Diamond free Ads, formed in June 1993, is now known as the Ad Trader and is a weekly 'yellow' paper currently costing £1.30 and available from your newsagent on a wednesday.

The Ad Trader is published in eleven regions. Living in Norfolk, I receive the East Anglian edition which contains over 22,000 advertisements and covers Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk. Anglia Ad Trader currently sells over 43,000 copies of this paper each week.

Ad Trader provides 'offered' and 'wanted' sections covering the following:

1) Household ~
Antiques; bathroom, bedroom and kitchen furniture and equipment; garden furniture and equipment

2) Family ~
Clothing; prams; toys; wedding services etc.; horses, dogs, cats and other pets

3) Sports and pastimes ~
Boating, golf, camping and other sports and pastimes; crafts and hobbies; musical instruments; television and video equipment; What's On; holidays and travel

4) Transport ~
Cars, motorcycles, commercial vehicles, bicycles, caravans etc.

5) Property ~
Houses and flats for sale and to rent; council house exchange; overseas property

6) Office and business ~
Shops for sale and to rent; office and shop equipment, printing services etc.

7) Employment ~
Various occupations including hairdressing, secretarial, accounting, engineering and many more

8) Services ~
Many services including carpentry, plumbing, electrical, taxi services, insurance and interior design etc.

9) Health and beauty ~
Including acupuncture, osteopathy, dentistry etc.

10) Personal ~
Featuring teledating services

Private advertisers can advertise their unwanted goods for free although there is a charge in certain sections. If, for instance, you are a cat or dog breeder advertising pedigree animals for sale, there is a charge. There is also a charge for horses that are under 3 years of age.
Motor vehicles can be advertised for one week without charge after which there is a charge of £5 per insertion. All trade advertisements must be paid for.

Each household is allowed a maximum of ten free advertisements each week with a maximum of 50 words per advert.

It is possible to place your advertisements by post, phone, fax, e-mail or by visiting their website. Ad Trader can be contacted seven days a week, but if you are telephoning out of hours, you will get through to their automated telephone service (I hate these, don't you?).

Ad Trader does not accept advertisements for firearms, shotguns, antique guns, CB radios and consumable products.

Ad Trader does emphasize that you should take reasonable precautions when arranging for buyers to visit your home which includes having someone in the house with you, not leaving children or the elderly on their own with a buyer, not giving unnecessary information over the phone, taking the buyer's telephone number and not leaving callers alone in your home. All pretty straightforward and common sense I would think.

I have adverised several items for sale in the past. A couple of years ago I advertised a car - a Honda Accord giving full details including price etc. I received over 20 telephone calls from interested parties. In fact, I was still getting calls from would-be purchasers long after I had sold the vehicle. So, if the Asian gent from Luton is reading this I would like to say sorry, but I really couldn't let her go for use as a taxi, when I had lovingly looked after and cherished her for the last ten years.....

At one time, I did get a little more than I had bargained for - found a fella - of no, no not in the teledating pages towards the end of the paper. At the time I was single (between husbands so to speak) and had advertised a wardrobe for sale. And HE phoned for details and collected the wardrobe. I hasten to add this relationship d
idn't last very long, but it was fun whilst it did.

So, if you are looking to buy or sell goods, I would recommend you take a look at Ad Trader even though you may not find the man or woman of your dreams.........





Factfile for Anglia Ad Trader
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Address: St. John's House, King Street, Norwich, NR1 1PD

Phone:
Norwich 01603 666200
Cambridge 01223 300444
Ipswich 01473 222300
Peterborough 01733 555200
Colchester 01206 544400
Chelmsford 01245 494999

Fax: 01603 610950

E-mail: anglia@adtrader.co.uk

Website: www.angliaadtrader.co.uk







Janna
23rd October 2001