*Please take a look at my most recent guide after you vote for this one... "I'm Being Scammed!!! Here's what I'm doing..."

Search smart and save money.  It is a fact that if you do not define your search criteria properly, you will be far more likely to pay more for the items you're looking for.  Furthermore, it is very possible that without knowing and utilizing the following tricks, you might miss a particular item that you would otherwise bid on.

Here are some quick search tips on finding the exact items you desire...

1.      Use ?? in your searches to ensure that you find all of the competitor’s listings… i.e. If you're a collector of perfect coins, search for “??70” and you’ll get all PR70, PF70, and MS70 graded coins (assuming you're searching in the right category).  

2.      Use * in your searches… i.e. search for “XBOX*” and you’ll get anything with XBOX in the subject, even if there’s a word or character to the right with no space in between. i.e. XBOX360, XBOX 360, XBOX Live.

3.      Use quotes for exact match criteria for terms which include spaces (white space).  i.e. searching for "Thomas Kinkade" will return only those items that contain the exact characters in the order typed, including the space.  Here is an example of an item that will be returned from such a search: [Thomas Kinkade Original Oil "North Country"]; but the following title will not be returned, since there is no space between the Thomas and the Kinkade: [Thomas Kincaid " A prayer for peace" Kinkade].  How is this useful, you ask?  This type of search can help you uncover items that many people do not see... i.e. fewer bidders = better price for you the savvy buyer.

4.      Use parentheses with search terms separated by commas as "or" criteria... e.g. search for the following: Chevrolet (Corvette, Camero, Avalanche, Silverado).  This search will yield results that must contain the word Chevrolet and at least one of the words in parentheses.

5.      Use the minus sign as a "not" operator to indicate characters or character combinations that you do not want to see.  From the previous example, we would search for the following if we wanted to see all results that do not contain the words in parentheses:  Chevrolet -(Cavalier, Colorado, Chevette). 

Bear in mind, these search results still won't be perfect because crafty sellers can find ways to cause their items to show up despite some of your best efforts to eliminate them.  It is, however, a pretty effective search if that's what you're looking for.

Remember, the better you become at refining your search criteria, the more succesful you'll be on EBAY.

Good luck with your hunt.

"ShakeMyHand"