You Can Get A Better Deal on eBay !

There are some great strategies you can use to your advantage to get a better bargain on eBay.

Buy seasonal items in the off-season such as a new swim suit in the winter when most buyers aren't looking for that item

Shop for deals on eBay during major holidays and obscure hours such as middle of the night as not many people shopping so you will be able to get cheaper.  You don't have to be up to do this ( see sniping below )

As tempting as it is,  do not bid right away as you could get into a bidding war with other potential buyers.  Instead wait till as close to the end of the auction as possible to place your max bid.  Better yet use a Sniping program or service which will automatically place your maximum proxy bid during the last seconds of the auction. You can also use the eBay Toolbar and Your Watched Items to alert you as the auction is nearing it's end.

** Update - eBay now offers Bid Assistant which will help automate the bidding for you

Buy on eBay in Quantity and Save - depending on what you buy you can stock up for the future or keep what you need and re-sell the rest on eBay.  Try using the words ' Lot - Bulk - Wholesale - Collection - Box etc ' in your search or Browse Wholesale You can also subscribe to rss feeds for searches as well as save favorite searches and have eBay email you when items matching your criteria show up.  Advanced Search Tips will help to get very specific search strings.

Take advantage of sellers with poor or short titles and take the time to view any listings that you aren't sure exactly what they are selling.  If you cannot tell from the title odds are others can't either and probably don't even view the item.  I have found many absolute bargains this way. (One seller just said bunch of books and I was the only bidder for $ 10 when it was worth about $ 500 at current eBay value ) Try browsing or doing very general searches.

If a seller has no pictures or very poor pictures they tend to get way less bids.  You can ask questions to find out more about the item such as condition and size if not in the description.  As long has a reasonable reputation and takes Paypal you can be pretty sure that you won't be taken.  Many new sellers don't realize the importance of a good picture ( or description )

Some sellers don't know their product and price too low with a Buy It Now catch the deal early by sorting by newest listings first and snap up the deal.

There are sites on the internet that will automatically search on eBay for mis-spelled keywords - if buyers can't find the item of course they won't be bidding so advantage you !

Submit a Best Offer ( when sellers have this option )  you will be surprised at what some sellers are actually willing to sell an item for ( I have gotten items for up to 75 % off the asking price ) You can search for items that offer this.

Shop in eBay Stores for many items which appear now at the end of standard searches and are often priced to sell.

Search Title and Descriptions you will get many more results but if you have the time can find some real bargains.

Use the eBay sorting feature and advanced searches to sort by things like lowest priced, buy it now, set price ranges etc.

Browse the categories instead of just keywords as the seller may be using words in their title which are uncommon search terms.

Use Advanced Search Tips when you get too many results so you can narrow down your search.

A couple new ways to get cheap deals on eBay:

Deal Finder which will show items that have zero bids, less than 4 hours left, no reserve price, free or fixed rate shipping and a total price that includes shipping costs.

Check some of the International eBay sites as sometimes the prices are better than eBay.com even after shipping.

Subscribe to your favorite stores newsletter to find out about special sales they may be having.

It is important to know your pricing - what is the retail value / how much have past auctions sold for / what is a good price ? Do your research ( on and off eBay ) or you could get burned.

I'm confident that by using the above strategies you will be able to find the best price on anything you want on eBay including: musical instruments, dvds, antiques, clothes, mp3 players, books, toys, cars, dolls, and everything else.

If you want to share any additional strategies let me know and I will update this post

About Us and Contact Info

Our Store

Good Luck and Happy Bargain Hunting !

Other Great eBay Guides by us