It is not always easy to buy on EBay. We will see how to avoid problems linked to buying on eBay, how to make a good search, how to choose the good product, how to verify the seller and the details of the delivery.

1) The product

To look for your product you can proceed in different ways.

You can type the name of the article you are looking for in the search bar and then specify with the elements located in the scrollbar on the left. It will help you choose the category, if you want a new or pre-owned object, the size and color.

You can also be more specific in your search in the search bar. Type the name of the article, its size, and color, give as many details as possible. As to whether you want a new or pre-owned article, always use the scrollbar on the left.

 

Try to switch between the two methods, you should have recurrent results in your search but some articles will not appear depending on the method you use. This is because the sellers on eBay, whether professionals or private individuals do not always list their products according to their color, size, category etc. They just type it in the title and the description of the object.

Prefer items with at least a picture. Two pictures and more are always best in order to know the state the item is in.

When you find articles that resemble what you’re looking for, consult each and every of them, don’t stay focused on just one at first. It is important to compare several items as the price, the cost of the delivery and the type of sale can differ. You can have immediate sales or auctions. We will talk about this later in this article.

Some titles and pictures are really appealing but if you take a look at the description you can see it does not match the picture or the description. This technique is used by the sellers to have more views on their items and then have more chances to sell. This is the reason why it is important to READ the description of the article. In the description you can generally detect small details that are important and sometimes differ from the title.

You can have two types of sales: auctions or immediate sales. When you are interested in an auction there are different elements to look for. The number of people that already took a bid on the item, the time left before the auction’s end and if there’s a reserve price. We’d prefer bidding in the last moments to avoid escalating the price of the item, always having an eye on the reserve price if there is one.

2) The Seller

It is important to look at the evaluation of the seller. At best 100%; if the evaluation is lower than 95% it is not a good thing. If the seller has an evaluation of 100% you don’t have to look at recommendations from previous buyers. But if the sellers as an evaluation lower than 100% it is recommended to look at the recommendation of previous buyers. If the evaluation is less than 100% the sellers has had negative comments, so you should verify them. It is important to look at the negative comments so you won’t have any bad surprise when you buy. Don’t hesitate to ask the sellers questions to have more info on the items you’re interested in, you can also ask for more pictures and important details.

3) The delivery

Always verify if the sellers delivers in your country. If it’s not the case you have other solutions. You can ask the seller if he can make an exception and deliver in your country even if you have to pay more for the delivery.

eBay US updated its website and added for some items more information about the delivery. Now you can see what you could pay for custom duty when the package arrives in your country.

Don’t forget it’s important to search for what you are looking for in different ways in order to take advantage of all eBay databases. Don’t focus on just one article; take a look at several in order to find the best one. Prefer articles with pictures. Read carefully the description of the article in order to see the differences between what the seller is really selling, the pictures and the title of the item. Look at the evaluation of the seller and if he has less than 100%, look at the negative comments to know why he has those bad comments. Try to avoid the sellers with an evaluation of less than 95%. Ask the seller questions. Verify that the item can be delivered in your country and if not ask the seller if he’ll deliver it in your country should you be ready to pay the additional cost.

My e-Address Team