How to Buy on Ebay

How to sell and buy on eBay From Chris Pirillo, how to sell andbuyon eBay. December 28 at 12:01 AM in Consumer, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0) | |

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From Chris Pirillo, how to sell andbuyon eBay.

first comment

great top 5 list

second

I bought a PC Data Link Cable for my LG UX245 Cell Phone on eBay for only a cent! lol, what a bargain, but I did have to pay $4.99 for Shipping and Hanlding fees.

5th comment wooot

ftw= for the win…sorry im a gamer…

only burned once from ebay from something i bought. never shipped to me. great tips. tracking well worth it. also a signiture upon delivery insures that people get what product too. i communicate very well with everybody. just sometimes people need an extra day to do something. communication goes a very long way. not a sellre yet just a buyer.

ebay took 400$ from me. They are a big scam.I will never use it .ebay sucks.

ebay does suck. i only use craigslist now.

I bought a PC Data Link Cable for my LG UX245 Cell Phone on eBay for only a cent! lol, what a bargain, but I did have to pay $4.99 for Shipping and Hanlding fees.ni

I fell way more confident about buying online now, thanks Chris

Great tips. But i prefer craigslist. it eliminates at least 2.5 off the list. No shipping, no paypal, you must communicate to get it, all and all a more human experience.

I love searching through the pages of items on ebay. Every now and then I come across an amazing deal. I like to look for items in mislabeled categories. Many times this leads to great discoveries. The only problem that I have with ebay is that sometimes the item that you are bidding or considering bidding on is very cheap but the shipping is very expensive.

Great top 5. I also learned to control my bids. If I see that the bid war is getting pricey, I reserve patience and drop out. Soon enough a similar item will go up on auction and I will have another chance to bid at a low price.

I love ebay , I just sold one of my psps on ebay :)
ive been buying things on ebay for years and i dont think i could live without it .

if you pay with paypal and you DONT get your item…put in a claim with paypal and you will get your money back.

Thanks for the tips.

Regarding your eBay primer, sending payment by Priority Mail is a waste of money. The USPS tries to promote this service like it gets special treatment. It does not. It is First Class Mail for items weighing more than 13 ounces. Here is the USPS official statement about Priority Mail:

Priority Mail is First-Class Mail weighing more than 13 ounces and, at the mailer’s option, any other nonrestricted (601.8.0) matter (including regular First-Class Mail) weighing 13 ounces or less.

Note the comment “at the mailer’s option” … what that means is you can send anything under 13 ounces by Priority Mail but you do not have to because, and this is what they do not tell you, you’ll get the same service as you would if you paid the regular first class rates.

All first class mail as well as Priority Mail is USUALLY delivered in 2-3 days. There is no guarantee that it will be and that same lack of guarantee applies to Priority Mail. (In late November I sent a Priority Mail package to California from Vermont and it took ten days.)

I’ve been in the mail order business as a publisher and seller of books for 40 years (and was a stamp dealer for a few years before that, having been a stamp collector since I was nine years old). I know more about the USPS, its servcies and how it works (or doesn’t) than some of their employees do.

It amazes me how clueless most people are about the U.S. Postal Service and how it works, like the woman who walked into my local post office one day and handed the clerk a package and said, “I’d like to ship it by UPS”. The clerk, without missing a beat, responded, “They’re the other guys!”

When sending payment for an eBay purchase, by all means use a service that allows you to track the piece. Personally, if I paid by money order for my eBay purchases of $100 or more, I would send it by Express Mail. Not cheap, but it’s worth it.

I do a lot of my shopping on eBay. You can usually find a low enough price on the item that even with the shipping it will be cheap than many stores. If the seller has a feedback rating 99% or higher I tend to trust them more and a big box store.

Great tips! I really want to use eBay to find great deals on used Macs soon for video editing, and getting some other stuff to help out with that, and these tips could really help. :P
and yes, tracking is the only way to go.

Just a little tip for buying off eBay if find a very good deal READ READ READ. There are a lot of scams on ebay I saw a Intel Q6600 Quad-Core for 50$ and thought yippee! Then a read a bit more it said. “You are not bidding on any merchandise you are simply bidding on a wholesale list.

So be careful and READ READ.

Pawndro is my name in chat.

Thanks for reading that top five list I buy a lot of items on ebay and any advice on better ways to buy and or sell is appreciated.

Very good tips that many people tend to forget too often. Almost every few days you hear of people being scammed by sellers due to the lack of attention when buying, usually because they fail to read all the way through and ask the buyer any outstanding data about the thing they are purchasing. Keep up the lists, they are just getting better!

ummm last time it worked 4 me

Thanks for the tips! I was thinking about buying from eBay but didn’t know what it was all about or where to start. Using your tips I was able to buy and receive my gift for xmas without any worries. Thanks Chris, you’re SUPER!

Using a snipe has made buying on ebay a very pleasant experiance.

FuKs YoU

good job chris this was helpful to me

Be sure to read the description carefully. I while ago i read about this guy who was looking to buy an xbox, and wound up buying and xbox BOX! so be careful when shopping on ebay.

Thank you for putting this information together. They are things I always try to do, but it was nice to have it in one place to show my elderly mother who loves ebay but has always only been “lucky” so far and not quite so “smart” when buying.

Awsome tips very useful cause i’m surfing ebay now in search for a mac mini and these tips helped alot , cause i know nothing about ebay lol anyways thanks alot for the tips next i’ll check out the selling ones thanks again

Toy yoda instead of a Toyota ring a bell? Well I have had nothing but postive dealing with people on ebay (my mom is now in on the act too :) but the one thing I look at is the rating (lower than 95% and I look elsewhere) and the comments of the people. I also use a trick swat told me: when I search I make a typo, or I look for things labeled in the wrong category. That way people aren’t going to find the item as easily and the price won’t shot up.
But the number one thing to remember is: even though ebay MAY have cheap prices, they may not be the cheapest, shop around!

