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Grab Your Dream UK Home On The Cheap - Property Auctions
Did you know that every year thousands of UK properties are sold at significantly below market value? The majority of these properties are released through property auctions where regular savings of between 10% to 40% are available to market...
How to Create the Best Title for your eBay Auction
The auction title you use is vital, and you only have 55 characters to play with.
In these 55 characters you have include strong keywords to make sure you are returned in as many relevant searches as possible. Plus you want to persuade...
Should You Run Auctions On Other Sites Besides Ebay?
eBay doesn't have very many competitors, and the ones that there are remain small by comparison - that's part of what makes eBay so powerful for niche items. If you're selling more common things, though, you might like to list auctions on other...
The Auction Phenomenon
Online Auctions such as eBay have really grown in popularity over the past few years. And it's easy to understand why. From a buyers perspective when you browse eBay you can find just about anything you might be looking for. From collectable to...
Tips For Managing Multiple Ebay Auctions.
It can be very time-consuming to keep your auctions ticking
along, especially if you have hundreds listed at a time. Don't
despair, though: there are a few things you can do to take the
weight off you.
Use My eBay.
If you want a broad...
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Expert Ebaying: 5 Secrets to Saving Big on Auction Sites
In more than two years of selling on Ebay there's one
frustration I hear from shoppers more than anything else: "I got
outbid at the last second!" If you're relatively new to the
online auction world you're probably sick of bidding wars,
sketchy sellers, and wading through illegible blocks of tiny
print to find an item description. Before you give up and go
back to paying retail prices at Amazon, consider that with the
right tools and techniques you can often reduce the price you
pay for an item by over 50% by buying from online auction
sellers. This article will equip you with the secret techniques
Ebay doesn't want you to know.
Why So Cheap?
Many people think that anything you can buy for half the retail
price must be counterfeit or stolen. But consider that most of
what you pay a large retail or web store is for
overhead: renting commercial space, web site maintenance and
design, employees, advertising, and so on. Many products are
sold for more than double their cost and still barely cover
these expenses!
In contrast, Ebay sellers operate small businesses with few or
no employees and many sellers work out of a home office with no
overhead at all. This means they can sell to you for less and
still make money. Major retail stores build a reputation through
expensive advertising and charge you higher prices to pay for
it. Ebay's feedback system provides the same security by letting
you gauge the seller's reliability with no extra cost.
The deals are out there, so how to you find them?
Tip #1: Don't Bid, Snipe!
Bidding at the last second is called "sniping." This is why you
got outbid 2 seconds from the end that time you stayed up until
1 AM to babysit an auction you really wanted to win. Many people
will check a listing periodically, rely on Ebay's smart bidding,
or wait for Ebay's outbid-notices and then enter a new bid.
Usually these people lose to last-minute bidders or get into
bidding wars and pay too much.
Planning your schedule around an auction can be tedious and
impractical. That's why most experienced "Ebayers" use sniping
tools like Auction
Stealer to place bids for them. These tools let you schedule
a bid to be placed 1-20 seconds before the auction's end,
greatly increasing your chances of winning and removing the risk
that you'll forget or be otherwise occupied (or asleep) when the
auction ends.
Set up your snipe 12-24 hours before the auction ends so you
have some idea what the current price is. Remember that prices
sometimes double in the last 12 hours because the auction is at
the top of search results. For items you really want, be sure to
set your snipe at the absolute maximum you're willing to pay -
you won't have time to react to other people's bids! Remember
that Ebay bidding rules still apply - Ebay will place bids up to
your competitor's maximum even if your bid is entered in the
last second of the auction, so make sure your maximum is higher.
Sniping tools do require access to your Ebay ID and password in
order to place your bid, so be sure to thoroughly research a
tool before creating an account. Many tools let you do a few
snipes a week for free but place your bids in the last 10-30
seconds, instead of 1-10. This means that a paying subscriber
would get the chance to outbid you. If you do a lot of shopping
or bid on highly competitive items, a subscription will quickly
pay for itself.
Tip #2: Timing Matters
Even if you use a sniping tool, it still matters when the
auction ends. Since the majority of bidders don't snipe, you'll
have less competition on the late-night, early-morning, and
weekday auctions. Less competition means lower final price and a
better chance of winning. Sort your search results by "Time
Left" or "End Date." You can customize your display to show the
actual ending date and time rather than the time remaining.
This makes it easier to identify listings that are ending
during off-peak hours.
Focus on sellers that only ship to your home country, or others
in similar time zones. If you're competing with people from all
over the world, it doesn't matter when the auction ends because
it's always peak shopping somewhere.
Tip #3: Sorting is Your Friend
Sometimes it's better to buy than to bid. Unless you change your
settings, all your searches will be sorted to show the items
ending soonest. Most of these have bids already so the
"Buy-It-Now" ("BIN") option is no longer displayed. These are
the items everyone else is looking at too, so you're not
interested in them. Force yourself to look away! You want to
find the item that was just posted with a low "Buy-It-Now" by a
seller who doesn't know what the item will sell for and made the
BIN price too low.
First get rid of the auction listings. At the top left of the
page, under Ebay's usually-irrelevant advertisements, you'll see
three tabs. Clicking "Buy-It-Now" shows only fixed price
listings and auctions that have no bids yet. Now sort by
"Price: Lowest First"
or "Time: Newly Listed" to see if there
are any good deals that were recently added.
Now instead of fighting for the last minute items that everyone
else is bidding on, you got a great deal immediately by being
the first to find it!
