New to eBay? Need Some Sure-Fire eBay Strategies?

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New to eBay? Need Some Sure-Fire eBay Strategies?

If you came to this page, it's because you're looking for some great eBay strategies and eBay secrets.

While I write these eBay secrets for a newcomer to eBay, veteran eBay users can also benefit from some of the information here.

eBay Strategy #1- Register and sign in to get the best searches.

while you can browse what is for sale on eBay without registering, unless you are a registered user and have signed in, you cannot participate in the auctions nor have access to the better searches.

Registering on eBay only takes a moment and is totally secure. You don't have to give any information concerning money or accounts. You can even pay for the auction items you win by traditional offline methods if you don't want to give out any credit card information online.

To register on eBay:

Click here so you can enter the exciting online auction world!

eBay strategy #2- Gain initial experience by bidding on and trying to win a few inexpensive items.

There are likely things for sale on eBay that you were going to buy anyways. (For example, used CD's are very inexpensive. People also buy and sell coupons for very little money.) By bidding on and winning a few auctions, you will learn how the system works. That way you'll be more comfortable and experienced when bidding on more costly items or auctions that you really want to win.

This eBay strategy also has another important facet. By winning auctions, you will begin building your positive feedback score.

As an eBay newcomer, you will have no feedback. There will be a "0" for no feedback attached to your bids.

One of the main reasons the eBay works as well as it does is the "community". eBay is self-policed. If someone is unscrupulous of dishonest, they will receive negative feedback. That will lead to people not accepting their bids, people not bidding on their offerings, and eBay might even ban them.

When you are interested in an item, before bidding, look at the right side of the auction listing for the box that says "Seller information".

Next to their eBay name, there is a number. That is their feedback score. Click on it. If they have a high score and a high feedback percentage (the percent of positive comments), then you can be confident that this is an honest seller. If you buy from them and have problems, you could give them negative feedback and get eBay involved to help resolve your dispute. No one lasts on eBay with poor feedback.

Some sellers that won't accept bids from people with a zero feedback score. This usually is the result of having had problem with an eBay rookie in the past.

Therefore, this eBay strategy is to get out there, have some fun, learn the system by bidding and winning some auctions and get your feedback score above zero.

This leads into our next eBay strategy...

eBay Strategy #3- Gain eBay experience by buying before you sell anything.

Before you consider cleaning out your closets by selling on eBay, buy some things there first. By bidding and winning some auctions first, you'll learn a lot about how the system works. More importantly, you'll build some positive feedback. Your feedback score counts for both buying and selling.

As I mentioned in eBay strategy #2, people can bid with confidence if the seller has a good feedback score. If you are trying to sell anything on eBay and have a feedback score of zero, people will be hesitant to place bids on your item. If they do, they will likely bid less that they would have otherwise.

eBay strategy #4- Always search items using the title and description.

Here's why this eBay strategy can save you lots of money:

People sometimes make mistakes with spelling or the categories in which they list their auction items. That means that most people won't find their auction listing. The result is that their item will likely go unnoticed. It either won't sell at all or it will go for a much lower price than it ordinarily would. This translates to a bargain for you.

To search for title and description, you have to use a search other than the one you find on the eBay home page.

Here's how you implement this eBay strategy:

At the top of all eBay pages, next to the eBay logo, there is a tool bar with boxes for: Buy, Sell, My eBay, Community and Help. Find that and click on "Buy".

On the new page, there is a search box on the left (don't use the one on the right- you can't do this with that one), type in the item you want to search for in this box. Then, put a check in the little box below that says "search title and description".

This eBay strategy will help you find many items that others won't.

eBay strategy #5- Look for auctions that end at unusual times.

Many eBay sellers believe that auctions will end with the highest bids if they end them on Sunday evenings.

The theory is that there are the most people home then and are more shoppers on eBay than other times of the week. The default way auctions are sorted in the searches is by those ending soonest (see eBay strategy #7). That puts many items in a category all with similar ending times.

