eBay Shopping Secrets

Liang Zhang asked:


Best Buy often doesn’t give you the best buys, but eBay might. But eBay can be dangerous if you don’t know your way around. Here’s a quick guide to what to expect including 5 tips on how to buy on eBay and 5 tips on how to sell.

EBay is an online auction service open to everybody. That means many legitimate sellers and buyers and a handful of scammers. These tips will help you avoid the scammers and get good prices on both the buying side and selling side.

Buying tips

1. Read the listing very carefully – don’t be afraid to ask the seller questions. This is especially important for something like a laptop (see our Laptop Buying Guide).

2. Any listing that tells you to directly e-mail questions to a seller’s e-mail address, or tell you to offer a buying price directly to the seller is a scam – plain and simple. EBay provides a secure system for seller/buyer interactions and it works fine.

3. Beware of buying from someone with 0 or negative feedback – read some of the feedback comments and ratings. I’ve been burned before buying from someone with 0 feedbacks and do not ever do it anymore.

4. 90% positive feedback is NOT good by eBay standards. Typically, for large volume sellers (ones with a lot of ratings), 95% or 97% and up is pretty good. Many of them have over 99% positive feedback. See this article for more in-depth info (link).

5. Use an auction sniper. Do not bid on an item a long time before the auction ends. There’s no reason to bid except in the few seconds right before an auction ends if you want the best price. Here’s an explanation of this principle, validated by research. There are online software applications that do this for you automatically – just enter in the item # (copy and paste from eBay listing page) and max price you would bid. Some of these services charge a fee, but Gixen is free (I use it) and doesn’t require any kind of registration.

Selling tips

1. List your item accurately and make your shipping/returns terms explicitly clear – this will help you avoid potential hassles later on.

2. Make it clear that you ship ONLY to the United States, NO exceptions. This will help you avoid most scammers (who will ask you to ship to Nigeria or UK or somewhere else).

3. Accept PayPal, and I suggest, only PayPal, to protect against buyer fraud. Other payment methods lack the security that PayPal transfers give you.

4. Be strategic in listing your item, so that the auction ends on a Saturday or Sunday evening. Typically more people bid on weekends and ending the auction at that time has a better chance to land you a higher selling price.

5. Ship promptly and communicate with your buyer – getting a higher feedback score will give future buyers more confidence to bid on your items, and thus will get you higher sales prices (generally more buyers bidding drives up the sales price).

Why eBay?

From an economic perspective, eBay is a market with imperfect information and imperfect competition. In other words, if you’re patient and know some of the tricks of the trade, you can get really good deals. Here are a few examples of good deals I found on eBay just by following the tips I provided above, both on the buying and selling side. I bought a Lenovo ThinkPad x60 off eBay, at a price $800 less than it would have costed on lenovo.com, used it for 3 months, and sold it on eBay for $75 more than I paid for it. I bought a music CD brand new off eBay for $3.36 that costs $13.99 from Amazon. I also bought the current laptop I own, a Lenovo ThinkPad T60, for $780 shipped from eBay, warranty included, that retailed for $1470 from Newegg at the time I bought it.

Many electronics and other goods can be bought from eBay cheaper than most retail stores. You can also get a better selling price on eBay on many items than through other means (like campus classifieds). It doesn’t take a genius to use eBay to your benefit - I use it on average only once every month or two - just apply the above tips and use your street smarts and common sense.

Michael Cohen asked:


Ebay has always given consumers the image that anyone can log on and make a fortune selling rare and bizarre items. This has spawned countless “get rich quick schemes” that have only made money for the scam artists that created them. Beneath the veil, it has always been a small group of eBay powersellers dominating the eBay business marketplace. While a few entrepreneurs have been able to carve out a scant number of successful niches, the big business goliaths have ruled supreme. eBay powerseller’s access to virtually unlimited supply and funding has allowed them to keep a firm grip on the auction marketplace. However, a new business concept known as dropshipping is changing the way the online auction industry works and giving new small business a chance to succeed on eBay.

