ebay tricks.pdf

E"AY

.ANCY#ONNER

CHAPTER

Finding—and Getting—

Bargains

Spending money on eBay is a snap. What’s tricky is learning how to do it wisely .

Two things stand between you and smart shopping: more listings than you can

shake a mouse at, and scads of eager bargain hunters. To get an edge, you have to

search better than the competition, and you have to bid smarter. This chapter

shows you how.

Here’s what it covers:

• How to find the hidden bargains that other shoppers miss.

• How to comparison-shop for the best deal.

• How to avoid impulse buying (and the buyer’s remorse that goes with it).

• How to snipe (win an auction at the last minute).

• How to boost your odds of winning Dutch auctions.

• How to find deals off eBay’s beaten path.

Tips and Tricks for Serious Searchers

Smart searching involves more than typing a couple of words into a text box and

clicking the Search button. Sure, a simple search gives you a list of results—but

that’s what every other shopper on eBay is getting, too. You’re out to find the bar-

gains others miss. Chapter 1 illustrated the basics of searching. This section turbo-

charges your searches.

eBay: The Missing Manual, eMatter Edition

Chapter 3

Tips and Tricks for

Serious Searchers

eBay has so many items—more than 10 million auctions are running on any given

day—that searching can quickly become difficult and frustrating. For example, a

search that seems straightforward, like NASCAR, can bring up thousands of items

you probably never even thought of: not just the tickets you were looking for, but

pet bandanas, bracelet charms, cell phone casings, calendars, pillows, and tons

more. You can refine your searches to pinpoint items by learning how to work the

system.

Speak the Search Engine’s Language

Precision-tune your search by telling eBay’s search engine exactly what you want.

You can use symbols to make searching easier:

• Quotation marks. Put quotation marks around any two or more words to force

them to appear as a phrase in the results. For example, typing in boots gets you

around 65,000 or so results: cowboy boots, ski boots, rain boots, work boots—

the list goes on and on. Type “ankle boots” and the search engine cuts to the

chase, winnowing out 62,000 or so results you don’t want, so you can focus on

the auctions you do want.

Tip: Narrow your search even further by clicking the most appropriate link in the Matching Categories

menu on the left-hand side of the page. Doing so restricts your results to auctions listed in that category.

• Asterisk. The asterisk is an immensely useful wildcard character, which stands

in for a letter or letters. It’s great if you don’t know the exact spelling of some-

thing. Search for “Engelb* Humperdin*” to find that rare Englebert Humper-

dinck LP for your mother’s birthday. eBay doesn’t allow wildcard searches with

fewer than two letters. But given the six trillion results you’d get from typing,

say, m* , that’s not usually a disappointing limitation.

Tip: If you’re searching for a keyword that could be either singular or plural, don’t bother to use an aster-

isk. eBay automatically expands your search to include singular and plural versions of common keywords.

So if you’re in the market for one or more teacups, type in teacup to have eBay show you auctions for just

one cup and for those offering a cupboard full. If, however, you don’t want eBay to perform this service

for you—if, for example, you’re looking for a single teacup to complete a set, use quotes to get the search

the way you want it: “teacup”. Putting quotes around a single word forces eBay to search for that word

exactly the way you typed it.

• Minus sign. Put a minus sign in front of a word or phrase you want to exclude

from your search. If you’re a Francophile rather than a hotel-chain-heiress fan,

type Paris -Hilton and see how much junk disappears from your screen.

Note: Make sure there’s a space before that minus sign. Otherwise, the word becomes part of your

search, rather than excluded from your search.

EBAY: THE MISSING MANUAL

eBay: The Missing Manual, eMatter Edition

• Parentheses. To find possible variations of a word, put them in parentheses to

have eBay search for both versions. Separate the terms with a comma but no

spaces. A collector of medieval battle axes who searches for (medieval,mediae-

val,midevil) gets results whether the seller used the American spelling, the Brit-

ish spelling, or a terrible but common misspelling. A recent search for all three

terms produced nearly 100 more listings than searching for medieval alone.

