Do you use Ebay?

Everybody and their brother has heard of Ebay - but do you use it? I know a lot of people that are, for some reason, scared to use Ebay. I've been using it for about 8 years now and can tell you that, with only 1 or 2 small exceptions, I've never had a problem with anything I've bought or sold (one lady sold me a pair of pants once that were shorter than listed and wouldn't give me my money back - but thats' about it).

I used to sell books and cds on Ebay but decided that the listing process for those types of items was easier on Amazon. I still, however, sell things other than books and cds on Ebay. It's the world's largest marketplace and you can sell almost anything there. The listing process is easy and there are many tutorials on the site for how to create a listing, so I'm not going to waste time telling you how to do it here.

I primarily use Ebay to purchase things. I purchase all of my shipping supplies (for the cds and books I sell on Amazon) there for far less than I could get them locally. I also buy gifts on Ebay. Many people think it's just a flea market for old/used things, but people sell new stuff on Ebay all the time. You can also use Ebay to find collectible and hard to find items - stuff like a picture of my mom's high school, a cool collectible to hang on the wall in my office, or a lucky rock.

I have a few 'secrets' that I use when I shop on Ebay and today, for the first time ever, I will reveal them to you for your own personal use. Personally, I'm not a big fan of the bidding process on Ebay. I typically purchase the items that are marked 'Buy It Now' (assuming it's a good price) just to avoid having to wait for the auction to end to see if I won it or not. If, however, the item does not have a 'Buy It Now' option, I'm forced to bid. When this is the case, I resort to AuctionSniper.com.

AuctionSniper is a website that can be used to 'snipe' an auction at the last possible second. You simply go to the site, create an account, enter the item number on Ebay that you'd like to bid on, enter your maximum bid on the item, and tell the site how much lead time you want to give (I use 3 seconds before auction end). The site handles the rest. At whatever lead time you specified, AuctionSniper will hit Ebay with your bid and, assuming your maximum bid is not under the bid price at that time, you'll get your bid in at the last second and your competition will not have time to respond. The site will also email you if, at any time before the auction ends, your maximum bid is no longer high enough - so you can go back and raise your bid. The site works like a charm. It's great for auctions that end at a time when you can't be on the computer or for auctions you don't want to monitor (I hate sitting there hitting refresh to see if I won or not only to find out that someone else has sniped the auction!). Try it out! There is a small fee for using the site, but it's worth it.

Another trick I use on Ebay is searching for misspelled items. Believe it or not, many people can't spell. It's true. And I exploit this weakness for my own gain. Missing-Auctions.com is a site that makes searching for these misspelled items easy. You simply go to the site, type in the term that you would search for on Ebay (example: basketball) and the site searches Ebay for all sorts of misspellings of the search term. I just looked and right now, there are 156 auctions on Ebay where the word basketball is misspelled. That means that those auctions get far fewer looks, far fewer bids, and the bid price stays lower as a result. Try it out next time you want to buy something and you can often find a good deal!

Good luck and happy bidding!