Tip #4: Find the Hidden Store Items
"Ebay Stores" are like hidden storefronts within Ebay where
medium and high-volume sellers can cheaply list their complete
inventory. Sellers pay almost nothing to list items in their
Ebay stores but there's a catch: Ebay will usually not include
these items in search results (store items only show up if there
aren't enough regular auctions to display). Ebay wants shoppers
to bid on auctions that have higher listing fees.
Because the fees are cheaper and the items are harder to find,
Ebay Stores will often have lower prices and less competition.
But to find these items you have to dig a little. If you're
searching for something general like "Playstation Games" or want
to find a seller with a good selection, check the "Shop Ebay
Stores" box in the left-hand column of your search results page.
You'll have to scroll down a ways and it will only show a few
stores. Click the "See All Matching Stores" link for a list of
stores you can browse.
If you're looking for something specific, you'll need to do an
advanced search for Store Items only. Click the "Advanced
Search" link in the top-right and ignore the resulting page. You
want the "Items in Stores" link in the box at the left of the
page. Believe it or not, if you do a search on this page it will
still only show auction items. You have to check the box that
says "Search Store Inventory items only"! Now that you've jumped
through all of Ebay's fee-maximizing hoops, you're ready to view
actual store inventory items.
Tip #5: It Pays to Save on Shipping
Most Ebay sellers have great prices, but shipping can be
expensive. Ebay search results show the shipping column by
default so be sure to factor that in when making bids.
If you're looking for multiple items it's often worthwhile to
find a seller that has all of them and will give you a combined
shipping discount. Consider that if you bought 3 DVDs at $10
each and $4 shipping from 3 different sellers you'd pay more
than if you paid one seller $11 per DVD and $2 shipping on the
second and third DVD. And it's a lot less work for you to pay
one seller and get one package.
Plan your shopping ahead of time. When you're making a purchase,
see if the seller has any other items you may want to give as a
gift or add to your collection. You'll save in the long run and
won't have to spend as much time managing auctions and tracking
packages.
When to Avoid Ebay
Ebay usually has the best prices. Usually. There are times when
an item is so popular that people are flocking to Ebay to get
one and the prices skyrocket. The day the x-box 360 was released
units sold on Ebay for up to $6000 each. In cases like this the
prices soar because every other store is sold out, but there are
some people that do all their shopping on Ebay and just assume
that they're getting a good deal. Before you bid for that PSP or
Ipod, make sure you know what the retail price is and how much
you'd have to pay from an independent online retailer. Don't bid
higher than the suggested retail price unless you can't find a
site with the item in stock and you know your local retail store
isn't getting their next shipment anytime soon.
Don't fall into the shipping fee trap either. You may be able to
buy a new release DVD for $14.99 but if the seller charges $5
for shipping, you're better off buying from an independent
online DVD store for $18 and paying $1.50 shipping. Remember
that most Ebay sellers include an extra handling fee with the
shipping to help cover the many fees they pay Ebay and PayPal.
Because independent retail sites have almost no fees, they
often have more reasonable shipping prices.
The stores with the best prices spend very little on
advertising. Try using tools like Froogle that offer sellers
free listings or find out if your favorite Ebay seller has their
own web store. Ebay doesn't let sellers advertise off-Ebay sales
in their listings so try doing a web search for the store's name
or look at the domain name of the contact's email address.
These sellers would rather have you buy from their web store
and you can still refer to their Ebay feedback to determine
their reliability.
Finding the best prices can be time consuming but the money you
save makes it well worth it. Remember your favorite sellers and
stores and online shopping will be faster and easier than ever
the next time around.
About the author:
Jonathan Crowe is the Owner & Manager of Spotlight Entertainment
(http://www.spotlightdvd.com), an Ebay Silver Level Powerseller
and web retailer of DVDs and entertainment products for over 2
years. He publishes a monthly newsletter with DVD-related
articles and special offers, available at
http://www.spotlightdvd.com/signup.asp.
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| Dutch auction: In the traditional Dutch auction the auctioneer begins with a ... ("Dutch auction" is also sometimes used to describe online auctions where ... |
| en.wikipedia.org |
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| Online auction with offers for European consumers, including arts, collectibles, cars, computing, consumer electronics and entertainment. |
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| This site is dedicated to the research and study of the most bizarre items found for sale on internet auction sites. Not the obviously fake auctions, ... |
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| Find all kinds of auctions divided by types of items. |
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| Overstock.com Auctions your home for Online Auctions. Find great deals on thousands of live auctions. An alternative to eBay, this auctions site is the ... |
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| Airline Tickets, Cheap Hotels, Vacation Packages & Travel Deals |
| The internet leader in Travel Auctions & Buy it Now deals to see the world. Our Lowest Price Guarantee on airline tickets, hotels, cruises, ... |
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| onSale.com Low Prices - Computers, Consumer electronics, Digital ... |
| onSale – Don’t just buy it. Get it onSale! onSale has the best selection of computer systems, peripherals, software, iPods, iPod accessories, ... |
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| A Survey of Auctions |
| Defines in lay-terms the various types of auctions, including English Auctions, Dutch Auctions, and Double Auctions. A brief history of auctions and ... |
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| Buy & Sell surplus, used business, industrial machinery, laboratory, R&D equipment at DoveBid, the leading global provider of capital asset management and ... |
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| Neopets - New Neopian Auctions |
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| Car Auctions, Auto Auctions, Online Car Auctions, Salvage Auctions ... |
| Car Auctions, Auto Auctions, Online Car Auctions. Pickles Auctions is an Australian owned Auction company, specialising in auto vehicle, truck and car ... |
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