Preloved review and giveaway

I am sure almost everybody has tried buying or selling something on ebay, but how many of you have tried the Preloved marketplace? I thought I hadn’t, but when I tried to register on their website, I found I had registered for an account several years ago. Fancy forgetting that! I hadn’t listed anything previously though.

You can sell items on Preloved with no listing fees, no selling fees and no catches. With Preloved you can either be a free member, or pay for a membership for added benefits.

And the big news is that Preloved have just released a free App this week meaning you can now shop second hand in the palm of your hand! The app has initially been released on iOS, but will also be available on Android later. I was given access to the beta version of the app before the general release to test out how it works.

Firstly it is easy to install and takes very little space. You do need to have updated your device to iOS8 though. Luckily this wasn’t an issue on my phone.

Once I had installed it, the first thing I did was start looking at the existing adverts. A great feature is that you can display them by distance from your current location. I was immediately tempted by some toys that son2 had already requested less than 5 miles away. I saved them to my favourites so I can compare them against new prices later in order to decide whether to purchase.

Next it was time to try listing something for sale. I’ve only listed one item as ever since son1’s leukaemia diagnosis, we’ve been donating things we no longer want to our local Cancer Research charity shop.

The listing process is very simple. First you choose your advert type from the following ten options:- for sale, wanted, to rent, to swap, event, other, for loan, lost, service or found. Then you add your photos, by either taking a new photo or uploading one from your device. It recommends adding at least three photos as it says adverts with more photos sell faster. But I only used one photo.

Next give your listing a title and choose a category. I couldn’t spot a really suitable category for my picnic basket so I chose Camping Equipment, a sub-category under Health and Leisure> Caravans and Camping. There may be a better category but I had spent some time checking out the categories unsuccessfully. It then generates item specifics depending on the category chosen. So for Camping Equipment, these were condition, make and model. I selected secondhand for the condition, but make and model were irrelevant for my listing.

Then I wrote a description of my item and finally added the price. There was an option of adding a price type which I didn’t use. But the options were:- various, offers, each, or near offer, or very near offer, offers above, no offers, per hour, per day, per week, per month, per year or plus VAT.

Once you’re happy with your listing you publish it. At this point you are offered the option to get your advert featured or share your post across various social media. If you wish to get your advert featured you would need to upgrade from free membership. There are two upgrades available. The first is Full membership which costs £5 per year and is best for buyers since you can respond to adverts as soon as they are placed, otherwise you have to wait 12 days after an advert is placed. The second is Premium membership which costs £25 per year and is best for sellers as you get up to 50% more advert responses. Premium also includes all the benefits of Full membership.

So my listing was placed via a free membership and I did notice it seemed to take a few days to get any views and then 13 views all appeared on the same day. Views seem much lower than on ebay. I am now upto 22 views, 6 days later. No interest from any potential buyers yet. But luckily I have been offered a free Premium membership after I publish this post, which will be a big benefit for my future listings.

Once your post is published, you get the following options:- preview, edit, withdraw, renew or mark as sold. A few days after listing, I tested withdrawing my listing and then renewing it. Very simple.

I subsequently uploaded an upgrade to the beta version, but I haven’t noticed any differences in functionality.

I think my next listing will be a “Wanted” item as son1 is desperate to get  a Heroica Waldurk Lego game, which is no longer available from the shops. He has the other three Heroica games and this would complete his set.

So in summary a great app. You can download a free copy from iTunes here.

And I’m hosting a rafflecopter competition to giveaway a years premium membership to Preloved (usually £25) to three lucky winners.

a Rafflecopter giveaway – Please click on the link to enter.

And you may see my other giveaways here.

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Disclosure.  This post is a review of a free app. I will be receiving a Premium membership after my post is published. All opinions are my own.