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Buying on Ebay for Dummies



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pause




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Apr 06 2014, 7:03 am
I have never bought anything on Ebay. What do I need to know before posting a bid?
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strawberry cola




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Apr 06 2014, 10:04 am
Check the seller's feedback and check out the shipping charges.
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pause




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Apr 06 2014, 11:26 am
Anything else that's important to know? Maybe regarding payments...?

An item is on auction for 25 plus 50 shipping. That makes sense since it's a large bulky item. Is that a problem? I don't plan on returning the item, but I'm thinking like just in case...
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Mevater




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Apr 13 2014, 7:29 am
pause wrote:
Anything else that's important to know? Maybe regarding payments...?

An item is on auction for 25 plus 50 shipping. That makes sense since it's a large bulky item. Is that a problem? I don't plan on returning the item, but I'm thinking like just in case...
If its an electronics purchase, especially a bulky item thats difficuly to ship back, I wouldnt buy on Ebay unless theyre giving it away. You need customer serv/warranty, etc and I buy a lot on Ebay, but small items that are easy to return and are unlikely to need a warranty.
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pause




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Apr 13 2014, 7:43 pm
No, it's not an electronics item, and by now the bid is past 60 so I'm out of it anyway Sad

So would you never buy electronics on ebay? or would you never buy bulky items?
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mandr




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Apr 14 2014, 8:11 am
Sometimes ebay sellers charge a small amount for an item but a HUGE amount for shipping. This way if you're not happy with the item, they'll say "ok we'll refund your money" but then of course they don't refund the shipping, and all you get back is 99 cents and not the $20 shipping charge.

You can bid more than one time on an item, btw. So if you're outbid, you can further bid if you're still interested in that item.

I've bought many, many stuff from ebay over the years but most are smallish items like scrapbook supplies, clothing, cell phone accessories, books, etc.
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pause




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Apr 14 2014, 8:36 am
I was wondering about clothing: don't you feel weird wearing some stranger's things? What kind of clothes would you buy and what would you not?
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mandr




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Apr 14 2014, 8:39 am
pause wrote:
I was wondering about clothing: don't you feel weird wearing someone else's things? What kind of clothes would you buy and what would you not?

I don't buy used clothing. I buy stuff with the tags still attached. I've also sold new clothing. Like once I got GAP kids hoodies for reallly cheap (like $5) so I bought a few and sold them on eBay for profit. Usually if someone is selling multiple quantities of an item, you can be pretty sure it's not worn. I've bought PJs, polos, scarves, etc.
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pause




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Apr 14 2014, 8:44 am
mandr wrote:
I don't buy used clothing. I buy stuff with the tags still attached. I've also sold new clothing. Like once I got GAP kids hoodies for reallly cheap (like $5) so I bought a few and sold them on eBay for profit. Usually if someone is selling multiple quantities of an item, you can be pretty sure it's not worn. I've bought PJs, polos, scarves, etc.

I get it.
Thanks!
Any other tips?
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mandr




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Apr 14 2014, 8:45 am
pause wrote:
I get it.
Thanks!
Any other tips?

Depends on what kind of item you're purchasing. What is it that you're interested in?
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musicmom




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Apr 14 2014, 9:19 am
Bid high the last five minutes and no one will have a chance to outbid you that fast, so you will get the item for relatively low cost. If you bid too early, someone else could outbid you the last second!
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mandr




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Apr 14 2014, 9:30 am
musicmom wrote:
Bid high the last five minutes and no one will have a chance to outbid you that fast, so you will get the item for relatively low cost. If you bid too early, someone else could outbid you the last second!

If you really, really, really want a certain item and you see lots of people bid on it, go to a site that does automatic bidding for you (like Auction Sniper) - they'll bid the last millisecond for you and you can hopefully win the item.
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pause




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Apr 14 2014, 9:56 am
mandr wrote:
If you really, really, really want a certain item and you see lots of people bid on it, go to a site that does automatic bidding for you (like Auction Sniper) - they'll bid the last millisecond for you and you can hopefully win the item.

I thought ebay does automatic bidding. They asked me for my max bid. I also noticed that when I bid, it automatically upped the offer by someone else. Isn't that automatic bidding?
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mandr




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Apr 14 2014, 10:02 am
pause wrote:
I thought ebay does automatic bidding. They asked me for my max bid. I also noticed that when I bid, it automatically upped the offer by someone else. Isn't that automatic bidding?

Yes. You can say, "Ebay, bid for me until $10" and they'll take care of it up to that amount. However, let's say you don't have a max amount (like you are willing to pay around a certain amount but don't have a definite amount) and it's a popular item with lots of bids on it and everyone keep upping their bids, and using automatic bids. So ebay shuts the bidding counter at a certain second, and you keep hitting refresh and the last amount you see is $15 but then when the item is sold you see it sold for $20. So how did that happen? The clock already stopped. That's how the sniper works - it works AFTER it is humanely possible to bid - the computer is faster than a person...
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yogabird




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Apr 16 2014, 8:45 pm
mandr wrote:
Yes. You can say, "Ebay, bid for me until $10" and they'll take care of it up to that amount. However, let's say you don't have a max amount (like you are willing to pay around a certain amount but don't have a definite amount) and it's a popular item with lots of bids on it and everyone keep upping their bids, and using automatic bids. So ebay shuts the bidding counter at a certain second, and you keep hitting refresh and the last amount you see is $15 but then when the item is sold you see it sold for $20. So how did that happen? The clock already stopped. That's how the sniper works - it works AFTER it is humanely possible to bid - the computer is faster than a person...

Not quite sure I get this explanation, but yeah, I've been outbid SO many times in the last second, and it's SO disappointing, and I never quite get how it happened. And this doesn't only happen with automatic bidding. I've entered bids within the last 5-10 seconds, and been outbid.

What works for me: don't bid too early, it just drives the prices up. beware of sellers bidding on their own item under a different username to drive prices up. bid in small increments in the last few minutes to give other bidders the impression that you're not really going to go up by a large amount, and then in the last few seconds, bid a substantially larger amount. have someone else bid under different logins in the last few seconds along with you to raise the odds that no one will be able to outbid you in the last millisecond. don't get caught up in the competition and let yourself bid way more than you originally intended to just because you "don't want to let it get away..."

And yeah, I always filter my clothing searches (and most other items) to NWT (new with tags) or NIB (new in box). I once won something marked NWOT (new without tags) and although it did look perfectly new, I had this uncomfortable feeling about it, because you can never really know...
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mandr




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Apr 17 2014, 8:03 am
yogabird wrote:
I once won something marked NWOT (new without tags) and although it did look perfectly new, I had this uncomfortable feeling about it, because you can never really know...

If the item was something like underwear, yeah. But eBay can be great for buying stuff that's normally expensive for cheap, just because it doesn't have a tag or was used. Like a designer hoodie, for example, that you can wash and you anyway don't wear it directly on the skin.
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