What's your strategy for buying used items in CH?

For kids stuff Facebook is actually great, particularly in the romandie. Is mostly my wife managing that, but there are a couple of pages for 2nd hand stuff and the fact that most of the time is a real person with a real name, makes it quite safe and functional. Another advantage are people know what the friend has or wnats and tag one another unter the announcement, giving it more traction. You can find anything, and you can even ask and people will sell you stuff (!). We asked for a MaxiCosi and this old lady 20 min away from us had one lying around that she used once and nevermore and wasn’t bothering selling it online so we went there, look at it and it still smelled “new” and we bought it for like 30 chf.

Other I use are Anibis.ch, ricardo.ch, lespetitesannonces.ch, tutti.ch

I always offer less money, particularly for nintendo 3ds games or switch games, sometime it works, sometimes not.

I’m surprised you’re the first one to mention Facebook. We’ve bought furniture, clothes, and toys through the Marketplace and various buy/sell groups. Sometimes the items come via Post but usually the sellers are close enough that we just meet somewhere or go and get it at their home.

We also use Facebook groups to donate items locally. Especially kids’ clothes are in high demand.

Usually these groups move stuff quickly within the local community which is a nice bonus for us.

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Facebook Marketplace seems to be especially popular in Western Switzerland from my experience and is great for buying small items from people directly in your neighbourhood. I’ve been using it more often than Ricardo recently.

You should definitely try a Brocki. A friend mentioned it to me a couple of years ago and I was pretty skeptical/snob about the whole concept. After giving it a try there are certain items that I buy only from Brockis.

The Brocki-Land Zürich is one of the best I have seen, and the selection is huge, for things like plant pots, board games or even a cake mold I just go there. It almost feels like treasure hunting :stuck_out_tongue: .
I don’t have any kids but especially for parents they have crazy deals, something like 5chf baby car seat.

Furthermore Zurich had this kreisflohmi this summer and that was a super nice experience as well. It’s basically like a US garage sale.

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Now I want to give it a try… :smiley:

In my small town, the Brocki isn’t all that great. It’s very clean and ordered, but it’s also very expensive for what it is. While I enjoy spending an hour or so there because I always have the thrill of maybe finding something, I’ve never actually found anything worthwhile.

Highly recommend Brockis as well, the Brocki Heilsarmee at Hardbrücke is my favorite.
Interesting stuff at Brockito Oerlikon.
For kids check the Kinderflohmärkte at the GZ (Gemeinschaftszentren, in Zürich) or in dedicated second-hand shops.
For adult clothing the Caritas shops are developping nicely lately

I can just know why you still use Ricardo ?
Their support offer no protection at all to the buyer because protect always the seller even if he is a bad seller.
And their fee are just very high I prefer use tutti for not have any fee. Set a good price and wait a buyer for free on Tutti or just use Ricardo to listing item on their website for more expensive than Tutti :slight_smile:

Ricardo is not that great for selling stuff, but it’s definitely safer than anibis or tutti if you are buying.

  • I agree that the buyer protection is very limited compared to ebay, but this is nowhere near as bad as being entirely on your own.
  • Sellers have their identities and address verified.
  • There is a member rating system, that makes it easier to know who you are dealing with.

I really wish anibis or tutti would offer a “middle-man” payment service comparable to leboncoin. (https://www.leboncoin.fr/paiement-securise-livraison/).

I don’t think Ricardo is safer I prefer buy on another platform because you can “communicate” and challenge the seller if needed before buy and send money like that you can ask anything even id card or proof of address. Ricardo you send money and you wait for received item. I ask one time for warranty copy no reply at all from the seller on Ricardo but receive item without warranty what you can do ? (warranty give a proof that’s not stolen for brand new item)

  • Ricardo ask 40.- may be more now and if you encounter any problem most of the time say that you should look with your legal protection insurance… lost mainly money on Ricardo because less than 40.- and you have just no support and even you reach 40.- is pretty useless and just not good for amount payed on each item. If I need to pay for sell something I prefer a platform like Digitec or even eBay.
  • only address verification and it’s pretty easy to fake their identification process but not give tips to bad people
  • Their rating is really a joke when a transaction is canceled whatever the reason Ricardo give to the buyer a negative rating directly. You need to ask seller or Ricardo for remove that but other side the buyer can’t give any rating to the seller even if it’s main cause of this cancelation. The only way to give bad rating to a seller is lost your money or be scammed. Transaction payed and not canceled. I prefer not have any rating system for a so worst system.

