How to successfully buy on eBay
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Getting what you want on eBay
You might think eBay is easy to use, and it is, but there are ways to get the best buys on eBay which might not at first seem obvious.
As someone who has been buying on eBay for quite some time, I thought I would impart a few of my own tips here on how to get the best buys on eBay. I realise that this might create some competition for the very items I would hope to pick up cheaply but I'm sure I will still be able to find bargains for myself in spite of that.
If you're bidding, good luck.
As someone who has been buying on eBay for quite some time, I thought I would impart a few of my own tips here on how to get the best buys on eBay. I realise that this might create some competition for the very items I would hope to pick up cheaply but I'm sure I will still be able to find bargains for myself in spite of that.
If you're bidding, good luck.
Searching the auctions
Changing the defaults to show what you want
There are numerous ways to define the search parameters on eBay but you will most likely start with the search box shown above. You'll find this on your "My eBay" page where your watch list etc are all located.Firstly, where it says 'All Categories', you can choose to search only one category and, depending on the item you wish to search for, you may want to narrow the search to just one category. For example, if you are looking for a buckle, you'll find there are many thousands of returns which are buckle rings or watch buckles, buckle boots and buckle brooches. If there are too many returns for your search terms, narrow the categories down and perform a search in each of the most likely categories for the item you want.
Where your search results have come up on the page there are various options at the left of the screen, such as those shown above and below. The search being performed here is for "widget" and you can see there is quite a selection of categories in which you can find them.
Below the categories you can find other ways to narrow the parameters of your searches.
As shown, you can search for items based in the UK only, you can decide whether you want new or used goods etc. Make use of these searches if need be.
And finally, when your search returns items, you'll find that the 'Best Match' option has been chosen for you (near the top right of the page). There are a number of options here as well. You can choose between 'Items ending soonest', 'Newly listed' or have the cheapest price first. I use all the options at different times, depending on what I am looking for.
Add items which might fit your needs to your watch list, every auction has a button for this purpose.
Typos, miscategorised items and fuzzy photos
A source of great value items
While some misspelled items may show up under normal searches, most do not. If you want to search for these items, which usually end at much lower prices simply because very few people ever find them, you'll need a little help. Probably the best option is to use a site like Typospy which you'll find more details on on this lens.
For items listed in the wrong categories there are no short cuts as far as I'm aware and the only option is a laborious trudge through the most likely categories to find those misplaced items. If, for example, you are looking for a meerschaum pipe, you'll find it useful to search 'clay pipe', 'smoking pipe' and a number of other similar options. Whever you are looking for a specific object, try and think of all the other ways which may be used to describe it, particularly by someone who doesn't actually know what the item is that they are selling. You might be surprised how many sellers fall into that category.
How often do you see auction images which look like this?
Unless you know what you're looking at, you're not going to bid on it and you could be missing out on a bargain, we will never know. Even if you knew it was an item of jewellery, you would still be unlikely to bid but how can you know whether it's worth bidding on at all? At the bottom of every auction page you'll find the contact details for the seller, if this could be the item for you then why not email the seller and ask if they can add more photographs or send you a clearer photograph of the item.
Remember that an email address will not pass through the eBay message system but you can get around this if your email is sent as buyersemailaddy (at) buyersemailprovider (dot) com.
The same applies to those listings with two word titles and descriptions. Too often we see the title of an auction is 'nice brooch', and when we investigate the desription it also contains only those two words. Use the contact details given on the eBay auction page to ask the seller for more details of the item he / she is offering in auction.
With fuzzy photos, misspelled and mis-described items it's perfectly possible to pick up items on eBay which you can immediately turn around and with good photography and a decent description you can sell at quite incredible profit - which you can then use to fund whatever collecting habit you have. Or you may just have bought that item you really need at a fraction of its true value.
By the way, the fuzzy photograph above is actually this item ...
