EBay for Dummies (15 page)

The ways to leave feedback

Several ways are available to leave feedback comments:

If you’re on the user’s Feedback page, click the Leave Feedback link; the Leave Feedback page appears.

In the Won area of your My eBay page, click the Leave Feedback link next to the listing.

Go to your auction and click the Leave Feedback icon.

In the Feedback Forum, click the Leave Feedback link to see a list of all your completed items from the last 90 days for which you haven’t yet left feedback.

To leave feedback for a buyer, follow these steps:

1. Enter the required information.

Note that your item number is usually filled in, but if you’re placing feedback from the user’s Feedback page, you need to have the number at hand.

2. Type your comment.

Only positive feedback can be left for a buyer, so choose your words carefully.

3. Click the Leave Feedback button.

Part II

Buying Like an Expert

In this part . . .

After you have an idea how to get around the eBay site, no doubt you’ll want to get started buying. You’ve come to the right place. Here you can find all the information you need to start bidding and winning items at the lowest possible prices.

Although eBay is a lot more fun than school, you still have to do your homework. After you’ve registered to become an eBay member (in Part I), you can place a bid on (or outright buy) any item you see. But first you have to find the item that’s right for you . . . and then maybe find out what it’s worth. And what happens when you win?!

In this part, I show you how to find the items you want without sifting through every single one of eBay’s millions of listings. I also give you an insider’s look at determining the value of a collectible, deciding how much you’re willing to spend, and using the right strategy to win the item at just the right price. When the listing is over, follow my advice to make closing the deal go as smooth as silk. Watch the positive feedback come pouring in.

Chapter 5

Seek and You Shall Find: Research

In This Chapter

Getting real-world buying advice on collectibles

Obtaining solid online buying advice

Checking out information sources for savvy buyers

Conducting a special item search on eBay

Picture all the stores you’ve ever seen in your life, located in one giant mall. You walk in and try to find the single item you’re looking for. Man, that’s tough! Consider also walking into a store with thousands of aisles of shelves with tens of millions of items on them. Browsing the categories of listings on eBay can be just as pleasantly boggling, without the prospect of sore feet. Start surfing around the site and you instantly understand the size and scope of what’s for sale there. Everything. Without question, you’ll feel overwhelmed at first, but the eBay staff has come up with lots of ways to help you find exactly what you’re looking for. As soon as you figure out how to find the items you want to bid or buy on eBay, you can protect your investment-to-be by making sure that what you find is actually what you seek.

Of course, searching is easier if you have an idea of what you’re looking for.
In this chapter for collectors, I offer the first-time buyer some expert tips and tell you how to get expert advice from eBay and other sources. I also give you tips for using the eBay search engine from a buyer’s perspective.

The best advice you can follow as you explore any free-market system is
caveat emptor
— let the buyer beware. Although nobody can guarantee that every one of your transactions will be perfect, research items thoroughly before you bid so that you don’t lose too much of your hard-earned money — or too much sleep.

General Online Tips for Collectors

If you’re just starting out on eBay, chances are you like to shop and you also collect items that interest you. You’ll find out pretty early in your eBay adventures that a lot of people online know as much about collecting as they do about bidding — and some are serious contenders.

How can you compete? Well, in addition to having a well-planned buying strategy (covered in Chapter 7), knowing your stuff gives you a winning edge. I’ve gathered the opinions of two collecting experts to get the info you need about online collecting basics. (If you’re already an expert collector but want help finding that perfect something on eBay so you can get ready to bid, you’ve got it. See “Looking to Find an Item? Start Your eBay Search Engine,” later in this chapter.) I also show you how one of those experts puts the information into practice, and I give you a crash course on how items for sale are (or should be) graded.

Although these tips from the experts are targeted for collectors, much of the information is sound advice for those involved in any transaction online.

The experts speak out

Bill Swoger closed his collectibles store in Burbank, California and sold the balance of his G.I. Joe and Superman items on eBay. And Lee Bernstein, a columnist and collectibles dealer who operates Lee Bernstein Books and Collectibles from her home base in Schererville, Indiana, authors a monthly column for the
New England Antiques Journal.
She also is the author of eBay’s Collectibles original “Inside Scoop.” Bill and Lee offer these tips to collectors new to eBay:

Get all the facts before you put your money down.
Study the description carefully. It’s your job to analyze the description and make your bidding decisions accordingly. Find out whether all original parts are included and whether the item has any flaws. If the description says that the Fred Flintstone figurine has a cracked back, e-mail the seller for more information on just how cracked Fred really is.

