it is, for obvious reasons), so I think most of my customers would be happy to wait. There's only 1-2 online competitors that have their own websites. I've had people reach out privately (outside TM) and they're always fine with waiting a week for their purchase. Re GST, yes, I can't claim GST on imports. But that's something I already pay extra on top of imports anyways. So it's a net-zero difference right? I'm pretty sure I'm right on that but correct me if I'm wrong.

          3. Yeah, this might work actually. I'm just not quite sure how to set this up as it would probably involve a bit of SEO and marketing, since what I sell is somewhat niche. One product in particular is for an older audience, and I'm not sure they would feel comfortable buying on an unknown shopping site vs Trade Me.
            Honestly I'm just used to Trade Me's ease of use, but obviously there's benefits to having my own website like lower fees and much more flexibility in how I sell. I'll do some more research and see.

  • Grandma on 20/02/2025 - 22:02

    Just wondering, is that not dropshipping ?

    • Liger Zero on 20/02/2025 - 22:20

      I'm actually not sure. I'm seeing mixed definitions online, but either way the main distinction I wanted to make is that I own the inventory already, I purchase from suppliers and have everything delivered to shipping warehouse which then fulfills & ship orders for me on request. It's not from supplier > buyer. And I would only list things that I actually have at the warehouse, there's no backordering etc. So dropshipping-lite perhaps?

      Also, just to add they use DHL/FedEx which always arrives in NZ in a week with very accurate delivery dates. So it's not slow or unreliable shipping.

  • P0KEMON on 20/02/2025 - 22:49
    +2

    If you don't mind going into loss, it'd be easier buying 100x$1 items than selling the same for the feedback return. A Lot of webstores auto post feedback after x date. Think of it as paying per positive feedback, but without a set % rate.

    Not everyone will post feedback if you're buying or selling so take that into account too. You could just buy junk from the opshop and post it for $1 reserve, pickup only and then request buyers to place feedback?

    • Liger Zero on 20/02/2025 - 23:20

      Yeah did consider that actually, I think I probably will do some of that. Just need to find something that allows pickup otherwise the shipping will kill me.

      Yeah I've started putting reminders in emails for feedback but it's probably still a 70% or so hit rate at that unfortunately

      • Dunno on 20/02/2025 - 23:38

        DVD's might not that be that bad to ship if you are buying tens of 50c/$1 ones, just ask the seller to send the dvd's only instead of the cases and add a combined shiping option if they are willing and that will bring down the shipping cost substantially.

        Many sellers have options to combine shipping or send discs only for $0 to $1 more in addition to a $10 shipping fee so your total cost is prob ~$1.50 to $2 a DVD for 40+ units, <$90 for 40 feedback if the person is willing to place it for each listing and you have the option of trying to sell them or just donating them. Stuff like books you might find a local seller and be able to buy a bunch and pickup as weight will kill freight costs.

        https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/search?member_listing=6417963
        https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/marketplace/stores/The-Tardis-Gr…

        Cheap stuff on TM does not really sell that well, like when someone needs a cable adaptor/battery/watch strap etc they will pay $15 to buy it locally the next day rather than $1-5 on TM and waiting days to arrive.

        • Liger Zero on 21/02/2025 - 00:06

          Thanks man, yeah combined shipping is what I was thinking too. It's pretty easy to place feedback for multiple listings as you can just select multiple listings and leave feedback simultaneously. I will probably still need to find items to sell but yeah I guess not the lower priced ones, too much competition…

          No easy answer here I guess, cause most obvious things in demand will have sellers already. I wish there was a way to scrape Trade Me data without breaking their API rules, it would probably be very helpful info. I use eBay's Terapeak research tool a lot when I sell in AU/US.

          Found plenty of stamps, electronics etc priced at 50c w/ combined shipping. Should work out to around $33 for 50 feedbacks which isn't bad at all

          • Rhys on 21/02/2025 - 13:22

            @Liger Zero: That's wrong, more than 1 sale from another trademe only contributes to 1 feedback. If they buy 100dvds and leave 100 feedbacks you'll only go up 1. It will show in the feedbacks though but your number definitely doesn't go up.

            • Dunno on 21/02/2025 - 13:39

              @Rhys: Yes but when TM say 1500 feedback they don't state from 1500 unique people.

            • Liger Zero on 21/02/2025 - 14:11

              @Rhys: Fair point. Their wording is "1500 trades". So I think you could be right, although I'm not sure. In any case, I'm happy to focus on selling anyways

              • Rhys on 21/02/2025 - 14:24

                @Liger Zero: Here's an example; 2584 positive feedbacks. 2294 are from individual members, and count towards the final rating. I've bought 300 different listing building supplies from the same retailer over 300 times, only ever got +1 feedback increase.

                • Liger Zero on 21/02/2025 - 14:30

                  @Rhys: Yeah of course. I've seen that many times but it never registered. Makes sense I guess. I wonder if Trade Me will count someone buying multiple items on separate listings as a single "trade"?

  • kiwical on 21/02/2025 - 07:45

    One way to see what to sell is to check out sellers with big feedback numbers.
    A lot of these guys sell things like phone cases Some of these sellers get 100s or even 1000s of sales/feedback per day.
    Obviously it's a crowded market, and you would want to be buying product for cents
    An example one is "salelink" but I have found even bigger ones in the past.

    Also if you weren't aware Trade Me has a wholesale lot category for bulk items.
    That can be worth a browse

    PS I know you've probably already considered this but your sale method drop shipping does grind gears with a lot of people. You will rack up quite a bit of negative feedback going forward. No matter how clearly you tell people that's what you are doing you will still get those who expect their item in 2 or 3 days after they purchase it.

  • Bargainstalker on 21/02/2025 - 11:04

    If you just want good feedback. One problem at a time.
    Buy a bulk lot of blu rays and auction them all $1 reserve.
    Loads of good feedback for cheap $$.
    Make sure they're in different categories. Multiple sales in the same category doesn't increase feedback %.
    Also great idea seeing what big trademe sellers sell.
    Seems like they sell everything and anything high and low value. And that's the key - more auctions = more sales.
    No magic product or category just math's. More auctions equals more sales.
    Anyone is welcome to disagree just as I'm welcome not to care ha!

    • Liger Zero on 21/02/2025 - 13:31

      Thanks man, best idea yet. With a little help from ChatGPT I can just find all the easy sells on Marketplace bulk lots and list them on on Trade Me @ $1R. Already sent out a few offers

      Yeah you're right on the quantity for sure. I like this cause it's low value and I can just book NZ Post pickups unattended without worrying too much about them being stolen..

  • Rhys on 21/02/2025 - 13:25

    Easiest way to build feedback quickly with minimal expense is to buy seeds from a seed seller, then undercut them with those same seeds. For example buy 50 seeds for $3 * 100 different varieties and then list them back up for $2.50. Postage can be via envelopes from your local post box which avoids the courier or post office. Set a max of say 2 seeds per envelope to stop someone buying your entire supply. Once you have enough feedback you can stop selling them.

    • Liger Zero on 21/02/2025 - 13:29

      OK, this in interesting thanks, are seeds quick to turnover though? And do they need any special storage?

      • Rhys on 21/02/2025 - 13:37

        Yeah they usually sell fast, especially if you're the cheapest. No they don't.

  • Bobbee on 21/02/2025 - 18:17

    Within the context of Trademe, most buyers would consider you to be drop shipping if you don't have the stock on hand.

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