Tis the eCommerce Season for Buying and Selling on eBay
With Black Friday behind us, we can push up our sleeves and get serious about buying and selling on eBay. Now is the time to search for the sales and make some extra cash for the Holidays and have some spending money after the Holidays too!
As the momentum is picking up with sales at eBay it will now continue on through February. Many times over my 13 years of selling on eBay, I’ve made more money in January than any other month. But again it would depend on thy type of stock I have for selling. I’ve been mostly what I call “A treasure hunt seller” selling used items and collectibles found at garage sales, flea markets and through wholesale discounts. My theory has been that January is a busy time because:
- • People are snowed in
- • Christmas Bonus Money to spend
- • New computers
- • Returns turned into spending cash
Then there are even a few lucky souls that have extra cash because they didn’t spend it all on Christmas so now they can spend it on themselves and seek out those collectibles that they love to own!
If you’ve never sold on eBay before or have only sold a bit, now is the time to take it seriously and get listing a few items. I’ve always tried to schedule my listings up to the week before Christmas and then starting again the day after Christmas with especially heavy listings through January.
Search through the house and list those collectibles that you may be tired of looking at or would just like to turn items into cash rather than leave them to the kids. Or if you like you could leave them to the kids so that they can sell them on eBay one day!
Shopping on eBay can be challenging. Finding a great deal at low prices is most everyone’s goal. I’d like to share a few shopping tips.
- • Pay attention to feedback
When you do find that item, spend some time taking a good look at the seller’s feedback. Sometimes feedback can be deceiving so I find it to be the best policy to go a bit deeper into just the numbers. When viewing their feedback, you can also view “Feedback Left for others” and by looking at this, you will get an idea what kind of a seller they are. Do they leave friendly feedback? Do they leave customized feedback? In my opinion, I can generally tell what kind of a seller I want to deal with that is more personable then “robot like” by the feedback they leave. Fraudsters will tend to leave the same standard feedback over and over because they are in a hurry to only grow their feedback rather than leave quality feedback comments.
- • Search lowest price
When you put a few key words into the eBay search bar, it automatically shows you the “Best Match” type of search. I prefer to search by “Lowest Price First” rather than the best match. To do this you will notice after the search results come up, to the right of the page just above your searched items, there is a drop down bar called: Sort By. Click on the arrow and view all the options for sorting. I like to use: Price + Shipping Lowest Price First. This system will then sort all of the results showing me the best deals at the top. This is a great time saver when there are a lot of listings to sort through. Another tip for searching strategies is to try different keywords if too many random items are showing up.
- • Search ending soonest
If I need an item fast, or prefer an auction listing I will also sort the list to show me the items ending soonest. This will allow me to place bids and sometimes I can find an item that had no bids which would allow me to get a great deal for a last minute shopping moment.
- • Search eBay Stores
Never forget to check out the deals in the eBay stores. These items can be found by scrolling to the bottom of the page of each search you do. Notice the eBay store sellers with items listed and many of them allow you to make an offer. This will give you another opportunity to “score” a great item at a great price!
As I stated that shopping on eBay can be challenging, you can now understand what I mean with so many options. But, shopping on eBay can be fun! There is nothing like a great challenge to get you going and finding the best deal at a low price.
The final tip I can give you is to stay “Jolly” during this time. Be kind to those eBay buyers and sellers that enter your internet path. Leave good feedback and appreciate the fact that you can be a part of the world’s largest online marketplace.
Happy Holidays!
2 Comments
Sarah13 says:
As far as eBay and deals go, you can possibly use a seller's inability to spell to your advantage to get some good deals. Sites like ebuyersedge.com (typojoe.com, etc) will search eBay for common misspellings of keywords you enter.
Most interested buyers will never see these misspelled listings, reducing the competition and most likely ending price.
Ebuyersedge also gives you the option of saving your favorite searches, then sending you an email when an item is listed matching one your saved searches, giving you a jump on other potential buyers.
This works best with Buy It Now's, but is also effective with auctions.
Danna Crawford says:
Thanks for sharing this info! I have found some great deals by searching for items using the search bars in eBay and have resold items making a nice little profit at times too! Great stuff!
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