Behind this website is just ‘little ole me’, but I want to do what I can to make sure you look after yourselves if you are meeting up with people who you don’t already know in real life and that you trade with caution. Buy, sell, donate or collect through any of the Practically Perfect Markets and you are hopefully keeping your valuable kids’ stuff out of landfill, getting a good deal or de-cluttering your home. But to make this an effective, pleasant and safe trading environment, I think it’s important to be both cautious and courteous! Practically Perfect Mums is providing a forum for trading but cannot accept any responsibility for any items bought, sold, donated or received or for anyone’s safety. Here are some guidelines for using the Market pages:-
MEET SAFELY
If you are meeting with someone you don’t know, be sensible. Meet in a public place and maybe take a friend. I sold a set of puppets while doing a drop off at to the Youth Centre recently. There were loads of people around and for me that was ideal. If you need to meet at home it might be sensible to have someone with you.
ARE THE GOODS GOOD?
Make sure you check out what you are buying. Make sure that is works. If it’s battery operated, ask to see it in action. If you are buying an item which needs assembly it makes sense to ask for it to be put together so you can check it’s complete and intact. I once bought a wooden puzzle from a car boot sale only to find about 25% of the pieces were missing. It’s hard to believe anyone using Practically Perfect Mums would try to get away with selling defective goods, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.
You will be buying ‘sold as seen’ so if you’re not completely happy with the item, just leave it or explain you’ll need time to think about it. You shouldn’t feel pressured into buying anything.
BUYER BEWARE ESPECIALLY . .
If you are buying or receiving 2nd hand goods, you won’t have the back up of being able to complain afterwards or return your purchase to the shop and there are certain purchases you need to be especially cautious about. You need to take extra precautions if you’re considering anything you’re going to put a baby into or they will have direct contact with or which might affect their safety or health as well as anything electrical. This includes, but is certainly not limited to cot mattresses, pushchairs, sterilisers and breast pumps. And never accept a car seat unless you’re certain it hasn’t been involved in an accident.
HAPPY TRADING!
That all sounds very serious and has to be said, however I’ve traded a few things myself and never experienced any problems – unless you count the 50p wasted on a useless puzzle at a car boot sale – but that wasn’t around these parts.
The beauty of Practically Perfect Market is not only that it’s free to list, but also that we live in a great community. Many of us know each other, or know someone who knows someone, so it’s in all our interests to trade fairly and interact courteously and hopefully this will result in lots more bargains crossing hands and plenty of satisfied customers. Happy trading!
