Money saving tricks when shopping on eBay

eBay is a known treasure trove for good buys and discounted items. Is it still possible to save money shopping on eBay? And the answer is a resounding YES! Here are some quick hacks for you to check out.

Capitalize on 99p items

Some sellers set 99p as the minimum bid hoping that it will snowball and hit a very high price for the item. However, this strategy backfires sometimes and some buyers stay away from such items. Some sites troll eBay and look for items that cost around USD 1 or auctions that are about to end with no bids. If you bid on these items, make sure you check the shipping fees as some sellers try to recoup their losses by charging more for this.

 

Look for local bargains

Another great way to find great items is to look for items marked or tagged as “collection only.” These are items that are considered large or bulky. Since they are tagged as “collection only” not many buyers check them out. Just choose this option when you click on advanced search. When you do get the winning bid and you are about to pick up the item, be safe and be smart. Don’t go alone and make sure people know where you are going.

 

Check out the going rate for an item

Don’t have any idea how much to bid for an item? Afraid that it might be too high? You can easily check out the going rate for it by using the advanced search settings. Look for “sold listings” and filter it by price. When you do, you will see a list of items and the winning bids. That should help you set your minimum and maximum bids for an item.

 

Take advantage of spelling errors

Some items don’t get as many bids because of spelling mistakes. You can use websites to identify misspelling combinations to find those treasures on eBay. Playstation, for example, may be misspelled as Playsation, Plastation, or Playstaion. And there were over 400 listings for it!

 

Benefit from other mistakes

Aside from misspellings, some sellers do not post brand names so they don’t get a lot of bids. To get all the details, send the seller a private message instead of asking through the thread. You don’t want others to find out about it, in case it turns out to be a winner. Right?

 

Another seller error you can take advantage of is the seller setting a crazy low price for an item. When you place your bid, sellers cannot edit the price anymore. So it is a win for you.