Six easy tips for getting the best price for anything on eBay

Research the Internet first

Sometimes people seem to forget that eBay is not the only place to buy on the Internet. If you are interested in paying the best possible price for any item it is worth your while to first research other marketplaces like Yahoo, Froogle and even just "Googling It".

Research like this will give you an accurate idea of the avarage market value of the item you are looking for and you may even bag a bargain somewhere. Knowing the retail price also gives you an idea of what the item is worth second hand.

Decide the maximum price you are willing to pay for the item.

Too many newcomers to eBay fall into the trap of competition. Everyday people pay much more for items than these items actually are worth and lose out just because of getting involved in petty bidding wars. This is good for sellers ( most welcome a bidding frenzy and would actively try to induce one) and for eBay. As a buyer it only means losing cash that could have been saved.

Thr trick is to decide how much you are willing to pay and always stick with that price, no matter what. Unless the item you are looking for is extremely rare it is most likely that the same exact item will be on sale on eBay the same day.

Used advanced search techniques.

Using special eBay search commands and the eBay advanced search menu will speed up the proccess of finding the exact item you are looking for. These tools are provided by eBay and should be used to narrow down the items you search by setting parameters before searching. These parameters can be setting price limits and geographical areas to search.

You can even look at all the completed items on eBay, a great help for determining how much the items are actually selling for on eBay. You can learn more about these functions at www.auction-buying-tips.com

Look for bad auctions

A simple tip for finding low priced items on eBay is to look for bad quality listings or items listed in the wrong categories. The simple reasoning behind this strategy is that firstly not a lot of people will find the item if it is listed in the wrong category, and if they do they will most likely not be interested in the item. These badly done listings (incorrectly spelled, no descriptive keywords) do not get enough exposure and will be overlooked by the masses of buyers on eBay. This means less competing buyers which results in lower final prices.

Once you have found an item with low strarting bid wait till the last moment to bid or use a sniping service.

Never ever bid early in an auction.

The advantages of bidding early are well known by expert eBay buyers, that is, there are none.

Bidding early raises the final price and invites competion from other buyers. You need to keep your interest below the radar of other buyers and only bid in the last minute by giving your maximum bid to eBay only once. A good way of doing this is by hiring a sniping service to snipe the item for you. The sniping or bidding service will use dedicated high speed servers and advanced software to place your maximum bid right in the last few seconds of the auction.

There are many sniping services available that offer free snipes to start off with. Learn more strategies for using these services at www.auction-buying-tips.com .

Sit back and relax

After you have given your maximum bid or set up a snipe on your item, sit back and relax with the knowledge that have done your homework and you will get the item at the price you intended. If you do not win the auction you at least avoided losing money by paying too much.

Learn more about these terms and strategies to greatly enhance your eBay buying and selling experience. Visit http://www.auction-buying-tips.com

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