eBay Buying Secrets Tricks and tools to sever the price

eBay is a mammoth marketplace, with millions of goods. Most people just bid, but there are a range of hidden tools you can use to track down and then bag the ultimate bargains. Whether it’s speedy searches for under-priced goods, taking advantage of spelling mistake listings, auto-bidding to cheaply seal a deal or just working out the maximum you should pay, they’re only a free click away.

Also read eBay Selling Secrets & Online Shopping Guide

Step 1: Tools to hone in on under-priced goods

There’re a whole host of powerful online tools that let you exploit eBay* to the max. These not only let you track down exactly what you want, but help you spot bargains that may have gone un-noticed by other bidders, keeping prices low.

• Spelling mistaykes save you cash

  Many people can't spell (martin's is awful) and consequentially mis-enter their eBay entries. This English teacher's nightmare is a bargain hunter's dream: wrongly spelt products attract fewer bids because many don't see them. A few specialist search sites take advantage of this, trawling eBay for all possible spelling mistake combinations.

  These include the simple typo search Fatfingers, set up a few years ago by a MoneySaver to help others and Goofbay with its powerful search tools including locating no bidders.

• Local bargains cut delivery costs

  Sellers often specify that bulky, heavy items – TVs, tables, life size Dr Spock figurines – must be picked up in person. As people are loath to travel far, lack of competition keeps prices low. It’s possible to exploit this by going to Localbargainfinder. Simply tell it your postcode, how far prepared you’re to schlep and a maximum price; it then trawls eBay for hidden gems nearby. This trick’s a must if you’re furnishing a house on a budget.

• No bid items

  Often sellers start auctions at 99p, hoping a bidding war will erupt. Yet many items go unspotted, staying at this super-low price. To take advantage, Lastminute auctions scours for ebay auctions that are due to finish within an hour but are still under £1, meaning there are many bargains to be had.

• Keep alerted to favourites

  If you want something that’s a) hard to track down, or b) cheaper to buy second hand, set a ‘favourite search’ and eBay will email each time a seller lists the item you’re after. Simply type a product in eBay’s own search bar, such as “Star Wars Lego Millennium Falcon” or “Manchester City Subbuteo players”, and click “save this search”. Be as specific as possible for the most accurate results. Then, when someone clears out the loft and lists the item, an email will pop into your inbox.

• Buy from eBay USA

  There are bargains to be had on overseas eBay sites, particularly the USA. To include foreign auctions in search results, simply click “worldwide” for location, on the left hand bar. But keep an eye on postage costs, and remember that if you’re buying from outside the EU, you may be stung with customs tax.

Step 2: Check the price is right

Many people assume that if it’s on eBay*, it’s automatically cheap, and some sellers hike up prices to take advantage of this. Yet with a few basic checks, it’s easy to spot if you’re really getting a bargain.

• Benchmark cheapest prices

  Always benchmark the price before buying. Use shopbots (shopping robots) that whiz to scores of internet retailers to find the cheapest price; MSE's Megashopbot.com tool auto-searches the best of these for each category. After that, you may be eligible for cashback (see Top Cashback Sites).

• Ask 100,000s of people to help

  This site’s forum is a mine of MoneySaving information, where bargain hunters club together to spot top buys. This mass consumer power means someone almost always know whether you're being ripped off. Pose a question on the Shop but don't drop, and you'll often find a bargain hunting nerd can help.

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  My most pertinent memory of this is when I featured Dell's short-term £10 colour printer sale in my weekly email. Later I discovered that one reader had used the info to buy 70 and made over £2,000 profit from eBaying them at £40 each – four times the Dell price. A quick forum check by the purchasers would've saved them serious cash.

  P.S. Some may say "good on them for making profit", yet this kind of behaviour goes against what this site stands for. Of course, businesses source products and make money – that's fine. Yet to use info from this pro-consumer site, to make other consumers pay way over the odds, just isn't cricket.

• Check the ‘eBay going rate’

  After researching and finding that eBay’s the cheapest, there’s a quick way glean a product’s market rate. To do this, fill in the search box and check “completed items” on the left hand grey bar. It’ll come up with a list of prices similar auctions have already fetched; try not to pay more than this.

• Google the info

  Some Del Boy types try and sell web-addresses as ‘exclusive info/tools of great interest'. Yet often they're available free elsewhere. To our great distaste, links to this site are constantly sold to the highest bidder. In the past, people have sold bank charge reclaiming template letters and links to the FlightChecker, as well as other tools from the site.

  Use Google to check exactly what you're bidding for. If it's just ‘information', you'll usually find the same elsewhere for free.

Step 3: Bidding tips to bag a bargain

Once you’ve spotted listing you like, it’s time to bid right and close the deal.

• Snipe your way to a bargain

  Spotted something you want to buy? The last thing you should ever do is bid on it! Bid early and competing buyers will bid back, forcing the price upwards. Instead, sneakily win auctions by swooping in and delivering a killer bid about 10 seconds before, leaving no time for others to fight back.
  
