How to Search Smart with 23 points and find best deals on eBay?

Written by Babar Beacon

⊂ Updated: 05/03/2019 ⊃

Being a savvy shopper on eBay requires you to be vigilant from very first step. Discovering best deal starts from searching best deal. Because of its auction model of buy and selling, you have to put more efforts on finding a good entry to place bid for using many on-board available search options at eBay.

(words:2600 Pages:7 | 5-10 minutes reading, about eBay Smart Searching tips in detail)

Search Smart, Here are 23 points to find a best deal on eBay.

The essence of whole article under is to be smart enough to come out with your required items which have fewer views or none just to limit the competition and price

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Table of Content

If you are like-new on eBay, I recommend you to read this post to be more familiar with buying-basics of eBay.

Go to | (5 minutes reading) How to familiarize with buying-basics of eBay to be more informed buyer?

#Register with eBay

The first important step in finding best deals is, of course, register and become eBay member.

Go to | Register Now | if already have an account, Sign in

A. Familiarize with the Product

If you are well informed about stuff you are looking for then half done

Check out the Product type, you’re required options & features, make & model and most importantly its price of used and new in market.

B. Check out going price through “Completed Listings”

Make a search with check box of “Completed Listings” on left side of search page. It will find out all the listings which have been completed; sold and unsold.

When we searched “Samsung galaxy s8+” resulted 19400 entries and with active check box of “completed listings” resulted only 8567 items; sold or unsold but done.

You must check for the closing prices of auctions before placing your bid. The eBay offers “completed listings” tool which will provide all the related listings with sold or unsold price and you can sort the list with low to high prices. It will give you a strong base to place your bid with best price.

C. Search Smart

Find deals that others don’t

If you are using the same strategies to search items on eBay like all others normally do then you will never be in position to enjoy cheap deal.

So you need to be smart in searching items first. The whole process of savvy shopping on eBay depends on your search strategy. So do it smartly considering the following points.

You’re playing arena is down here with all tools ↓

C1. Search Smart: Use different combinations of titles for items in search bar

More words in search query, less items in search results

Search items using different title variations of spaces and word combinations; play with title of product. (Women Heart Pendant Necklace )

For example: Women Heart Pendant Necklace or Fashion Heart Pendant Necklace or Heart Pendent Necklace Jewelry Silver or Double-heart pendant necklace chain-jewelry for women etc.

Stephen’s words (You Begin with the End in Mind) “that things are created twice. There are a mental or first creation and a physical or second creation to all things” their paramount mixture produces more

C2. Search Smart: Select title plus description check box to make a search

Make a search first without including description as most of members do and then try same title search now including the description along with title. It will come out with more items.

Always look for those items which have less competition. In the above example first three search queries are missing the keyword “women”.

If the same case is with seller typing title then most probably it will be included in description so it will be getting in search results only if you check description box under search bar.

C3. Search Smart: Advance search

Refine your search and narrow your findings using very powerful tool of advance search options

The eBay limits you to the heading through its search box but you can use its advance search options to get something different and unique in search results.

Narrow your search using its advance search options such as items find by its id, through seller, include or exclude keywords and look for some specific features or colors only.

C4. Search Smart: Search with changing requirement options

EBay search page provides many options to customize search according to your requirements such as free shipping, auction, buy it now, used or brand new and location wise search you will come up with different numbers of items every time.

C5. Search Smart: Steal the deals with title typos and slip-ups

Listing loopholes are possible when sellers do list their product on any online platform and it worth more to study on eBay because of its auctions system.

You can find thousands of items misspelled while listed by sellers. The products with misspellings are the actually good deals to bid on because it limits the bidders’ access.

Find out an item with huge misspell title accidentally by seller and hurry to make a minimum value bid to seize the auction. It will restrict the seller to modify or cancel the auction, this trick is called steal the typos deals

C6. Search Smart: Search all possible accidentally misspell items using variations of words

Misspell title > limited views > limited bids > lower price

The misspell possibilities are huge but you have to search the products with mistakenly misspell entries. The eBay title is limited to 300 characters so you can make searches putting all the possible variations in title words.

Avoid deliberately misspell titles by using dash sign with correct one (-Versace)

This trick is very famous among eBay bidders but you need to be very smart here to find out the best accidentally misspell items to narrow your findings. Normally members search items with putting correct word titles in search box. So there are good chances of getting an item with misspell title with none or few bids till the end of auction to close on a lower price.

You can do it putting misspell titles manually or you can use many specialist utilities and websites available such as:

Try misspell titles by using dash sign with correct one (-Versace)

C7. Search Smart: Check entries with poor-images or even without images

Bad-image or no-image never means the item is not good condition or quality to consider

Images are the most important ingredient in any entry and mostly sellers realize it while listing. But there are always some sellers particularly selling pre-owned items of their own. And they don’t emphasize on product images or even make entry without uploading images.

Image is the key in attracting actions from buyers’ side. If not available or not a good quality image then it will attract fewer buyers so limits the views and bids.

C8. Search Smart: Check titles with abbreviations and acronyms

Many sellers use acronyms of famous products or brands to utilize the 300 character limit of eBay title. A Savvy Shopper can use the usual acronyms to narrow the listing that other people don’t.

