Trade Me

New Zealand auction website

Trade Me is New Zealand's largest online auction and classifieds website. Managed by Trade Me Ltd., the site was founded in 1999 by New Zealand entrepreneur Sam Morgan, who sold it to Fairfax in 2006 for NZ$700 million. Trade Me was publicly listed as a separate entity on 13 December 2011 under the ticker "TME". In May 2019, Trade Me was acquired by private equity firm Apax Partners for NZ$2.56 billion. Trade Me Ltd also operates several sister websites including FindSomeone and Holiday Houses. , Trade Me's website was the fifth most visited in New Zealand and was ranked 2,711th globally according to Alexa Internet. In a country with a population of million, the Trade Me site has, as of 2021, 5 million active members. Participating traders primarily use New Zealand's banking system to settle payments, although Trade Me offers sellers the ability to accept credit card payments via Trade Me's own instant payment service, 'Ping' (formerly 'Pay Now'). Australian sellers must have a New Zealand bank account, while sellers from other countries are not allowed on the site without special approval. Trade Me shares many features with other online auction websites, such as eBay. Some of these features include "Buy Now" and "Auto bidding". Sellers may choose to block the large proportion of members not "authenticated" from bidding. Only "authenticated" members can ask sellers questions. Members can become "authenticated" by using a credit/debit card on site or depositing some money in their Trade Me account. Only one membership per private person is allowed. Membership is for life, is never deleted and will be only partially deactivated if a member "closes" their membership by giving three days notice in writing to Trade Me. Member profile, bidding history and "feedback received" pages are then hidden and can be reactivated by ex members at a later date on request. All ex members empty member "items for sale" pages and all the "feedback sent" posted on other members pages is not hidden.

On 6 March 2006, the Australian media company Fairfax acquired Trade Me in a deal worth NZ$700 million, with an additional NZ$50 million payable if the organisation met earnings targets over the next two years. (Those targets were met.) Sam Morgan and other executives remained with Trade Me. Since the Fairfax purchase, Trade Me has continued to stand alone, with the former Fairfax NZ sites Jobstuff and Propertystuff being discontinued in favour of the Trade Me offerings. In December 2012, Fairfax announced it was looking to sell off its stake in Trade Me in order to pay off debts. The sale was confirmed on 17 December. Its first profit report following the sale exceeded expectations, at NZ$37.4 million in the second half of 2012.

As a fairly open marketplace which is recognised globally, Trade Me experiences the same problems (such as fraudsters), and users need to exercise vigilance. In 2007, Trade Me set up a dedicated Trust & Safety team who monitor the site seven days a week to keep its members safe. "Members can report listings that may be in breach of the Terms and Conditions" via the "Community Watch" (CW) badge, sited at the bottom of every listing. Contact with staff can also be made via the 'Contact Us' link at the bottom of every page. Social media can also be used to contact Trade Me. To minimise payment problems and reduce fraud, Trade Me restricted membership to residents of New Zealand and Australia in 2005. This affected around 20,000 international members. However, in September 2013 Trade Me announced that it had "opened up its borders" and now has "a few internationally based sellers trading on the site," but that "only international sellers who meet our requirements for selling from overseas are allowed to do so." a television programme devoted to consumer affairs, approached Trade Me Limited regarding this issue and featured the matter on a broadcast episode. In response to this, Trade Me Limited sent all the users who registered their date of birth as under eighteen an e mail asking them to check and update their details if incorrect. Trade Me no longer allows users to register if they enter a birth date indicating their age as under eighteen, but people under eighteen may simply represent themselves as older when they join.

A "comfort hug", auctioned in April 2005 to promote love and good feelings. The auction received considerable media attention. In late 2005, a member offered a "time machine" for sale through auction (or swap for an "anti gravity machine"), with the highest bid reaching $300,000,000,001,999. The seller withdrew the auction shortly before its close time. News of the auction reached some New Zealand newspapers, which ran a story on it. This auction used to hold the record for the highest number of questions asked and answered. In 2006 a user attempted to auction the Optus B1 satellite following a malfunction. The opening price started at NZ$200,000,000. Trade Me withdrew the auction after 231,908 page views. In May 2006 a member tried to sell Australia, using humorous descriptions of the country. The auction drew over 100 questions, and had more than 11,000 views. The country achieved a bid of $200,045,400, with a reserve price of 50 cents. In the end however, Trade Me administrators withdrew the auction. One News (a broadcast television programme) ran a report on this auction. Also in May 2006 a member tried to sell his leg, which had been amputated a year earlier as a result of diabetes. Trade Me withdrew the auction within hours and swiftly added "Body Parts" to the "Prohibited Items" list. In June 2006 Lisa Lewis streaked across the field at the All Blacks game against Ireland held at Waikato Stadium. Days later the bikini Lewis had worn ended up for auction. The winning bid of $4,010 later proved not genuine
In October 2007 Lisa Marie Corlet stumbled across a pebble with markings allegedly resembling the Virgin Mary. A first auction completed, but the bids later proved invalid. Corlet went on a nationwide television programme, Campbell Live, to announce she would not accept anything less than NZ$78,662,500,000 as she believes that someone would very much treasure the item. She said she was non religious and offered this as the reason why she chose to on sell the pebble. It was one of the most highly viewed auctions on Trade Me, with over 100,000 views, but the pebble failed to sell. On 17 November 2008 Lixtor attempted to auction their auction site following dispute with Trade Me over copyright infringement allegations. The opening price started at NZ$100,000,000. Trade Me withdrew the auction after a few hours. February 2010: The Trade Me user rhorne listed a lemon; with the letters "XT" printed vividly upon it; for sale with a humorous description. This was designed to mock the XT Mobile Network due to its intermittent outages (which caused significant inconvenience to customers and delayed emergency service responses) and other flaws. There were some suggestions made on the auction that the proceeds should be donated to charity, however the seller made it clear that was not his intention. The auction sold for $1,155. In February 2012, Labour MP Trevor Mallard was accused of ticket scalping on Trade Me when he sold four tickets to the Homegrown music festival for a $246 profit. The MP had in 2006 initiated legislation, the Major Events Management Act 2007, prohibiting ticket scalping for major events (although Homegrown wasn't classified as a "major event" so wasn't covered). He later offered to refund the money he received for the tickets. In 2019, one of the last single use plastic bags from Pak n' Save was sold just before the law changed to ban them. The auction had considerable media attention and was the fourth most viewed listing of the year, selling for $52. A bag of Covid free air was the most viewed auction of 2020. The seller listed the bag to commemorate a negative Covid test during the pandemic. The listing fetched 210,086 views. Note: Withdrawn auctions become unviewable after 60 days and bid histories after 45.