As you search the auction listings, take note of when they close.

If you are awake at an unusual hour, see what auctions are ending shortly. You will likely find some unnoticed items about to end.

This translates into good deals for you.

I recently bought a slightly used item with a retail value of $500 for just $13! I found it because of a combination of this eBay strategy and eBay strategy #4.

The item wasn't listed well so it didn't turn up in the main search. I found it searching with tile and description. Then I noticed that it ended early on New Year's morning, not a common time for people to be on eBay. That's I waited until then, put my bid in and won!

Here's how auctions end up finishing at unusual times: when the auction is listed, the auction begins immediately after the listing is submitted. The auction will then end at that same time, the number of days later (that the seller specifies for the auction).

If an insomniac lists an auction in the middle of the night, it will also end in the middle of the night. That auction will likely end with lower bids if any at all.

This leads me to the next eBay strategy...

eBay strategy #6 - If you sell anything on eBay, have your auction end at a time that makes sense for the item.

What I mean by that is if you are selling something that a business might buy, Then have the auction end at a time that someone will be at work and able to bid.

If you have a common item, you might want to use the strategy of having it end on a Sunday evening, at a time that you might catch the most people at home in the four U.S. time zones. Sometime around 10-11 PM Eastern time. That shouldn't be too late for East Coast people, and the West coast people might be done with dinner and online.

Try to stay away from auctions ending on holidays. The exception to this is that for some reason, there is a lot of eBay activity on Christmas night. Either people spending Christmas gift money or trying to find a gift they didn't get.

eBay strategy #7- Look for low priced items that haven't been noticed by others.

When you search for items, the default way they are presented is by the ones ending the soonest. Auctions ending later are shown later.

Above the top of listing, on the left, there is a sort by drop-down menu.

You can sort your search results by a variety of ways using this drop-down menu.

One of these is "price, lowest first".

If the item you searched for has pages and pages of listings, most eBay shoppers won't look through all the entries.There may be an item that is very low priced many pages down when using the usual "ending soonest" presentation.

By sorting with "price, lowest first" you can find the low priced ones before many other shoppers. Others buyers who don't know about this feature may not have the patience or interest to go through all the listings to find this low priced buried many pages back.

eBay strategy #8 - Do your homework.

It is easy to get carried away on eBay because so many things look like terrific bargains. Many times they are, but it is possible to comparison shop, even on eBay. That way you will be an informed bidder.

How?

This little eBay strategy is little known. First, you must be a registered user and signed in to take advantage of this search.

If you need to register,

Click here to register with eBay.

Now that you are signed in, search for an item using title and description as described in eBay strategy #4. Then when you are looking at the search results, scroll down the page a little bit. On the left side, you'll see a box titled "Search Options". Under there, you can refine you search.

To learn the eBay market rate for similar items from auctions that have ended, check the box that is entitled "Completed listings". Then click on the box below that labeled "Show Items". This will show you auctions for these items that have ended in the last 15 days.

This will tell you many things:

• What these items have sold for in the past
• How rare or common on eBay the item you are looking at might be.
• Whether the item you are considering bidding on had been up for auction previously and not sold. You can see if the seller changed anything like the minimum bid amount or reserve price from the previous auction where it did not sell.
• If the seller has many of the same items in several auctions

The knowledge that you gain from this eBay strategy could help you decide how much you are willing to pay for an item.

eBay strategy #9- Let the computer bid for you.

If you cannot be online and bidding at the auction ending time, you still have a chance at preventing someone from outbidding you by using the "maximum bid" feature.

Basically, it allows you to secretly and privately place a current bid on an item, and then also designate the maximum amount that you are willing to pay for the item. That way, if someone comes along and outbids you, the computer will automatically re-bid for you just above that person's bid. If they bid again, and it is still below you designated maximum bid, it will again place a bid just above the current high bid.

Your maximum amount is never reached unless someone else places a bid for a higher amount. eBay will automatically send you email updates of the status of an item that you have bid on.

