Top tips for buying on ebay
Plus the guide includes a host of other second-hand buying tips, including police auctions, airport baggage sales, collection-only deals and more.
In this guide
- Get alerts on favourite items
- Manipulate eBay 'best offers'
- Police stolen goods auctions
- Airport lost property auctions
Find super-cheap local bargains
Whether they're designer sofas, dishwashers, Wiis or children's books, sellers on eBay often specify items must be collected in person. As this often means fewer bids, there are bargains to be had.Our free tool locates them for you. Tell the Local eBay Deals Mapper your postcode, how far you're prepared to schlep and it maps gems nearby.
Plus, you wanted it, so we built an Android Local eBay Deals app. Let it pinpoint your location, tell it how far you'll travel and it shows nearby gems.
02
use Spelling mistayke spotters
Many people can't spell, so they mistype their eBay entries. This English teacher's nightmare is a bargain hunter's dream. Wrongly-spelled products attract fewer bids because many people miss them.A few specialist search sites take advantage of this. They trawl eBay for all possible spelling mistake combinations. These include Fatfingers, Baycrazy, Goofbid and BargainChecker.
03
tool to bag no-bid items
Often sellers start auctions at 99p, hoping a bidding war will erupt. Many items go unspotted, staying at this super-low price. Lastminute Auction hunts for eBay auctions due to finish within an hour but which still cost under £1. Tick the Union Jack for UK sales.Double-check delivery charges, as some sellers hope to recoup costs by charging a little extra (though eBay's now set maximum delivery charges for many categories).
04
set alerts for rare items
If you want something very specific or hard to track down, set a 'favourite search' and eBay will email each time a seller lists your desired item. This is fab if you like buying on eBay, but don't spend your life hunched over the site.Simply type a product in eBay's search bar, such as "Star Wars Lego Millennium Falcon", and click 'save search'. Be as specific as possible for the most accurate results. Then, when someone clears out the loft and lists one, an email pops into your inbox.
Don't assume ebay's cheapest
Many people assume that if it's on eBay*, it's automatically cheap, but this isn't always the case. With a few basic checks, it's easy to spot if you're really getting a bargain.Use shopbots (shopping robots) that whizz to scores of internet retailers to find the cheapest price. Our MegaShopBot.com tool auto-searches the best of these for each category.
The same rule applies when buying second-hand gear. Check the used marketplace on Amazon* - you may even get it for free on Freecycle or Freegle.
06
Check the eBay going rate
There's a quick way to glean an eBay product's market value. Fill in the search box and tick 'completed items' on the left-hand grey bar. It'll come up with a list of prices similar auctions have already fetched. Then sort by "Price: lowest first".If the price is red, it means no one bought it. Green means it sold – don't pay more than the average.
07
don't pay for info
Since August 2005, eBay has banned the selling of intangible items, including recipes, dieting advice and, bizarrely, spells and spirits. Yet some Del Boy types still sell web addresses as "exclusive info/tools of great interest".Other sellers flog mobile phone Sim unlocking codes for as much as £10, when you can do this for nowt (see Mobile Phone Unlocking).
To our great distaste, links to this site have been 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.
08
Win auctions with sniping tools
Spotted something you want to buy? The last thing you should 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 the deadline, leaving no time for others to fight back.
Sniping websites automatically bid on your behalf, usually in the last 10ish seconds. Simply sign up, enter an eBay* item number and the maximum price you're willing to pay. This also stops you getting carried away in the heat of a last minute bidding war.For a free auction sniper, try Goofbid.com (formerly known as Goofbay) though it can be temperamental – some MoneySavers have missed out on items.
A BIG warning...
You need to give sniping 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 same password for eBay as you do for other accounts, such as banks or email.
09
trick to manipulate 'best offers'
Some sellers specify 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.There's a loophole to see which prices they've already accepted, and lower your best offer accordingly, as sellers often sell the same item repeatedly.
Click 'advanced' search, tell it what you want, and tick to show only 'best offer' items. Once you've found a product that accepts offers, click the seller's username, then 'items for sale', then 'completed items'.
It should show all the items that seller's already sold (price will be in green). Look at the items that say best offer, and bingo - you should be able to see the lowest price they accepted. This trick won't work if the seller sets their best offer listings to be private.
10
Haggling on eBay pays off
There's nothing wrong with asking for a discount, even if the listing doesn't show the 'make offer' logo. Haggling works best on buy-it-now listings, or auctions with a high start price and no bids.To contact the seller, click 'ask a question'. If you're polite and charming, you'll get further. Blunt requests such as "hi, will u take 50p" are usually a mistake. They annoy the seller, and a discount is at their discretion.
Once you've clinched the deal, keep the transaction within eBay – just ask the seller to add (or change) a buy-it-now price. For 20 haggling tips for success beyond the web, see the High Street Haggling guide.
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