Tips and Tricks for

Serious Searchers

Tip: Use a minus sign with parentheses to exclude multiple terms from your search. If you don’t want

your search for a cell phone to bring up auctions for cell phone cases or flashing keypads or antennas,

type “cell phone” -(case,flashing) . Don’t let a space sneak in between the minus sign and the open

parenthesis.

Search for Items by Bidder

After you’ve spent some time on eBay, you’re likely to notice another bidder or

two with tastes or interests similar to yours. eBay lets you tag along as they hunt for

bargains, by searching for items by those bidders’ eBay IDs. Searching by bidder is

a great way to use others’ search skills to find items and see what others are willing

to pay for them.

First, find the eBay ID of a bidder you want to shadow. One way to do this is to

look on your My eBay page (page 32) for an auction you didn’t win (in My Sum-

mary, scroll down the page until you find Items I Didn’t Win, or, from the eBay

Views menu, look under All Buying and then click Didn’t Win), click the item’s

title, and notice the ID of the winning bidder. Another way to find the ID of a bid-

der worth tailing is to spend a little time researching completed auctions for items

you want. In the upper-right corner of any page, click the Advanced Search link.

Type your item in the Search page’s text box, then turn on the “Completed listings

only” checkbox before you click the Search button.

Note: You have to be registered and signed in to search for items in completed auctions.

As you look through the search results, watch for auctions that ended successfully

with one or more bidders. Check out these auctions by clicking the item title.

Under the auction’s “Start time” is its History: click the number of bids listed there

to get a detailed report of who bid how much. (Of course, getting a bid report

won’t work for private auctions, where bidders’ IDs are hidden. See page 28 for the

scoop on private auctions.) After you’ve looked at a few items, you’re likely to

notice a repeat bidder or two. Make a note of their IDs, and you’re ready to go

shopping right along with them.

With a bidder’s ID in hand, you’re ready to find out what else that bidder is shop-

ping for. From the Buy page (or under the Search box at the top of most pages),

click the Advanced Search link. On the Search page that opens, look in the menu

on the left-hand side for Items by Bidder, and then click that link. Type the

CHAPTER 3: FINDING—AND GETTING—BARGAINS

eBay: The Missing Manual, eMatter Edition

Tips and Tricks for

Serious Searchers

bidder’s ID in the text box, select your options, and click the Search button.

Figure 3-1 shows you how it works.

Figure 3-1:

Searching for items by bidder

can show you what the

competition’s up to. If you

include completed listings in

your search criteria, eBay

shows you the auctions that

finished within the last 30

days—helpful if you’re

researching prices, but not if

you want to find bargains you

can bid on now. To get the

widest range of current results,

turn on “Even if not the high

bidder” to see all the auctions

in which the bidder is an active

participant. You can request as

few as 5 or as many as 200

results per page—or simply

select “All items on one page.”

Using this technique, you can find all the yodeling CDs your shadow bidder is cur-

rently trying to buy, scoot to the appropriate auction pages, and do your best to

outbid him. He all does the legwork, you end up with a great CD collection. What

better way to cut down on your own search time?

Note: Items by Bidder shows only those auctions in which the eBayer has placed a bid. The search

doesn’t show you the items she’s watching—only those she’s bidding on.

Of course, other eBayers can search for items using your eBay ID. If your signifi-

cant other knows your ID, don’t bid on an anniversary gift and expect it to be a

surprise.

Search for Items by Seller

Whether you’re a collector or just always on the lookout for a good deal on tennis

shoes, you might find the same seller’s name appearing again and again in your

search results. Keep track of what that seller is offering by searching for items by

seller .

Searching for items by seller lets you spot sales trends and use them to your advan-

tage. Does the seller seem overstocked on a particular item? If the seller has had

many auctions for the same item end with few or no bids, you might be able to buy

that item for the starting price with a last-minute bid, or the seller might lower the

EBAY: THE MISSING MANUAL

eBay: The Missing Manual, eMatter Edition

Plik z chomika:

Inne pliki z tego folderu:

Inne foldery tego chomika: