STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

kittenheels · Coach

ebay for beginners?

Kitty · Hermes

The best advice I can give is not to get carried away with bidding. If you see an item that looks like a good deal, take a second to write down the maximum amount you'd be willing to spend on the item. Don't let yourself bid more than that. I personally don't bid until the last 15 seconds or so. I enter my maximum amount and have it all ready to go, and then 15 seconds or so before the auction ends I push enter.

I also tend to search for things with misspellings. People are careless and spell things wrong all the time - those items will get a lot less traffic and you'll have less competition.

sephorablue · Marc Jacobs

My method varies according to what I'm looking for, but the main thing is to create a search parameter for what you want and then save it to your "my ebay" page. That way you end up with a list of things you're looking for, and every time you log in, you can click on whichever search you like to check if anything good has been added. Which category you place it into depends on what you're looking for, too. For example, for my vintage searches, I started at the category of vintage clothing on the main page and then saved my search based on whatever search term I was using, like "disco dress" (yes I do have that one!) or "tunic" or "trapeze coat" or whatever. If you know you like a particular period of clothing, you can break it down that way too. I have a bunch of searches for designers I like, in which case the search is just the name of the line in the category of women's clothing. And then my third method has worked well for my ongoing search for boots--I started in women's shoes, selected knee-high and size 9 from the drop-down menu, and that's my saved search; when I run it I usually enter in "flat" or "riding" as search parameters, or choose a color from the drop-down. This gives me the whole range of boots available, from cheapie pleather things to vintage things to really high-end things.

Also, once you've done a bit of snooping around, you'll find some sellers consistently have really good stuff, so then you can start a favorite sellers page and check back in periodically to see what they have.

The consensus for the best approach to bidding is to wait by your computer if possible, decide the max you'd be willing to spend, and then enter it in the final seconds before the auction ends. If you can't be by the computer, there's a service you can use that automatically enters your bid at the last second (I forget what it is, G would know, she told me about it) or you can just enter your bid ahead of time. But the closer to the end of the auction you can bid, the more likely you are to get a good deal, just on the chance that you'll catch your fellow bidders snoozing. Of course everybody else who really wants the thing is going to be right there, too, but it's still the best approach. Hope that helps!

One warning: it's MAJORLY addictive.