Buying Belly Dance Clothing – Navigating through eBay Jungle of listings!

Listings on eBay have grown into 1000’s even in sub categories, and I am sure would grow more in times to come. Buyers have started having poor shopping experience as they do not find the required item and as a result they either end up buying a wrong item, an expensive item or give away in frustration and quit the site.

Following steps could be helpful to filter and get the desired product in few minutes. I am assuming that a total newbie/fresher is reading this guide, so the first few steps would be basic:-

1. Step #1: START WITH SPECIFIC ITEM IN MIND: Be specific as what you want, an outfit, a skirt. A choli top or some accessory?
2. Step #2: START SEARCH: Type the basic generic keyword in the TOP RIGHT search box of any eBay page, e.g. in our case it would be “Belly Dance” or “Tribal Dance”. You will be either directed to listing page or a category page. After choosing the right category,you will thousands items …can you see each… No? Not practically possible.
3. Step #3: APPLY CATEGORY FILTER: On the left navigation panel of eBay search result page for bellydance items you will see categories. Choose the desired category. Let’s assume that you desire a piece of clothing. You will need to click “Women’s Clothing”. You will see the listings to drop by 50% approximately. You wont see this step if you were redirected from category page.
4. Step#4: APPLY SUB CATEGORY FILTER: Let’s make a second assumption that you wish to purchase a bellydancing skirt. Based upon this assumption you will need to click upon SKIRT sub category on the left navigation panel.
5. Step#5: APPLY TIME FILTER: Using this filter could mean that you may miss few listings, but if you are short of time this would be a boon. Most specialist sellers have multiple listings which are listed every day. This step would remove duplicate and multiple item listings. On the left panel of eBay tick the box which mentions “Listings” then choose “Ending Within” and from drop down box below that choose “24 Hours”. You will see very few and relevant listings now.
6. Step#6: SEARCH WITHIN RESULTS: Every eBay search result page has two search boxes, one on top right where “Start New Search” is mentioned and one just above the results. DO NOT USE the top right search box after filtering the results or all work will be lost. Use the box that is situated just above the listings. Type in the desired color or style you wish to have ….e.g. BLACK or CIRCLE or SATIN or CHIFFON. You will see only few and relevant listings and you must be ready to Bid or Buy.
7. Step#7: PRODUCT FINDER: This step can be used as an alternative to step#6 where available. All categories on eBay do not have product finder. E.g. skirts have a product finder but pants do not have. Product finder is situated on left navigation panel.

Some Points to Ponder!

• Seller Feed Back: DO NOT go by % only. Look as why seller is rated –ve as some people rate –ve for delay in postal and even for delay in response to mails. Want to see all/Only –ve’s?? Visit  toolhaus . org and you will see ONLY –ve FB got by a seller. A great tool indeed!! If a seller is rated –ve for QUALITY frequently, you are the best judge and you might know what to do!
• CHECK RETURN POLICY : Many sellers refund 100% while some return the bid amount only and don’t refund shipping amount. Check thoroughly before you bid.
• Do Not Fall In High-End Trap: All that glitters is not gold AND all that is high priced is NOT high end! : BEWARE! We have started witnessing an era of specialist with advent of ecommerce. Most sellers with volume sales are manufacturer themselves! Hence no middlemen, no showroom costs , no double transportation , no double packing, no double overheads JUST the manufacturer and your door step !
• Many resellers buy from the same manufacturer-cum-seller and sell it as many as 5 to 10 times higher price. THINK TWICE before sorting high to low price on eBay, you may end up paying higher for same product!!
• Get them customized: Since most volume sellers are manufacturer themselves they would be happy to adjust your clothing a bit to your size free of cost. Why pay extra after getting the same. Ask your seller for size adjustments before bidding and SAVE adjustment costs and TIME.

By eBay id CottageStock ( www.stores.ebay.com/CottageStock )