Here are a few tricks for saving money and getting money back while shopping on eBay. At the end of the tips, I will also show you how to combine techniques to REALLY SAVE!

This first tip will work for ANYONE and for ANY eBay item:

There's a website call Big Crumbs that will pay you a commission to shop on eBay and other online retailers.  They give you back 36% of the sellers fees on all the eBay purchases you make and they also give you 4% of the seller's fees whenever one of your referrals make an eBay purchase.  The sign up is completely free and it will stay free.  The sign up link can be found on my Me  page or go to ebaycrumbs dot com.

Here's how it works.  You log onto the company's website, then click on the merchant you would like to shop with, such as eBay.  Then you shop as you normally do.  There is an invisible code inserted into your purchase when you bid on and buy your items.  The rebate will automatically be given to you in a week or so.

Here's the next trick:

Find sellers who offer a MyStoreRewards rebate.  This can be really great! MyStoreRewards lets the eBay seller offer you a cash back Paypal rebate ranging from 1-15%. 

Here's how you do it.  Go to the item search on eBay and type in mystorerewards (one word) into the search bar and be sure to click on "Search title and description", that last part is very important.  You will then see a bunch of different items.  Click on See All Categories in the left column to start looking for great deals!  After you purchase the item, you must pay with Paypal, then MyStoreRewards will send you an invitational email to join.  It's completely free and your only obligation is to receive a promotional email from the eBay seller once or twice a month.  You can opt out anytime too.

Each seller gets to choose how much of a rebate is offered, I offer a 3% rebate to all my buyers!

This trick works great too:

Go to FatFingers dot com.  They have an eBay search engine that will find misspelled items.  This is great for finding hidden deals!

Here's how it works.  Go to their website and type in the name of the item you're looking for.  One word search terms work best, but it's not necessary.  For example, type in "batteries" and this website will automatically search for every crazy way to spell batteries.  It works great!

This tip will only work for some merchants. 

Get yourself a PayPal debit card and if your seller accepts merchant credit cards directly, you can pay with the card instead of your PayPal account.  It costs you the same amount, but PayPal gives a 1.5% rebate when you use their card.

This way of paying though, will cancel out the MyStoreRewards rebate, so you can't combine these two tips together.

Here's how to put the tricks together, it's a little more work, but WELL WORTH IT!

After doing your MyStoreRewards or FatFingers search, note (or copy ctr + c) the exact title of the item you are interested in.  Log into Big Crumbs (tip #1) and access eBay through their site.  Type (or paste ctr + v) in the item title you just found and then bid and buy.