Dropshippers level the product supply playing field

One of the greatest assets of powersellers has been access to large lots of items purchased from foreign importers. Being able to purchase these items at a huge discount allowed them to price these items far below the margin a small eBay business can afford. Dropshipping companies have greatly leveled this pricing gap by offering small eBay businesses the ability to purchase small lots, as few as one item at a time, and sell them for similar rates as that of the huge powersellers. Whereas in the past the little guys were forced to purchase their items from garage sales in order to keep up, they now have access to a catalog of well over one million items to sell on eBay. This allows eBay businesses to effectively equal powersellers in their ability to reach customers with the discounted products that they demand. While small eBay sellers had to rush to the post office five times a day to ship their items, the dropshipper ships the product directly from the supplier to the customer’s doorstep.

In the world of eBay sales “Cash is King”

Most powersellers are actually large corporations portraying themselves as small merchants simply selling their wares on eBay. Having access to large amounts of cash, they have been able to price small eBay businesses right out of the market. While an eBay entrepreneur might be able to offer a couple different types of products, powersellers use their buying power to sell a thousand different products in markets where the small business has no access. Dropshipping allows an individual to offer far larger variety than even the largest powersellers and pay nothing up front. A dropshipping member only pays after the product has already sold for a profit, giving them the ability to list an unlimited number of products at a time. If the auctions do not sell, the eBay business is not required to purchase anything from the dropshipper and moves on to the next successful auction.

Powersellers reputations all smoke and mirrors?

Facing a powerseller that has a feedback rating of ten thousand positive replies can be quit daunting. Powersellers give the impression that they are kings of customer service, however many have gained their feedback ratings by less than fair methods. Most powersellers rarely reply to complaints as they know the buyer is only one of thousands most of whom will automatically give positive feedback. Only a dropshipper who is eBay certified can give the small eBay business the customer service advantage. These dropshippers provide a wholesale guarantee to ensure they are offering the best quality items at the right price to sell successfully on Ebay

Dropshippers are the future for small eBay business

As respected dropshippers grow they will offer the small eBay business greater control over the eBay marketplace. They will be able to equal large powersellers in supply, price and quality. The “get rich quick” schemes of the past, are being replaced with legitimate options to face off against the currently dominant powersellers. Clearly, dropshipping presents the single greatest option for small businesses seeking success selling on eBay.

James Hunaban asked:


It goes without saying; we all love a great deal! The question is, are you going to find one, on an auction site such as eBay? Well, in my experience, yes and no. As with any auction, online or offline, people bidding against each other can often run the price up to more than the item is worth. In which case, why bother with an auction at all, just go down the shops or wherever.

Ok, before I put you off the idea of auction sites altogether, I have to say, they can still be quite useful. My personal feedback score on eBay is 120+ which indicates that I have profited from using the service. I have found it very handy for getting rid of household items that are no longer needed. On the flip side, some people use it to collect stuff that they probably want but don’t really need.

Of course you also have the part time trader types who scour garage sales, boot sales, flea markets etc looking for bargains, and then selling on eBay for a profit. Hey, I’m not knocking it, good luck to them, I’m sure there are quite a few people who do rather well out of it. It’s not for me, though, too much hassle, and then there are the dreaded fees.

Talking of fees, with eBay, when selling, you have to pay a listing fee, and also a percentage of the final sale price. Fair enough, I suppose, they have a business to run. Al though I can’t help thinking, the people doing the best out of eBay are eBay. Ok, I’m an old cynic, but I think it pays to be cynical these days. Having said all that, they did not become the market leader in auction sites by chance, and a lot of work and some good business decisions must have gone into it.

You have to make sure you safeguard yourself against the numerous scam artists trying to operate in the online auction world. You can make a start by studying the information and guidelines in the eBay site. Also, whoever it is you’re dealing with, do make sure you have a look at their feedback, and try to get a feel of the sort of person they are.

At he end of the day, wheeling and dealing on eBay can be good fun, and you can make a bit of cash as well. It does help if you’re an old cynic like me, or maybe that’s a hindrance. You decide.