Anyone else here feel that Gumtree is now being far less intuitive than before?
Ads are sometimes shoved past the front pages.
Car ads in particular are a cesspool of scummy dealers. You really have to wade through the spammy dealer ads to get to the private sales.
Just wanted to know what people here think of it.
I enjoy and agree as per the above poster on the enjoyment of listing for free and selling items.
I daily use Gumtree however not for cars and still love it at this stage. There are some bargains around if you know what you are looking for.
I have become adept in filtering the rubbish (that is .. sellers & buyers that stuff you around) … obviously i'm sure that there are plenty of posts about this so don't want to start another discussion :-)
In my view, if other commercialised ads start to flood the site …. I would be turned off by the eyesore and look elsewhere.
.. and then you will see another similar Gumtree-type site take over
Have you considered providing Gumtree with feedback on your thoughts?
Cheers
Yeah definitely. e.g every photo slider on mobile ends in an ad.
But strangely enough, the thing I still like about Gumtree is that it's a still a bit scummy and unregulated. Just not Craigslist level scummy.
A lot of people like to sell or offer things under the radar without posting a profile photo and bio for all to see like on Airbnb, Airtasker etc, even when they have nothing to hide. Selling second hand stuff unseen in the real world to the highest bidder on eBay doesn't always work out as planned either. But Gumtree is also moving in that direction.
Then you've got bartering options, shifty accommodation, cash in hand work, "work opportunities" etc that would never fly on a new, reputation-conscious site.
The chances of encountering a sexual predator is probably a little bit higher because of the anonymity too.
I had noticed that of the car section in Adelaide. It's annoying having to slide through all the commercial ads to look for private sales. However, I think there is an option to filter out these commercial ads, which I'll do once I get serious about finding what I want. The thing it is good for is to get comparison prices.
I didn't know until now that Gumtree was sold to ebay. That kinda takes the folksey ma and pa feel out of it, now doesn't it. That's sad.
I have also noticed that Fb is trying to become everyones answer to everything, including sales.
I haven't bothered much with Craigslist.
I posted this topic due to my frustration with the dealer spam.
It is actually pretty ridiculous because there actually is a 'private seller' filter but is not present on the drop down bar on the right hand side.
There is a workaround - google 'Gumtree Private Car Ads', click on one of the first few links and the 'Private Seller' filter will be enabled. Thought it'd be good to share with everyone.
I feel like advertising is like a digital poison or a digital terminal illness. Sooner or later they get into what used to be user-friendly platforms and force everyone off them (Gumtree, Facebook, Ebay, etc). Even Chrome is guilty of this to a certain extent.
That being said, Ozbargain is the bomb. May it always stay awesome.
I can definitely agree with you there. Feels like it's always been heading that way for a while since it was purchased by eBay.
In saying that I still use it quite regularly and love having to pay no fees. I'll have items on there for months and just keep clicking relist and one day someone will come and pick something up. You never know when someone might buy something!
In regards to cars its definitely a mess. Much prefer to cough up the 60 odd dollars or whatever it is now for a basic carsales ad.