Anibis since change to their chat system have only issue not know if I’m really unlucky or if lock my account from chat but almost all the time I want to use encounter an issue and can’t view any messages. Like today :smiley:
Tutti I have always pay directly by IBAN you can verify location write on account when you made the transaction and their system is good and work fine.

eBay may be expensive but it’s safe for buyer and seller very sad than not more used in Switzerland.

If you decide that Ricardo sucks, that’s ok, I won’t convince you… :raised_hands:
ID cards and mail confirmation can be faked, true but it’s still much harder than opening a new account in 5 minutes from anywhere in the world without any kind of verification. Nothing can guarantee that the seller is not a jerk, but I still find it easier to trust a ricardo user with 200+ transactions and a very positive reputation than anybody on tutti/anibis I don’t know s*** about.

Only physical mail confirmation on my latest registration after may be change that with time but was really a not secure process. I just not understand why people trust and use this expensive platform. You knew everything I wrote on Ricardo ?

Anibis ask for a phone number who should be ID verified if accept only CH number not try another country number. Anibis show account creation date and you can ask id card or any other personal information if not trust or even go at the location take item.

I have most issue on Ricardo than any other platform may be the cause :slight_smile:
I almost never communicate with any people on Ricardo but I found a lot of nice people on Tutti or Anibis. When you sell something just need to trash all mail for people want to exchange a carpet with your car and you are good :smiley:
May be just lucky but not for messenger Anibis system :slight_smile:

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I guess I was just lucky. Never ever had any issue buying or selling on Ricardo and Tutti (I can’t ever find anything on Anibis). I bought three iPhones for 150-200.- in separate transactions and that was my most expensive transactions.

The rest is smaller cheaper stuff, 50.- and under.

I like that Ricardo has the feedback system. And if you pay by IBAN or Twint, you have a line on that person should the amount warrant filing a complaint with the police.

Ricardo says that they offer protection with a 25.- deductible (I think) but I don’t know how good or bad is it.

Funny thing is that Ricardo and Tutti and Homegate are all owned by the same Dutch group. But Tutti’s UI is so much shittier than Ricardo’s.

I get good deals on Ricardo by setting alerts and bidding at the last minute if it’s still below my target price. For stuff that doesn’t sell for weeks on Tutti, it usually sells fast on Ricardo. Paying their 10% fee on sold “desperate” items is better than sitting on the item and get no money because it won’t sell.

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For me, I used to buy on anibis but now I use facebook’s marketplace for selling and buying. Direct contact through message make me feel more comfortable as I can ask all the questions directly to the seller

FB Marketplace. For buying and selling. No fees, biggest crowd.

For books specifically I found an amazing “franchise”. It’s called Bücher Brocki (https://buecher-brocky.ch/). It’s in Aarau, Basel, Bern, Luzern (this one what kind of underwhelming) and Zürich.

They have thousands of used books, sorted by themes. It’s mostly german books but there always is a decent sized alley for english and french books.

The price are insanely low and people constantly bring them new books to renew their stocks so you can find real gems.

Exchange-like thing for used items: https://www.exsila.ch/
My GF is super happy with them for books. Can’t say anything for other items.

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Maybe I’m missing something, but as a seller what is the benefit of Exsila over any other platform (like tutti.ch or anibis.ch)?

  • You can’t directly trade two goods with someone.
  • When you sell stuff you can only use your revenue within Exsila.

Seems like a token system that mainly benefits the platform itself.

Good point. AFAIK for books you often pay not much more than the postage, so I think the benefit is not having to throw things away.

I also check forum.englishforum.ch. I’ve bought and sold a couple of things there.