  Sniping websites automatically bid on your behalf. Here, you simply sign up, enter an eBay* item number and the highest price you’re willing to pay (this also stops you getting carried away in the heat of a last minute bidding war). Goofbay.com has a free auction sniper, or alternatively, the more reliable Bidnip.com charges roughly 35 cents (17p) per auction won.

  A big warning! You need to give these sites your eBay password for them to work, which is a serious security concern. While feedback has generally been good from MoneySavers, there's little protection from eBay if things ever do go wrong, as you have willingly given your password to a third party. If you do sign up, never use the name password for eBay as you do for other accounts like banks or email.

• Manipulate eBay ‘best offers’

  Some sellers specify that they’ll consider ‘best offers’. This is where you propose a figure, then they mull it over and tell you if it’s a goer. Yet, because sellers often sell the same item repeatedly, especially electricals, there’s a loophole to see which prices they’ve already accepted, and lower your best offer accordingly.

  To do this, click on “advanced search”, tell it what you want, and check the show only “best offers” box. Once you’ve found a product which accepts best offers, click to view the sellers other items, on the top right hand side of the page. On the next page, click “completed items”, to see all the items that seller has already sold. Look at the items that say best offer by it, and, bingo: you can see the lowest price they’ve accepted.

• Arrange your own postage

  Some sellers try to supplement their income by charging excessive delivery rates. If this happens, ask if you can arrange your own postage. Then have a courier pick up the item and deliver it to your house. For a full guide to this and finding a mega-cheap courier, read the Cheap Parcel Delivery article.

Step 4: Scam busting tips

In it’s essence, eBay’s a simple marketplace and it takes only limited responsibility for what goes on there. This means that, while it's easy to snap up a scorcher, it's just as easy to get burnt.

If you’re new to eBay, it’s a good idea to learn the ropes by making a couple of small purchases, such as books or CDs, before graduating to more costly items. The following should help you avoid common cons.

• Check you're bidding on the item itself.

  While scare con stories of ebay are abound, with a bit of common sense, it’s fairly easy to stay safe. Most sellers are decent types, who want to protect their feedback scores. If you’re new to eBay and want to check whether an item’s legit, why not post it on the eBay board, where experts will tell you whether it looks kosher.

  Sometimes it seems you're bidding for an object on eBay*, when all that's actually up for grabs is a link to a site selling it. E.g. it only takes a few minutes after logging onto eBay to find a link to a £200 laptop sale, where inspection of the small print reveals it's actually selling a link to a discount laptop site.

  Always read the whole description in detail before bidding. Often the catch is hidden in the tiny text at the end – an attempt to protect the seller from any comeback.

• Know your rights.

  Use the 'Buy It Now' button, rather than a standard auction, to buy from a UK based trader on eBay, and you've all the same statutory rights as buying from a shop (see the Consumer Rights article). A trader is someone who makes some or all of their living from regularly selling goods. Technically it's up to the courts to decide but it's usually pretty obvious.

  Buy from a private individual and the law says “let the buyer beware”. Providing your purchase arrives ‘as described' there's little legal comeback (assuming you can trace them anyway) and the standard seven day internet cooling-off period usually doesn't apply to auction purchases.

• Take feedback with dose of skepticism.

  eBay sellers have a ‘feedback' rating which acts as a useful guide to whether they've dealt fairly in the past. As a guideline, look for a seller with over 98% positive feedback, and a high feedback score of at least 30. Never buy an expensive item from a seller with zero feedback, as it means they’ve never sold before.

  Remember that feedback is useful but not infallible. One thing to watch for is traders flogging a few tiny things for 10p each to build their feedback, and suddenly listing 15 mobile phones at £200 a pop.

  Normally, viewing a sellers’ negative feedback means trawling through reams of comments, but a handy tool lets you view it instantly. Just in a seller name into negative feedback checker Toolhaus, and it’ll expose all the negative/neutral comments.

eBay is not the only site

While eBay is hugely dominant, there are alternatives which can yield decent bargains.

• Free Classified Ads

  Perhaps the fasted growing trend is for offloading gear on a free classified site, the power-puncher of these is Gumtree* which divides the UK into different towns. It sells anything from bikes to beds and doesn't charge either the buyer or the seller (except for job ads).

  Interestingly Gumtree is owned by eBay, it was bought in May 2005, probably as eBay started to identify it as competition. Thankfully it hasn't impacted its free community-based operations.

• Other Auction Sites

  While eBay is massively dominant ebid* is also a sizeable auction site. Its advantage is it charges sellers less than eBay, which means some prefer it. So if you're searching for something specific, it's worth adding it to your search. A useful website, auctionlotwatch.co.uk is a shopbot for online auctions. Search for an item and it trawls the four big auction sites for you.

• Amazon & Play

  Amazon* and now Play* have second hand marketplaces, for most of the products they sell new, and these can actually hold a candle to eBay's size. Do a normal search for something on the site, and if there's a second hand version available, it's listed. It primarily operates as a fixed price rather than an auction, making it an easy alternative.

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