Don’t get caught up in the emotional thrill of bidding.
First-time buyers (known as
Under-10s
or
newbies
because they have fewer than ten transactions under their belts) tend to bid wildly, using emotions instead of brains. If you’re new to eBay, you can get burned if you just bid for the thrill of victory without thinking about what you’re doing.

I can’t stress how important it is to determine an item’s value, whether collectible or new. But because values are such flighty things (values depend on supply and demand, market trends, and all sorts of other variables), I recommend that you get a general idea of the item’s value and use this ballpark figure to set a maximum amount of money you’re willing to bid for that item. Then
stick
to
your maximum and don’t even think about bidding past it. If the bidding gets too hot, there’s always another auction. To find out more about bidding strategies, Chapter 7 is just the ticket.

Know what the item should cost.
Buyers used to depend on
price guides
— books on collectibles and their values — to help them bid. Bill says that price guides are becoming a thing of the past. Sure, you can find a guide that says an original
Lion King
Broadway poster in excellent condition has a book price of $150, but if you do a search on eBay, you’ll see that they’re actually selling for $65 to $75.

When your search on eBay turns up what you’re looking for, average the current prices you find. Also check the completed listings. Doing so gives you a much better idea of what you need to spend than any price guide can.

Timing is everything, and being first costs.
If you’re into movie posters, for example, consider this: If you can wait three to six months after a movie is released, you can get the poster for 40 to 50 percent less. The same goes for many new releases of collectibles. Sometimes you’re wiser to wait and save money.

Be careful of presale items.
Sometimes you may run across vendors selling items that they don’t have in stock but that they’ll ship to you later. For example, before
Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
came out, some vendors ran auctions on movie posters they didn’t have yet. If you had bid and won, and for some reason the vendor had a problem getting the poster, you’d have been out of luck. Don’t bid on anything that can’t be delivered as soon as you pay for the item. See some of eBay’s presale rules later in this chapter.

Being too late can also cost.
Many collectibles become more difficult to find as time goes by. Generally, as scarcity increases, so does desirability and value. Common sense tells you that if two original and identical collectibles are offered side by side, with one in like-new condition and the other in used condition, the like-new item will have the higher value.

Check out the seller.
Check the feedback rating (the number in parentheses next to the person’s user ID) a seller has before you buy. If the seller has many comments with a minute number of negative ones, chances are good that this is a reputable seller. For more on feedback, see Chapter 4.

Although eBay forbids side deals, an unsuccessful bidder may (at his or her own risk) contact a seller after an auction is over to see if the seller has more of the item in stock. If the seller is an experienced eBay user (a high feedback rating is usually a tip-off) and has more of the item in stock, he or she may consider making a perfectly eBay-legal Second Chance offer. Don’t ask to buy the item off-site. eBay strictly prohibits selling items off the site. If you conduct a side deal and are reported to eBay, you can be suspended. Not only that, but buyers who are ripped off by sellers in away-from-eBay transactions shouldn’t look to eBay to bail them out; you’re on your own. The way to purchase these items is by asking the seller to post another of the item for you — or if you were an underbidder in the auction, send you a Second Chance offer. That way, you’re also protected by PayPal buyer protections.

If an item comes to you broken in the mail, contact the seller to work it out.
The best bet is to request shipping insurance (you pay for it) before the seller ships the item. But if you didn’t ask for insurance, it never hurts to ask for a discount (or a replacement item, if available) if you’re not satisfied. Chapter 12 offers the lowdown on buying shipping insurance, and Chapter 16 provides pointers on dealing with transactions that go sour.

Go, Joe: Following an expert on the hunt

I know that not many of us collect G.I. Joes, but by studying what an expert looks for in this specialty collectible, we can get a good idea of what we should be looking for when purchasing whatever it is that we collect.

Bill looks for specific traits when he buys his very collectible G.I. Joe figures. Although his checklist is specific to the G.I. Joe from 1964 to 1969, the information here can help you determine your maximum bid on other collectibles (or whether an item is even
worth
bidding on) before an auction begins. As you find out in Chapter 7, the more you know before you place a bid, the happier you’re likely to be when you win. Bill’s checklist can save you considerable hassle:

Find out the item’s overall condition.
For G.I. Joe, look at the painted hair and eyebrows. Expect some wear, but overall, a collectible worth bidding on should look good.