As a buyer you are trying to find bargains i.e listings with the best price (Buy It Now Items) or listings with the fewest bids (Auction Items). Generally these listing are the ones that get the least amount of visitors, and most of the time it is because of missing keywords (Product Serial, Manufacture Name.
etc) in the title field. Thus, the key is finding listings that contain misspelled keywords or listings that are missing important keywords in the title field. Since the default eBay Search box only searches the title field, you can often increase your chances on finding deals by checking the "Search title and description" check box. The next thing you will need to know is the "Art Of Gaging An Item Price on eBay". A nifty way to find the going price for an item is by looking at the ended listings. To search for ended listings, simply click "Advanced Search" link found under the upper right hand search box.
And then check the "Completed listings only" check box before beginning the search. Always "Find Reserved Price Auctions". You will be amazed at how many people just don't bother bidding when they see the reserve price tag, most of times the reserve price is less then 10% of the item going rate which means huge savings. Remember however to place your bid in the last 10 seconds. A nifty way to save cash on items is by offering sellers an end bid early option. The key here is that you will have to find recently listed item (less then 100 views) and from sellers with fewer than 50 feedbacks.
Try to keep your initial offer to no lower then 10% of the regular eBay price (See Gaging Item Price). If you are a pro on eBay then you will mostly likely only bid twice on an item. The first bid is optional and it meant to take the item out of the "Buy It Now", since you will be more likely to win the item at a lower price through an auction.
The second bid should come on the last 10 seconds of the auction, this maybe longer if you are on dial-up You can tell a lot about your competition (fellow bidders) by looking at their previously won items to see their bidding pattern. You will be amazed at how many people keep their last bid to a whole dollar, meaning you only need to add a cent to snipe them in the last 10 seconds. You will be more likely to win an item at a lower price on a weekday then a weekend. The reasoning is simple, less competition, most people with jobs will be unavailable or less likely to bid, and thus increasing the probability of winning the item at a lower price. Did you know eBay occasionally issues Paypal coupons that could save you anywhere from (5 % -10 %) when paying for your eBay items.
You can save a lot from buying from sellers with little or no feedback. But again the key is knowing your seller so you don't get burned. Here is what I do before I place a bid, first I email the seller, asking him/her about the condition of the item. If he/she replies back then I check the email headers to get the remote ip address, I then go to a WHOIS database and verify the location of the seller. If everything is OK so far, I contact the seller through telephone to verify the item, its condition?etc.
Remember that eBay only covers up to $175, so it's best to ask for insurance and always ask for shipping with tracking. Also I found its best to stick with Paypal as payment option. As a buyer you need to be aware of the following points: ? Be suspicious of sellers with low rating. ? Be suspicious of sellers using stock pictures (pictures from manufacturers website). ? Sellers who use free email (Hotmail, GmailScience Articles, Yahoo.
etc). ? Sellers who do not accept Paypal. ? Sellers who do not reply to email. ? Low rating sellers with 1 day listings.
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