C9. Search Smart: Check out for missing Keywords titles

“A seller made an entry of women silver heart pendant necklace without using the obvious word “women” in title”

You can find entries without using the keyword obvious to complete meaningful title. Chances of being overlooked are more in this case but it doesn’t change the nature or usage of product that is beautiful necklace jewelry for women.

C10. Search Smart: Check price-overlooked items

You can find huge collection of auctions which start price as low as 99 penny.

It works as a trick to attract the flood of bidder but some time the entry get overlooked because of its super low price. You can always check for super-low priced items by using price range search option.

C11. Search Smart: Identify misplaced items

Check for items which are listed in wrong categories or listed on more places with different prices

You can find thousands of items which are listed mistakenly somewhere else except in their own categories over eBay.

Wrong listing or listing of items on more than one place can bring you a good deal. Keep an eye on misplaced items by searching same search title in other categories than the main.

C12. Search Smart: Consider Timings

Do what others don’t

Auction timings play important role in competition. The auctions which end in late nights; 1am-3am are more likely to end with fewer member online so you can make a last minute bid to win the deal.

C13. Smart Search: Select a Price Range

Price range setting on search page is very helping tool to find out your required deal in terms of prices.

Specify price range from least amount for your product, it will sort the listings with lowest mentioned pricing also. Do certain searches with different price ranges.

C14. Smart Search: Compare prices each time

Check the prices out each time and note down the listings you found with good prices and compare all.

C15. Search Smart: Check for product, seller and feedback

As you got a good deal in search process, it’s time to check closely the condition of product, read carefully provided detail and description with product images.

Check seller’s status and feedback from other members to ensure the credibility and satisfy you for a good price of that item.

C16. Search Smart: Try Low bid-hunter utilities

At any time, there are always thousands of entries which are getting end with very few bids or without having even single bid. You can imagine the advantage of both scenarios.

Few bids will keep price low nearly around $1 to close the auction and no-bid-yet is such an ideal condition to seize a deal by just placing a minimum offer. You can use the following good utilities for this intend.

Go to | Zero Bids Finder | Lastminute Auctions | Zerobidz | Baycrazy Rightnow

C17. Double-check the shipment cost

Shipment is not free on eBay; always double-check the shipment cost when placing your bid

Mostly you enjoy free shipping on everything when you do online shopping on brands’ sites or e-retailers such as Amazon Wal-Mart. But this is not the case on eBay because of its different nature of doing buying selling. Here sellers offer items through auctions and often charge high shipping. They set very low prices to attract bidder but charge high on shipment to make up the lower margin in product price.

It makes the situation worst when international transaction is involved, so be vigilant about shipping cost through shipping details with the listing or directly ask the seller.

C18. Search Smart: Find the item through seller’s store

It’s common on eBay to list one item on different places or different times or same kind of items with different prices. Try to find out the best price available for item by looking it through the seller’s store.

C19. Search Smart: Get alerts on your required items

If you are looking for a specific product and you have found that through a very tricky process of search. Now to make easy for next time you can “follow” the search by clicking green text “follow this search” on top of search results.

Every time when a fresh matching item is listed by someone, your eBay home page will show update about and eBay will also send you an email alert.

C20. Have tried eBay Auction? Now check out its best offers at “Buy It Now” and “eBay Deals”

Some buyers accept best offers on Buy it Now listings. You can try it offering a price using a Goofbid’s best offer tool.

Go to | Goofbid Best Offer Tool

It will show you the history of that particular seller with all best offers he/she accepted to avoid over-bidding. Get a best offer price idea and smartly offer a price for that item to its seller. If accepted, product is yours.

Go to | Make Best Offers

You can sort the search results by selecting “Newly listed item”

The other way is to check in eBay Deals section to find out a best deal using Buy it Now options. There are thousands of items listed with buy-it-now prices from all categories which you can buy at the spot.

Go to | Promolily – eBay Deals

If you are considering some expensive item to bid for, you should look at the completed auctions from a particular seller history. In advance search box > search item through its seller > enter seller id > include completed listings > search. It will show you the past items sold by that seller and on what prices.

C21. Go global eBay to find better deals

The prices are not same on all eBay sites globally. Because of currency differences and purchasing power parity, prices of same type of products are different. It meant more in case of pre-owned goods. You can find cheaper women clothing in USA site than in UK. Shoes are cheaper in European sites. Do browse other sites for your wish list.

The other option is to stay at your home eBay site, make your search by checking in the box of “worldwide” in search area, to look listings globally. And bid for those items that sellers offer worldwide shipping.

Warning: If you are making international purchasing, do examine and factor in the custom & import duties and other additional charges to inflate the final cost for you.

C22. Check other auction sites

No doubt eBay is the giant of online auctions market but there are many other substantial sites you can do your auction business on even with lower fee charges than eBay.

C23. eBay is not always cheap: Why not to look around for more cheaper deals

The eBay is not always cheap. You should check for your required item on other places such as

Go to | iPromos

If you really want to become a savvy shopper then this post is for you “How to become a smart savvy shopper?”

The author is co-founder and editor at Promolily. Has a practical knowledge and experience of e-commerce, online marketing and retailing.

*Disclosure: It may contain affiliate links that may earn an advertising fee for advertising & linking to the merchant / business. The logos are property of respected brands & stores.

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