..which has done me very well but now it's starting to enter into old age and does various annoying things like take five minutes to respond to me clicking a button or reboots randomly every couple of days (or sometimes more frequently). Since the beginning of its decline, I've been lovingly referring to the dilapidating piece o' crap as "ghettoberry" and have been looking at eBay for a while for a replacement. My mother found an awesome deal on her Blackberry on there a few months ago and today I finally won my bidding war and snatched myself a new Blackberry Curve 8530 for just $30 from a wholesale retailer.
Yepp, I'm an eBay master. I actually have an interesting history with eBay. When I was about thirteen, my dad and I decided to sell old computer parts on eBay that were still functional but just were not compatible with any of our new technology. So we got a seller's account and everything. We had some success selling and made a little money but soon that business fizzled. Over the years, I've had bidding wars over Herve Chapelier bags and other random items but almost never won (usually fiscal issues regarding those items...) Despite my lack of finances, I've figured out some tips and also some dangers associated with eBay wars and the seemingly friendly "Buy It Now" option.
- Do not get caught up in trying to get something right away. If you're desperate for something immediately, buy it from another source. Finding the best deals on eBay sometimes take time and careful consideration of the seller, the product and the other bidders.
- "Buy It Now": this may seem very convenient as you do not need to enter any sort of bidding war that needs keeping up with but instead can just click and pay. I've figured out that although it saves time (refer to the first bullet point), it actually will usually end up in you losing money. If you've found the right product, bidding will help keep the price low as to get the best deal.
- If Buy It Now is what you want to do, a common scenario occurs. You see that a product only has a few minutes left and the Buy It Now price is higher than you anticipated spending but you do not want to lose it, do not buy it. If the seller does not make a sale on the product after that time, what are they going to do? Keep it? No! They're going to put it back up for sale and usually at a lower price! Just star the seller or check that search term back later to check back when they do put it back up (it may be a couple of days later, but usually it's almost instantly)
- Do not be tricked by a low current price. eBay will automatically bid for you once you put in your maximum bid, so sometimes people will put a maximum bid of $300 or something but the current bid price shown is $40... misleading right? Unless you're willing to wait around and keep upping your maximum bid, you probably won't be winning that one.
- The "remove item" feature is your friend! A lot of the time, a seller will jack up the shipping prices so that they can compensate for selling an expensive item for a low price. If the shipping price turns out to be like $100 to ship a one pound object, then you should probably remove the item from your queue and try another seller or version of the item.
eBay can be tricky and sometimes you get majorly ripped off. Most of the time, though, if you're savvy, you can get some great deals!
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