Before you use this handy feature, please consult the online eBay help to make sure that you completely understand the system. The first few times you use this, it's a little scary placing a current low bid at the same time that you place a much higher maximum bid.

It is important to realize that no one else will ever know what your maximum bid is unless it is exceeded by another bidder. Also, realize that you can win the auction for an amount less than your maximum bid if no one else outbids that amount.

eBay strategy #10- Win auctions by bidding odd amounts.

I have won several auctions by out bidding another bidder by just a few cents. In eBay, there are intervals that the bids can go depending on the current price. That is well explained in the online help. As you bid, it tells you what the next minimum bid can be. That number is based on the bid interval, which depends on the current price.

You can bid an odd amount, for example, rather than bidding $20, bid $20.53. This is especially helpful when using the maximum bid feature as described in eBay strategy #9.

It is a good idea to use this eBay strategy using the maximum bid feature just prior to the auction ending. That way, you won't tip your hand to any of the other bidders.

I recently won an auction for a laptop. I got it for a great price and beat out another bidder by only $0.47! Apparently the next higher bidder didn't know this eBay strategy. It was a disappointing way for that person to learn this eBay secret.

eBay strategy #11- Discreetly watch an auction.

After you register and sign in on eBay, you can monitor an auction while you are deciding whether or not to participate in it.

If you need to register on eBay, you can do it right here:

Click here to register with eBay.

If you want to watch an auction, look for the "Watch this item in My eBay" link at the top right-hand corner of the listing. Click on that. Now, on your "my eBay" page, it will keep you appraised of the status of that auction.

If you are a bidder in any auction, you automatically receive emails confirming your bid, telling you if you have been outbid, and advising you when the auction is over.

eBay strategy #12 Learn how to be a sniper.

This is an eBay strategy that is a sure-fire way to win an auction. The only reason you wouldn't win using this eBay strategy is if someone else is doing the same thing at the same time as you or if someone has placed a maximum bid that is above the highest amount that you want to place.

This is a hard-core, "you really want to win this one" eBay strategy. It will likely frustrate the person who had been sitting comfortably with the highest bid and thought that they would win the auction. you'll frustrate them because you are going to come in at the last moment and out-bid them. They will have no time to respond before the auction closes, and you'll win.

This eBay strategy is perfectly allowable and within the auction rules. You can even pay services to do it for you, but I'm going to teach you this eBay strategy now:

This will only work if you are able to be online at the time the auction ends.

1. You'll need to set a timer or alarm to go off just before the auction ends. How long before it ends? Some sources say 20 seconds, others say 20-40 seconds. The reason for this is that there is a slight delay of about 20 seconds for a bid to be processed.

You can set your timing device with official eBay time by looking on the page of the item you are interested in. It gives the time to the second that the auction closes.

As the closing time approaches, you can refresh or reload (click on the refresh icon up by the forward and back arrows on your browser's toolbar) the page and it will tell you how long before the auction closes. Keep refreshing the page until the time changes and you can set your timer accurately.

In the final minutes of the auction, it even tells how many minutes and seconds remaining. Remember you want to act 20- 40 seconds before the ending time.

2. Open another browser window, sign into eBay and look at the same auction in that window. Now you will have two browser windows open to the same auction item.

3.In one of the windows, go to the place where you submit a bid. Put in the highest bid that you are willing to pay. Remember, (eBay strategy # 9 and #10) you don't have to pay that amount unless someone else has a maximum bid almost that high also. Then press the "review bid" button.

4. Occasionally reload or refresh the browser window that is just looking at the auction item to see if anyone else is bidding at the last minute and how much time is left.

5. DO NOT press the "Place Bid" button until 20-40 seconds before the auction closes.

Doing this should give you the chance to place the last bid before the auction ends. even if anyone else is watching, they likely won't have a chance to place a bid manually higher than yours.

eBay strategy #13 Spend some time using eBay's online help and tips.

They give a lot of useful information.

I hope that these eBay strategies and eBay secrets will enable you to have lots of fun and success on eBay.

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