My guide is to help those who want to begin collecting in the world of star wars. While this is specifcially designed to help you utilize ebay to the fullest to buy star wars stuff, the theories and ideas can be interchanged with any other collectables which you may venture into. So, what I've composed it a list of guideliness to follow, which has come from my own experience of collecting in the star wars world #1) Detach from the item - I made this the #1 rule for a specific reason, and if you remember this, you'll get what you want and for the right price. For the most part, somone, somewhere, has the item (or as my favorite ebay tv ad's say "it") that you want for the right price. Probably only 1% of the items out there is so rare that you won't find it from someone else. I learned this lesson, because sometimes you can get so caught up with the collecting that unless you won lotto you'll just spend regardless of the bidding price. Let me point this out by example... http://cgi.ebay.com/Lego-Star-Wars-DARTH-VADER-8010-Technic-NEW-NISB_W0QQitemZ6053275885QQcategoryZ19009QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem Take this item for example, its priced at about $60 bucks, but I also got this item several months ago. I think it was a little bit of luck, but would you believe I also got the same new darth vader for under $3 bucks on a very unbusy night of ebay collecting. I was the only bidder and with s&h I got it all for under $10 dollars. But this experience had to be learned from trial and error, while I showed you the good, I also got hooked up buying a die cast millenium falcon, which you normally can get for $5 bucks and I ended up bidding up to $31 dollars for... ouch! Yeah, I got caught up in the excitement and was less expereinced at the time. So remember someone, somewhere has it, you might not get it right away, but if your patient you'll eventually get it for the right price #2) Define your collection - In the world of star wars collecting, there is an infinite amount to collect. Everything from pez dispensers, to drawings, customized action figures, rare prop materials. And unless your Bill gates getting everything is impossible to do. However, if you define specifically what you want to get it'll help give you focus and find the things that you want. Me for example, my main collection is based of recreating the entire movie, and that's all 6, with every action figure and vehicle and playset possible. That's what I'm targeting for when I hunt on ebay, now that doesn't mean I don't have a few stuff that go's outside that boundary, but for the most part that consumes most of what I'm looking for. You need that focus in collecting as well as everyday life, right. Know what you want. #3) Timing is everything - Getting the right price also involves good timing. From my experience, weekends late at night have brought me the best prices, as opposed to weeknights at prime time tv shows. Now, that's not to say you have to follow this to the T, and also this is dependant on how the seller list the item, but you will find them out there. For example, a seller listed the closing of a particular item that I wanted and it was to end on Sunday night or technically monday morning at 1:00am. Well, as obvious at it may sound, Monday's back to work or school day, and no one wants to stay up till 1:00am to bid, so if your willing to get a little red eye, then its worth it to stay up and get the better price. Or you can take advantage of big events or even holidays when people are more inclined to do something else then be bidding, but would rather go out then stay home. Yeah, there's a little sacrifice involved but its worth it if you want the right price. #4) Knowing the true price of an item - Takes a little bit of homework, but not much. To know the true price involves a little bit of watch and see. So, if your starting from scratch, find the item that you want, multiple times from different sellers, and watch at least 5 of them, to get a fair idea of what demand is and what price is going for. You can also, check out the buy it now for that same item to see what instant sellers are marking it for. Remember this simple rule, and I'm not sure how often I see this broken, don't bid beyond the buy it now level. In other words, if you can buy the item you want now for $35 bucks, and you end up bidding on that same item and now your exceeding that amount, that means you didn't do your homework, and your spending more then you should be. Sounds simple right, but this is done time after time when I've bidded on star wars stuff and I'm like why are they bidding this high, duhhh! Also, when it comes to the true price, you gotta know what S&H is. For example, if you got that buy it now item listed at $35 bucks and s&h is 5 bucks. And, now your bidding and you can win the item for $28 bucks, if s&h $15 bucks, well you do the math, it doesn't make sense then to bid for it. #5)View other sellers items - Really important to do, if you find an item you want, make sure you ALWAYS view the sellers other items. Why is this important, when creating your star wars collection, getting items piece by piece from different sellers will kill you if you don't use the power of combining s&h. Often times, if I want a particular star wars toy, i will automatically view the sellers other items. And, more often then not, that same seller will have 3 to 5 other items that I do want, that i end up putting on my list. Make sure though that you check or email with the seller if he does in fact discount for multiple items, coz at times there are still jerks who try to rip you off by not doing that. If you win multiple items you'll definitley save big time on s&h as opposed to buying it individually. This is a huge tip to save you more money for collecting star wars as oppposed to giving it all to USPS or UPS. #6) How to bid - Bidding is like fighting and if you want something, you don't show that your gonna fight till the last second. Unless you can't physcially watch the bidding at the time of the end, is the only reason you bid in advance. Otherwise, if you want to bid, don't reveal the maximum price that you want to bid, until the last 10 seconds of the auction. Also, if your gonna bid, have the maximum dollar amount that you want to spend for the item, and put that in. All to often, if you put don't have that mark, you'll get caught up in the excitement in bidding and overspend for an item. Remember, see Rule #1, about detaching from an item