One of the greatest and best internet stores out there is EBAY. In case you were burrowed under a ferret for four years, EBAY is an online marketplace similar to that of auctions. People can sell or buy everything including, video games, toys, collectibles, mugs, rugs, cars, and pretty much anything. You could pick some deer shit off the road and sell it on EBAY. That's why, I've decided to dedicate a section of my site to this online marketplace of excellence. The system is pretty simple. People sell items at a starting price, then other interested buyers can bid on the item. There is a closing date for every auction and the highest bidder on the item wins. Of course, bidding isn't as easy as it sounds.

One of the problems I've discovered with EBAY is that many people don't know if they should bid on a certain item. Some items may or may not be worth the price the buyer is bidding. Thus, many people do research before bidding or selling anything on EBAY. So in a sense, EBAY is similar to a business. You have your sellers which try to estimate the value of their item, and then you have the bidders trying to bid the lowest possible amount while winning the auction. It's a very complex process. There are also many dealers on EBAY who constantly sell items during a day-to-day process. Many of these smart traders have special techniques they use to win auctions. While they may not be cheating, they certainly know a few tricky ways to bid/sell past the other competitors. In this section, you're going to find tips and secrets without having to pay $20 for one of those stupid EBAY secrets books. Don't worry, it's entirely free. Below, the headers are split into For Buyers, For Sellers, and For Everyone.

For Buyers
I've noticed that the most fun you can have with EBAY is being a buyer. The great thing about being a buyer is the variety of items you can find on EBAY. Everything is sorted in categories, small price tags, and there are some unique items as well. That's why, as a buyer, you should learn a few basics/techniques before attempting to bid on any items:

• Never ever bid early on an item - I know you're probably thinking, why the hell wouldn't I bid first? Well, it's pretty simple. When you place the first bid on an item, you automatically take the starting price. While you may seem satisfied that you were the first one to bid on it, this is a very bad choice. Bidding early on items causes bidding wars. Yup, there are wars on EBAY. A bidding war is where one buyer places a bid on an item, but another buyer wants it so bad that he'll purposely keep bidding until he/she bids over the original buyer. The problem with bidding wars is that you'll always end up paying way more than you should. If you let someone place the first bid two days later on the item, you could be saving yourself 20% of the price you would've payed. It's just too risky trying to bid early because you also have the chance of a sniper taking it out. No, not an actual sniper with a rifle, but a sniper is a bidder who bids at the last possible moment before the auction ends in order to win the item over you. It's a very painful process to watch yourself as the highest bidder and then in the last six seconds, you watch some random guy come out and win the item. That's why I'd recommend you just bid later in the auction, or snipe like everybody else does. The only exception to this rule is if the auction has a 'Buy it Now' option. However, most items don't.
• Try to snipe as many auctions as you can - Although many people despise snipers, it's one of the most beneficial ways to winning auctions on EBAY. As I said above, a sniper is a bidder who bids at the last possible moment in order to overcome the highest bidder before anyone else can bid. Thus, the auction will be over a few seconds after you place the highest bid. This is a very safe, and economic way to bidding since the bid you place should be the highest amount you're willing to pay. Sniping is one of the most popular ways of winning auctions and it's perfectly legal. There are programs out there that aid you in the process by automatically bidding for you before the auction ends. You can find some of these programs at the bottom of the page.
• Verify the item's existence/validity - While this is pretty much common sense, there are way too many people who take risks on EBAY. In order to verify the existence of a certain item, search the internet. Go through message boards, forums, search engines, and see if you can post/find answers as to whether a certain item exists or not. For example, if there was a Blue NES game on EBAY, go to a NES site and see if there were any blue carts ever made for the NES. If not, then the entire auction is a fake. Always try to look at details in the pictures and see if anything is damaged.
• Ask questions if you're not sure on the quality - Often, I check feedback ratings and see that many people complain about the quality of the item they received. For example, this one bidder won an auction for a Beetles record. When he got it, he said there was a tear on the label and that it was in horrible condition. When he put negative feedback in the seller's profile, the seller said read carefully. That's exactly what you have to do. If an item is just described briefly with no actual adjectives describing the condition, you better send an e-mail to the seller. Always ask before bidding, you wouldn't want to get screwed over on a new game that isn't sealed!
• Try to add a penny or two to rounded bids - Many people use a risk-free method of adding a few pennies to their bids. What's the difference if I add a few pennies you ask? Well, many new bidders on EBAY often will place their bid in to a rounded amount. Let's say there was a N64 game for $30, and this n00b bidder put a proxy bid in for $32.50. Well, the expert bidder would guesstimate what the bidder's proxy bid was and he would probably place a bid of $32.52. Thus, if he was correct in his guess, he would win the auction by a measly two cents. So before making a snipe bid, try to add a couple cents to your rounded numbers and see if it helps.
• Always check the feedback - You probably heard this a million times, but always check the seller's feedback. If you see negative feedback, look at what item was sold. If it's something similar to yours, then think again about bidding on it.
• Shipping - Always look at the shipping price. There are many dealers out there who overprice their shipping by up to $3 just so they can make a profit on their auctions. If you're buying a game for $0.50, chances are that the shipping might be high or very pricy. Make sure that the shipping information is listed in an auction, otherwise, you can get ripped off with a high unpayed UPS bill.
• Do some completed item searches - One of the little known tricks on ebay is that you can search past, completed items up to 90 days and see every exact detail of the auction. This is the perfect method for checking the value of items you are going to bid on, so you can get a basic idea of what something is worth. Here's how you do it:
  
  1) Click the Search button at the top of EBAY
  2) Click the Advanced Search Tab
  3) Type in the word or name of the item
  4) Pick a category for that item (narrow results)
  5) Check the Completed Items Box
  6) Click the Search Button
  
  This will bring up nearly every single item related to your search. You can find out what they paid, who bid what, and even come up with an average price for the item. It's the perfect way for buyers to get a preview of what the item is worth. If you don't find anything, that means the item is either rare, not popular, or strange. Have fun with it.

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