Ebay Buying Secrets Feedback/Discussion

jackiechan_3

woodsy21 wrote: »

There is a great webiste I came across called http://www.bargaintrawer.com which seaches for popular items on Ebay.....so you know you are buying the "in things" that people desire.

That's supposed to be bargaintrawler.com right? I prefer http://ebay.omani.ac/shopping/most_popular_items/UK/ which lets you choose more categories. Also, a great way to spot bargains is using their realtime spy tool: http://ebay.omani.ac/spy/UK/ Lots of items with no bids...

flossyann

moneypooh wrote: »

ebay buying tip: learn to spell badly! don't just look for something with the correct spelling try mis-spelling and you'll grab a bargain!

you could always use this website..

www.fatfingers.co.uk

if you key in what you are looking for on ebay it will redirect you there and automatically search for all associated mis-spellings of that item!

and then, i guess it's up to you and your concience if you email the sellers...

jenniewb

Hs fatfingers stopped working or something? it was fine about 3 weeks ago (last time I tried it) but now it just says "service unavailable" on both the links and when I type it into Google and go vai there.

I have also tried typing in the address with no luck.

Anyone else know a similar site? I need to check out how many people are watching an item- does anyone know other sites to use?

cyberbob

Try GOOFBAY

tronator

Hi everyone,

I'm a bit surprised that nobody mentioned Bid-O-Matic yet. It's a free sniping tool and runs on your own PC. I'd feel a bit uncomfortable to share my Ebay login with a 3rd party.

BOM has such useful functions like creating groups. Let's say you want to buy one piece of a particular item and there are a few auctions. You insert all the auctions into the software, assign a group to it and specify how many you want to buy. As soon as you win the required amount of auctions all other auctions in this group will be cancelled.

Another tip no-one else mentioned. Never bid whole pounds. Always bid a few pence more e.g. £5.11 instead of £5.00. This way you'll outbid someone who bid exactly £5 if the current price is more than one bidding step lower than £5. I won quite a few auctions using this trick.

cyberbob

tronator wrote: »

Another tip no-one else mentioned. Never bid whole pounds. Always bid a few pence more e.g. £5.11 instead of £5.00. This way you'll outbid someone who bid exactly £5 if the current price is more than one bidding step lower than £5. I won quite a few auctions using this trick.

Doesn't always work as you need to make sure you are a full bidding increment above the last bid. If not strange as it seems the lower bid will win.

tronator

cyberbob wrote: »

Doesn't always work as you need to make sure you are a full bidding increment above the last bid. If not strange as it seems the lower bid will win.

Exactly, that's what I wrote.

tronator wrote: »

This way you'll outbid someone who bid exactly £5 if the current price is more than one bidding step lower than £5.

But it's worth trying. Most people tent to bid whole amounts. If you would not win the auction with £5.11 then you had not won it with £5 too.

But the most important thing still is bidding in the last few seconds of the auctions.

Alan_Kemp

I've found that reading sellers' feedback gives a lot more clues to quality than just Positive or Negative (and % Positive is hardly any clue at all, especially from large volume sellers, where dozens of rip-offs can be buried amongst satisfactory sales, and still leave the seller with, say, 99% Positive).
To read Feedback, click on the number (in brackets) after the seller's name. It used to say 'See detailed Feedback', but this has now gone.
Look out for buyers saying good things about the product, and not just vague 'Good service' , or 'Fine', which may mean they weren't very pleased... Really happy buyers tend to write a lot, so just the look of a page of Feedback can give a clue.
The very best clue (and funny too), is when sellers explode at negative feedback. One awful seller who sells massively over-priced 'rare' books, responded to a Negative + very restrained criticism with: "THIS MAN IS A CHEAT AND A LIAR!" Other negatives got a similar response. Even in the case straight seller, things can go wrong, so it's important to know that they can deal with it reasonably.
I've bought lots on eBay (including my car), and with care it's possible to get a good picture of the person you're buying from. If you don't like them, don't buy!
Hope this is useful.

Alan

Philycheesesteak

Have many people got items free of charge on Ebay/Amazon when moaning about the item?
(I know I have, 1 because it was tat, 1 damaged, 1 took forever to arrive).

All because I threatened to give bad feedback...

Am I the only one? (They've all been company sellers rather than individuals)

cyberbob

What is this drag threads up from the dead day!