For items listed in the wrong categories there are no short cuts as far as I'm aware and the only option is a laborious trudge through the most likely categories to find those misplaced items. If, for example, you are looking for a meerschaum pipe, you'll find it useful to search 'clay pipe', 'smoking pipe' and a number of other similar options. Whever you are looking for a specific object, try and think of all the other ways which may be used to describe it, particularly by someone who doesn't actually know what the item is that they are selling. You might be surprised how many sellers fall into that category.
How often do you see auction images which look like this?
Unless you know what you're looking at, you're not going to bid on it and you could be missing out on a bargain, we will never know. Even if you knew it was an item of jewellery, you would still be unlikely to bid but how can you know whether it's worth bidding on at all? At the bottom of every auction page you'll find the contact details for the seller, if this could be the item for you then why not email the seller and ask if they can add more photographs or send you a clearer photograph of the item.
Remember that an email address will not pass through the eBay message system but you can get around this if your email is sent as buyersemailaddy (at) buyersemailprovider (dot) com.
The same applies to those listings with two word titles and descriptions. Too often we see the title of an auction is 'nice brooch', and when we investigate the desription it also contains only those two words. Use the contact details given on the eBay auction page to ask the seller for more details of the item he / she is offering in auction.
With fuzzy photos, misspelled and mis-described items it's perfectly possible to pick up items on eBay which you can immediately turn around and with good photography and a decent description you can sell at quite incredible profit - which you can then use to fund whatever collecting habit you have. Or you may just have bought that item you really need at a fraction of its true value.
By the way, the fuzzy photograph above is actually this item ...
Your watch list and comparing prices
How high should you bid?
When you have finished searching and have added various item to your watch list, you can compare the items you have picked out with each other. More than this, you should also go looking on the internet for the same or similar items so that you can compare prices.After all, you wouldn't want to place a bid on a used item if you could buy it new on Amazon for a lower price. Google and other search engines can be helpful when comparing prices of new items and antiques or collectables. It is always worth searching Amazon when the item you're after is new, their range covers a vast amount of goods for the home and garden as well as books and DVDs. If you can get the item cheaper elsewhere then buy it there.
Always be aware of the maximum price you should be paying for an item and don't bid higher unless you have more money than sense. It's eBay, there will be several more items the same or very similar listed in auction in the next few weeks and months, I guarantee it.
I often watch many similar items for several weeks before eventually bidding on one. By the time I do place a bid, I've gained a really good idea of the usual price range and can bid low to get a bargain.
Take careful note of the ending times of auctions. You'll find those which end in the middle of the night tend to go for lower final values and there are certain times during the day when you can win items for very low bids. The timing will vary, depending on the item, but a few weeks of auction watching will soon flag up the best time to buy.
Find your bargain and snap it up.
Checking a seller's feedback
Searching in depth
This seller was chosen completely at random, purely because when I did my search for 'widget', an unusual widget popped up near the top of the search. As it happens, the seller is a great example to use.All the snapshots in this module were taken from one seller's feedback at the beginning of April 2011.
You'll see from the photo at the right that this is a top rated eBay seller, someone you can trust, but it also shows the importance of checking out a seller's feedback before buying. Most sellers are not top rated sellers and checking their feedback is all the more important. I know of one seller who auctions clothing and footwear but consistently gets the sizes wrong. This only shows up in feedback.
Clicking on the feedback number next to a seller's name (blanked out on the pic to the right) will take you to where you can view all their feedback, which you can then look at under the different categories shown below.
Here you can see the number of feedback obtained in the last twelve months and you can see that this seller has received a number of negative ratings. Don't let this put you off, investigate further. Firstly, the number of items sold during the period concerned is evidence that on a percentage basis the seller is worthy of a top rating. There are some buyers who will never be happy with the item they have bought, some individuals will buy an item just so that they can leave a negative feedback rating - business competitors, for example, and some negs are just plain ridiculous. I've come across all in my time.
