Newsable: 5 top tips to help you sell your stuff on Trade Me

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My partner and I moved into a new flat over the weekend.

Now, it’s a bit of a momentous move because it’s our first time properly moving a whole house worth of things from one flat to another, with the couches and the tables and the wardrobes and all that – previously I’ve just been moving from a room in one flat to a room in another.

And let me tell you: this brave new world, it ain’t much fun.

Turns out my screwdriver is a biological miracle – it has a set of functioning, invisible legs and an insatiable lust for freedom and independence, so whenever I put it down it scuttles off somewhere extremely hard to find.

Boxes haunt my nightmares. It took 45 minutes of searching to find a kitchen knife the other day. Have you tried slicing green onions with a butter knife? The culinary equivalent of copying lines using green coloured pencil.

The main gripe I have is all the stuff. God, so much stuff. Useless stuff that I absolutely do not need. ‘Past Emile’, that absolute bastard.

But the tough thing is getting rid of all of it. I don’t want to just throw it out, especially if it can be reused, but I have an appalling track record when it comes to actually selling things. And, as Trade Me’s Millie Sylvester explains on today’s episode of Newsable, I’m not alone.

“We run (an annual) report every year, and our latest findings found that every Kiwi has about $1400 of stuff that’s unused, unwanted, lying in wardrobes and garages around the country that they could turn into cold hard cash.”

Sylvester says the average Kiwi has about seven clothing items they’re keen to get rid of, as well as around four books, CDs or DVDs, and three home or living pieces – things like couches, chairs and lamps.

But many prospective sellers don’t actually know how to go about selling their possessions – so Millie Sylvester came up with five top tips to get your unwanted stuff out of your garage, and some cash in your hand.

1. Sell for the season: If it’s winter, you’re probably not going to get a good price for your summer holiday bikini. There’s more of a market for thick jerseys and heaters.
2. Prep your items: If you’re selling a jacket or a t-shirt, give it an iron, please, for the love of all that is holy and good. Give your dust-riddled furniture a wipe-down. It’s not rustic, it’s gross.
3. Be descriptive with your title: Don’t just write ‘medium t-shirt’, give details: what brand is it? What colour is it? Is there something unusual or interesting about the fabric or the pattern?
4. Time the closing of your auction Sylvester says Trade Me’s biggest time of day traffic-wise is between 7pm-10pm, so if you’re looking to get a bidding war started, scheduling your auction to close towards the end of that bracket maximises its exposure.
5. Don’t undervalue the $1 reserve. A lot of people aren’t sure how much an item is actually worth – the $1 reserve allows the market to set the price. Maybe you’ll be disappointed – but maybe you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Newsable is Stuff’s daily news podcast, wrapping up what’s worth talking about in a short package every weekday morning. You can find new episodes and more detail on our stories here or in our newsletter. Make sure to like and follow us wherever you get your podcasts and across Instagram and TikTok.