Taranaki pair take on Trade Me with ‘ONO’

Two entrepreneurs have stepped forward to try to dethrone Trade Me in the online secondhand goods market.

New Plymouth-based OnOffer’s rival website has the ‘‘twist’’ that rather than auction items, owners sell goods by tender. Sellers select a desired sale price and can then accept or reject offers automatically or manually.

Buyers can see how many offers have been placed, but not their value.

OnOffer founder and chief executive Jason Gibb said auctions were more of an ‘‘American concept’’.

‘‘We grew up with the concept of ‘ ONO – or nearest offer’ and that’s the concept behind this site.

‘‘Buyers make their best offer based on what they think the item they want is actually worth and the seller can see all those offers. No waiting around for an auction to close. The nearest offer wins,’’ he said.

Gibb said he and business partner Matthew Hareb had put several hundred thousand dollars into the venture. Both were previously involved in the Taranaki oil and gas industry. Gibb ran the Taranaki Boat Show between 2008 and 2010.

Just over 100 general items were listed on the site at launch on Monday, along with 15 properties and 12 cars.

Gibb said he came up with the idea for OnOffer seven years ago.

He hoped to raise additional funds for marketing through crowdfunding.

The best-financed of the many attempts to unseat Trade Me was made by Wheedle, which was launched in 2012 by Mainfreight co-founder and rich-lister Neil Graham. It closed in July last year.

Trade Me is due to report its annual result for the year to June on Thursday.

Trade Me shares closed on Friday at a three-year low of $3.10.

That was only marginally ahead of the original $2.70 offer price at which the company listed in 2011 and 43 per cent down on their all-time high of $5.43 in May 2013.