This brings me to the subsequent vital level: Price will not be the one factor to think about when shopping for on eBay.
Know the Seller
We do not simply need the bottom value; we would like the very best quality merchandise on the lowest value. I’ve discovered that, sadly, images aren’t indicator of product high quality. I’ve bought many objects with horrible images which have turned out to be in wonderful form, and I’ve bought issues with wonderful images that turned out to be junk. (I returned them.)
A significantly better metric to choose the standard of an merchandise is the vendor’s suggestions ranking. A good vendor—who’s more than likely promoting a high-quality merchandise in good situation—can have a suggestions ranking of 99.8 p.c or higher. I very hardly ever purchase from a vendor with a suggestions ranking of 99.6 p.c or much less.
That leaves a grey zone—sellers with a 99.7 p.c ranking. In these instances, click on the “detailed feedback” hyperlink and skim via the current suggestions. It could possibly be there was just one unfavorable ranking and it was a number of months in the past. Everyone makes errors. Sometimes, a low ranking comes from issues that weren’t actually the vendor’s fault, like a package deal being misplaced within the mail, so it pays to learn via precise evaluations and see what’s up. If the vendor has a ranking of 99.6 or under, I personally do not care what the worth is. I do not bid.
I’ve bought dozens of laptops, telephones, cameras, digital camera lenses, forged iron cookware, musical tools, and even pay as you go cellular phone plans off public sale websites. In all that point, I’ve solely been ripped off as soon as, however even then I ended up getting my a reimbursement. I did not get the merchandise I used to be after, however I did not lose something both.
That stated, it most likely bears repeating: If a deal sounds too good to be true, it’s.
How to Bid
Once you have discovered an merchandise you need, and you know the way a lot you need to pay, it is time to … wait. I strongly recommend you bid solely on the final second. And I imply that just about actually. I solely bid when there are about 5 to 10 seconds left. I wait till the public sale is ending, then I look it up on my cellphone, as a result of I feel eBay’s app has a greater interface for precise bidding (it is horrible for shopping), and in these previous few seconds I enter the utmost quantity I’m keen to pay.
You do not bid earlier as a result of you don’t need to give your competitor an opportunity to react. If you outbid somebody days, and even hours, earlier than an public sale ends, they’ll strive to outbid you. My guess is they’ll come again and outbid you, even for those who drove them over their authentic max bids. You don’t desire to give different individuals time to get into the emotional expertise of bidding on eBay. Only auctioneers need to whip bidders into public sale fever. We need them to by no means see us coming.
Once it is down to these final 20 or so seconds, you then enter your max bid. At that time, a type of automated bidding conflict begins. This one will not be emotional, although. It’s machine-based, chilly laborious logic.
