Wait to Bid

If you bid, then everyone can see you’re interested – and that might make them interested too. Leaving the item alone for as long as you can bear will make it look less popular, and keep the price down so you can come in at the last minute and get a bargain.

Make an Offer

If the seller is selling an item using ‘Buy it Now’ and it still hasn’t sold when the auction is about to end, use eBay’s ‘Best Offer’ service to make them an offer on it. The chances are they’ve listed the item two or three times before, and they’ll be so annoyed at the prospect of re-listing it yet again that they’ll accept your offer just to get rid of the thing.

Conspire with Other Buyers.

You might not have thought of this, but if there are two auctions for the same item and only you and one other buyer are bidding, why not get together and work out a ‘you take this one and I’ll take that one’ deal? This avoids you raising the price on both auctions just to get one each. If you make a few friends, you can even work together on auctions long-term, taking it in turns to bid.

Be Snobbish.

Send the seller emails asking questions about the condition of the item, and making it very clear that you are a discerning buyer and will only accept things of the highest quality. This will make them feel better about selling you their item for less.

Don’t Feel Guilty

There really are too many sellers on eBay now, to the point where you can get common items at very low prices. Long-term, this will probably force those sellers out of business, but that’s the way a market works – it’s supply and demand.

Buy in Bulk

When auctions are slow, many sellers will have had the same stock for a long time. If you offer to take ten things offtheir hands all at once then you can almost name your price – the chances are that they’ll fall over themselves to give you a good deal. If you come back again and buy another ten items then they’ll love you even more.

The longer you spend on eBay, the more experienced you’ll become – and the greater the chances are that you’ll stumble across an auction for something very odd, and quite unexpected.   Try it yourself, you’ll be amazed!

Buy it Now.

- The Advantages.

When you use Buy it Now, you know the asking price and you can take some time to decide whether to pay it or not – you can even negotiate. You don’t need to be keeping your eye on the auction, or get caught up in the last-minute bidding frenzy that is now inevitable on any popular item. Not only that, but the seller will be happy to get a fixed price for their item, and they’re likely to be nicer to you than usual. Some sellers can be a little resentful when they feel that you got a little too much of a bargain on their item.

- The Disadvantages.

You will almost certainly pay more for the item, especially with more expensive items. Also, it takes some of the fun out of eBay. Aren’t you there for an auction, after all? If you want to pay a fixed price then there are thousands of online stores you could be visiting. It’s like pressing ‘collect’ instead of ‘gamble’ on a fruit machine: it’s the boring option. But then, maybe that’s what you want.

These rules are relatively constant: there are few times when using Buy it Now would allow you to get something cheaper, or when bidding would be an easier way to do it. In the end, as with so many things in life, it’s a simple question of price vs. convenience, and it’s up to you.

There are those times, though, when the strategic use of the Buy it Now button can be a useful tool to help you outwit your competition. If the current bid is almost as high as the Buy it Now price, then why bid higher and keep the contest going? Clicking that button is a no-brainer. The same goes for times when a seller has, for some reason, set the Buy it Now price only slightly higher than their starting price for bids. Why bother to go through all the hassle of bidding?

You might also find that there are times when you should leave the Buy it Now button as a last resort: it can be a useful way of ending last-minute contests with a decisive ‘this is mine’ gesture.

In fact, there are all sorts of tricks you can use on eBay, if you want to get ahead of the game. Remember that most buyers on eBay are casual, and don’t know what they’re doing: a little knowledge can go a long way in getting you an advantage.

Words:

Bid: telling eBay’s system the maximum price you are prepared to pay for an item.

Dutch: an auction where more than one of an item is available.

Feedback: positive or negative comments left about other users on eBay.

Mint: in perfect condition.

Non-paying bidder: a bidder who wins an auction but does not then go on to buy the item.

PayPal: an electronic payment method accepted by most sellers.

Rare: used and abused on eBay, now entirely meaningless.

Reserve: the minimum price the seller will accept for the item.

Shill bid: a fake bid placed by a seller trying to drive up their auction’s price.

Snail Mail: the post, which is obviously very slow compared to email.

Sniping: bidding at the last second to win the item before anyone else can outbid you.

Abbreviations:

AUD: Australian Dollar. Currency.

BIN: Buy it Now. A fixed price auction.

BNWT: Brand New With Tags. An item that has never been used and still has its original tags.

BW: Black and White. Used for films, photos etc.

CONUS: Continental United States. Generally used by sellers who don’t want to post things to Alaska or Hawaii.

EUR: Euro. Currency.

FC: First Class. Type of postage.

GBP: Great British Pounds. Currency.

HTF: Hard To Find. Not quite as abused as ‘rare’, but getting there.

NIB: New in Box. Never opened, still in its original box.

NR: No Reserve. An item where the seller has not set a reserve price.

OB: Original Box. An item that has its original box (but might have been opened).

PM: Priority Mail.

PP: Parcel Post.

SH: Shipping and Handling. The fees the buyer will pay you for postage.

USD: United States Dollars. Currency.

VGC: Very Good Condition. Not mint, but close.

The chances are that you’ll find more specific jargon related to whatever you’re selling, but it would be an impossible task to cover it all here. If you can’t figure one out from your knowledge of the subject, then type the term into a search engine, followed by the word ‘ebay’. The chances are that someone, somewhere will have seen fit to explain it.

While it’s good to be able to understand others’ jargon, avoid using it unless you really need to (for example, if you run out of space in an item’s title). Many people on eBay are not experienced buyers and you will lose them if you write a load of gobbledegook all over your auction.    :-)

The feedback score is cumulative, so that if you had 3 transactions, positive + positive then negative, your total score would be 1+1-1=2.  Similarly, if you had positive, followed by negative and negative, your total score would be 1-1-1=(-1).  This is a situation you MUST AVOID at all costs!  A negative feedback score will make it very difficult for you to buy or sell anything on eBay.

Along with your overall score, your feedback rating will include a ‘positive feedback percentage (%)’.  This is a calculation of your overall positive feedback scores as a percentage of your total feedback scores for the life of your eBay account.  In addition to all of the above, your feedback rating will also list all your scores (positive, neutral and negative) for the last month, 6 months and 12 months.

Why is getting higher feedback score so important? Firstly, many buyers will only buy from a seller with a relatively high feedback score.  The reason for this is a higher feedback score gives you a certain amount of credibility.  It signifies that you have been on eBay for some time, and have had quite a number of successful transactions and a lot of people have either bought from or sold goods or services to you and have been SATISFIED with the transactions.

If you sell an item, while another eBay member is selling the same item for the same price, but she or he has a greater feedback score than you, it is highly likely that a buyer will buy from the seller with the higher feedback score.

Additionally, many sellers will not sell to buyers with a feedback score of zero (0) or less.  The main reason for this is that a feedback score of zero or less, more often than not signifies that the buyer is using a new account on eBay, thus they have not proven to be a reputable buyer.  Fortunately, in some cases, you can remedy this by contacting the seller and ask for his permission to allow you to bid on the auction.

So be mindful of the importance of feedback rating.  It may be a little troublesome for new eBayers, yet the feedback is one of the best and useful elements for online transactions.  You will learn to value the feedback score sooner than you realize it.