TradeMe search tips

I've been buying cheap, used shelving for my garage. TradeMe is an obvious place to shop, but searching the auction website for shelving is awkward. Sellers use too many variations for shelf or misspell it - shelve, shelfs, shelfing, shelves, and so on.

But I'm flexible, and cupboards or cabinets would suit my man cave. Trade Me searches don't easily capture these variations and I've missed bargains.

I've got two solutions. First, search by category. If you drill down in the home and living category, you eventually get to cabinets and bookshelves. Leave the search field blank and click to search. On Monday, 377 items were selling in that category in Canterbury.

Another option is to search by seller. My current favourite seller is Turners Christchurch. The long- established auction house churns dozens of low-value, used items on TradeMe every week.

In a recent week, for instance, Turners was flogging cabinets, cupboards and shelves, retro kitchen appliances, clocks, plastic piping and bikes. This week, Turners is auctioning kitchen appliances, water pumps, cafe furniture and bikes, among other stuff.

To search by seller, scroll to members in the search area and type in the name, in my case turnerschch.

You can also save favourite sellers; find them in the third tab in the my favourites window.

- © Fairfax NZ News