This brings me to the subsequent vital level: Price isn’t the one factor to take into account when shopping for on eBay.
Know the Seller
We do not simply need the bottom value; we would like the highest quality merchandise on the lowest value. I’ve discovered that, sadly, pictures aren’t a great indicator of product high quality. I’ve bought many gadgets with horrible pictures which have turned out to be in wonderful form, and I’ve bought issues with wonderful pictures that turned out to be junk. (I returned them.)
A significantly better metric to decide 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 by the current suggestions. It may very well be there was just one damaging 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 bundle being misplaced within the mail, so it pays to learn by precise opinions and see what’s up. If the vendor has a ranking of 99.6 or beneath, I personally do not care what the value is. I do not bid.
I’ve bought dozens of laptops, telephones, cameras, digital camera lenses, forged iron cookware, musical gear, and even pay as you go mobile 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 refund. I did not get the merchandise I used to be after, however I did not lose something both.
That stated, it in all probability bears repeating: If a deal sounds too good to be true, it’s.
How to Bid
Once you’ve got 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 believe eBay’s app has a greater interface for precise bidding (it is horrible for searching), and in these previous couple of seconds I enter the utmost quantity I’m keen to pay.
You do not bid earlier as a result of you do not need to give your competitor an opportunity to react. If you outbid somebody days, and even hours, earlier than an public sale ends, they are going to strive to outbid you. My guess is they are going to come again and outbid you, even when you drove them over their unique max bids. You don’t need 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 sort of automated bidding warfare begins. This one isn’t emotional, although. It’s machine-based, chilly exhausting logic.