Just as good as the selling video! Again I never bought or sold anything but I always see things that have 1week+ bidding left on and thats just stupid.

You couldnt be any more correct on this Chris. Communication is key. I always get shafted out of an ebay deal due to lack of communication. I always make sure to ask questions and check to see feedback comments

Also a good thing to do is to check other websites for similar prices. Make sure you can’t find the product cheaper somewhere else.

Those are some great tips. I also recommend using the Bid Assist feature that ebay offers. I’ve used it will great results on most of my ebaying. It oversees multiple items you select and increases your chances of winning by making bids for you. Check it out.

this is really true and helps alot! i actually used this video as a Step-By-Step guide when i was buying a Sony Cyber-Shot on ebay. u wouldnt be able to find a better guide than this! thanx for posting CHRIS!

Excellent tips, I used to be a buyer on ebay years ago and i have learned the most important thing… Buyer Beware… if it sounds a little to good, it probably is. be careful about buying from low feedback sellers or sellers with negative feedback. Not everyone on ebay is out to get you but there are a few of those bad apples.

this is good for me becase i was thinking about buying some stuff off of ebay

hey Chris this is very helpful to me because i buy off ebay allot. i think using your guide will make it easier and i will try it out later today, because i am buying something. thanks again Chris for the great content you give us every day.

Great posting Chris. I will now look at the users feedback before buying.

Chris, thanks alot for this video! It has helped me purchase my new Dell laptop. All of your videos are great; but this one by far has helped me the most. Keep up the good work.
-Doug.

(Dug)

One quick tip. The eBay Dispute Console and PayPal Resolution Center are your friends.

If you pay through PayPal for your eBay purchases, which I assume most people do, you can be covered up to $2,000 if your item is not delivered or if they seller sends you an item that differs significantly from the item listed in the auction.

Both the eBay Dispute Console and the PayPal Resolution Center have a straight forward set of steps to resolve issues between buyers and sellers.

I recently had to use the PayPal Resolution Center to file a claim against a seller. I did all of the right things that you should do. I checked their feedback and they only had a handful of negatives and over ten-thousand positive reviews from buyers at the time of my purchase. I followed the sellers payment instructions to the letter and they accepted my payment and I even received a thank you email. The shipment should have taken only 21 days, but after a full month I still hadn’t received my item, I checked their profile and discovered that they had received over 400 negative feedbacks starting about one week after I had purchased my item. It looked like they just decided to take everyone’s money and run. There was no communication at all. They would not respond to any emails. This came as a surprise since they had such a good feedback record up until this point. Their account was suspended and I made my claim though the PayPal Resolution Center. (The eBay Dispute Console redirected me since my purchase was paid though PayPal.) I will most likely receive a default judgment in my favor since the seller is not responding to any of the claims against him. (over 400 most likely.)

I don’t know what I would have done to get my money back if eBay and PayPal didn’t have these conflict resolution systems in place to protect buyers and sellers alike.

Good tips! You are very helpful with these, keep up the great work!

Can you return things on ebay? Or once you buy them are you stuck with them.

I’ve never used a internet auction site to buy anything yet, but if I do, I’ll keep these tips in mind.

I think the number one tip here is shipping. Beginning an auction at $0.01 and then charging $50 for shipping is borderline fraud to me. Be honest with your shipping and your starting prices. I used to sell allot on ebay and it’s a great way to make money, but don’t try to beat the system.

Good stuff. I’m gonna go check out how much the ipod accessories. There no way I’m gonna pay $30 plus for the apple branded stuff.

I’ve bought a few things on ebay and I only had a problem one time. I never received the item I’d purchased.

I was new to ebay and kept waiting and waiting and tried to get in touch with the seller. He never responded. By the time I got fed up enough to contact ebay for help, it was too late. The 60-day period for filing a complaint was over. So I just wanted to let you guys know that you don’t have forever to get help so don’t procastinate like I did.

Siamese27

i used to buy on ebay and now i just sell

way too many fake sales

Great advice, keep it comming chris!

nerds

yea were nerds. so?

Nice video

yea we admint it, were nerds. How does that make you feel that we will be somewhere in life and you will be flipping patties.

-Swifty

if i live in mexico?
i can buy things in ebay from japan? O.o

You can be a nerd all you want, but I’m a bon-a-fied G33k.

i want to buy ps3 but it says “insurance cost…$100″

they are nerds because they waste money and they don’t know how to get it free!the last option of a nerd is to buy!

ha ha u nerd!

You can be a nerd without acting like one though. Is it really so hard to buy contacts for your eyes and maybe get a decent haircut and try to talk in a normal voice?

Yes you can, as long as it ships to mexico, it should say.

No. “Nerd” is like glasses, Ties, Dungeons and Dragons, etc… not fitting in or being cool. “geek” can be totally normal and even possibly cool, but having a really smart technical side that only shows when needed or wanted, such as working on a test or answering a friend’s question…

well i buy and sell on e bay and i save alot the trick is to shop in the early am to late pm so 11pm to 6am that way people are asleeep
step1 wake up early log on and search for the item. i say this because if an item starts late it willend late so less people are on e bay then there fore you get the deal

step2 click auctions only on the sidebar

step3 click newly listed

step4 find an item worth biding

step5 dont bid

step6 wait till the last 1hout to 30 minuts to bid

step7 get it cheap dont give in to high prices rember e bay is a sellers marketplace