This particular seller's feedback is not at all bad, in spite of those negs. You can see that he actually has more feedback than is shown by the headline number - a discrepancy which arises because eBay used to count several feedbacks left by a multiple purchaser as only one feedback when calculating the numbers. I think they have changed that rule a bit now.
The stars are 'Detailed Seller Ratings' which will give you even more of a guide to how well the seller rates with his / her buyers. All these details are made available to you by eBay and you should use them to check out your seller before buying from them. In a few cases it could save you a great deal of money.
A few years ago there was a spate of eBay accounts being set up specifically to con people. A group of accounts would be opened and items, often high end electrical goods, were 'traded' between them. Often feedback was left within seconds of an auction ending, though not everyone is that stupid, but it was also possible to track through from seller to buyer and see that, in fact, a small gorup of accounts were 'trading' together for the sole puropse of building up spurious feedback ratings. Be aware that not everyone is honest and trustworthy.
In addition to checking the seller's feedback on eBay, it's always worth performing a Google search on the seller name. You may be surprised what you find.
If we walk into a store to buy something, we meet the person behind the counter, we see the way the store is laid out, we get an impression of the sort of person who owns the store and we base our judgement to buy or not to buy on what we see, as well as the price of the items we want. On the internet it's more difficult to gain an impression of the kind of person your seller is, so performing the searches on their name can give you that sense of 'knowing' them. Sellers often use their seller names when posting on forums etc and what they post can be most revealing.
Auction sniping
It's not a crime!
Waiting until the dying seconds of an auction to place your bid is known as Auction Sniping. It isn't a crime, it isn't in any way wrong and it can get you items at low prices. I do it all the time.
When you find an item that you want to bid on, having added it to your watch list, you will see the exact time (to the second) when the auction will end. Many people will place a bid on an item with several days to go, somone else might also bid and, before you know it, the bid has gone higher than you really wanted to pay. You may have noticed sometimes that in the last few seconds of an auction, several bids may suddenly appear and the auction ends at a value several times greater than the bid price at 10 seconds to go. The snipers are at it.
It's a perfectly legitimate way to bid. Even in real world auction houses there is often that one person who will wait until all the other bids are done and, just before the hammer falls, they bid. Quite frequently that bid wins.
If you regularly perform the searches for the items you want, you'll have a fair idea of the prices at which they normally end and you can make up your mind how much you are prepared to bid for the item. Look out for those auctions which have just a short time left but have no bids on them. It may be because the auction hasn't been found by other searches, perhaps a misspelled title or wrong category item, it may also be because it ends at a peculiar time. I once got a great bargain because the auction ended between 6 and 7 in the morning. These are the auctions which are great for sniping.
Of course, you must actually be there to place that bid so that you can be sure it goes in ok. I have seen programmes which will snipe an auction for you but I'm not prepared to trust any other site with my eBay password!
Ebay makes it easy for you to watch the auction counting down the seconds until it ends. Just enter your maximum bid in the box provided and, once the auction is down to less than 15 seconds, prepare to hit that 'submit' button. How many seconds before you do hit the button will depend on the speed and reliability of your connection. For me, it's 12 seconds, counting down in my head as the page changes and clicking the 'confirm' button when the auction has around 6 seconds to go.
Yes, there are times when I am outbid before I can submit my bid but that doesn't really upset me at all. The price I enter is what I am prepared to pay and no more, so if the item goes higher I probably have another on the watch list already or I'll find one in auction very soon.
It isn't foolproof, I can get interminable page hangs when the weather is particularly windy, but more often than not, auction sniping gets me those goods I want at very reasonable cost.
When you find an item that you want to bid on, having added it to your watch list, you will see the exact time (to the second) when the auction will end. Many people will place a bid on an item with several days to go, somone else might also bid and, before you know it, the bid has gone higher than you really wanted to pay. You may have noticed sometimes that in the last few seconds of an auction, several bids may suddenly appear and the auction ends at a value several times greater than the bid price at 10 seconds to go. The snipers are at it.
It's a perfectly legitimate way to bid. Even in real world auction houses there is often that one person who will wait until all the other bids are done and, just before the hammer falls, they bid. Quite frequently that bid wins.
If you regularly perform the searches for the items you want, you'll have a fair idea of the prices at which they normally end and you can make up your mind how much you are prepared to bid for the item. Look out for those auctions which have just a short time left but have no bids on them. It may be because the auction hasn't been found by other searches, perhaps a misspelled title or wrong category item, it may also be because it ends at a peculiar time. I once got a great bargain because the auction ended between 6 and 7 in the morning. These are the auctions which are great for sniping.
Of course, you must actually be there to place that bid so that you can be sure it goes in ok. I have seen programmes which will snipe an auction for you but I'm not prepared to trust any other site with my eBay password!
Ebay makes it easy for you to watch the auction counting down the seconds until it ends. Just enter your maximum bid in the box provided and, once the auction is down to less than 15 seconds, prepare to hit that 'submit' button. How many seconds before you do hit the button will depend on the speed and reliability of your connection. For me, it's 12 seconds, counting down in my head as the page changes and clicking the 'confirm' button when the auction has around 6 seconds to go.
Yes, there are times when I am outbid before I can submit my bid but that doesn't really upset me at all. The price I enter is what I am prepared to pay and no more, so if the item goes higher I probably have another on the watch list already or I'll find one in auction very soon.
It isn't foolproof, I can get interminable page hangs when the weather is particularly windy, but more often than not, auction sniping gets me those goods I want at very reasonable cost.
I've won, what's next?
Paying for your items and what if something goes wrong.
Most eBay sellers accept Paypal and, frankly, Paypal is probably the most convenient way to pay for your items, especially if you are buying something from overseas. You will need a Paypal account and, don't forget, a Paypal account can be set up very quickly with a credit card. It takes a little longer to verify a linked bank account.The great thing about Paypal is the buyer protection which comes with it. Should the item you've bought and paid for go missing in the post or arrive broken, and the seller is unreasonable about the issue, you can put in a claim against the seller and you will get your money back (in the vast majority of cases).
eBay has a very comprehensive complaints procedure but your first action should always be to contact the seller, tell them the problem, and give them 24 hours to reply with a satisfactory course of action to resolve the problem. If the seller doesn't respond or is unreasonable, then you can go into the compaints procedure. From the drop down menu on your page of items won, against the item you have a problem with, you'll find options to begin the procedure. Item not as described or item not received would be the options to choose, depending on the problem you have, and you are guided through the process easily.
Many sellers seem to be unaware of Distance Selling Regulations which give biyers a right to return an item and, if your seller gets awkward about it, you will find that you can return the item with proof of posting, provide eBay with that proof (eg Recorded Delivery tracking number) and if the seller still refuses a refund, eBay will take care of it and you will get your money back.
In most cases, the cost of postage to return an item must be borne by the buyer.
Most sellers will send goods out within about 48 hours of payment being received by them. On occasion, you may find a seller who will mail goods only once a week, possibly a Saturday because they work at a 'proper job' Monday to Friday. You'll find an estimated delivery date on your order form for the item you bought.
I have had a great many transactions on eBay and can assure you that very few are bad experiences, the overwhelming majority have been pleasant, easy transactions and in the tiny minority of instances where something did go wrong, all bar one were easily and amicably resolved.
Enjoy your successful bidding and buying.
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Share your advice for bidding in online auctions
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KathyMcGraw
Apr 11, 2011 @ 9:53 am | delete
- I used to buy from ebay all the time a few years ago, but don't have any tips. I just make sure the seller is someone that has good feedback, especially in the problem solving area. Looks like ebay has had a facelift with all those ways to sort searches and things :)
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