Getting The Best Deal on eBay

If you look around on eBay, and in your local stores, you quickly will notice something: Even the most aggressive sales prices in the big box stores are double or even triple what you can buy the exact same thing for on eBay. I know, half the fun is being able to drive to the store, browse around, see what you can't live without... But, if you don't need it the same day, and know exactly what you need, then it makes sense to save what you can by buying it on eBay.

See, wholesale prices are so low compared to retail prices, (amazing considering most of it has to come all the way from China), that there is always someone willing to sell what you want for less than the next guy. There are literally people operating on a profit margin for each item consisting of merely a few cents! The theory is you can move enough product and still make more than the next guy because you are "giving" your stuff away cheaper than anyone else can.

How do you go about finding the best deal?

eBay has made it simple now. You can sort your listings, and if I am going to buy it now, then I want to sort it price plus shipping lowest first. A lot of people still have it in their minds that if they pay more they will get better merchandise. The fact is, its the same item, if in new condition, no matter who you buy it from and no matter the price. Just beware of the extremely low priced listings to make sure they don't ship from china or you could be waiting a very long time for it to arrive. Always check the sellers feedback as well.

If possible, I try to buy from sellers in my region, I do what I can to shop locally because keeping a local economy strong is important. No sense sending money back east if I don't have to. And I avoid whenever possible, having to buy from anyone in another country just because I feel we can't keep exporting our money and expect our country to get stronger.

I may not be telling you any new things, but, there seems to be so many new users on eBay, I have no idea what happened to the veteran eBayers. I now get buyers with 0 or 1 feedback, and then I am lucky if half of them pay. In any event, I hope someone finds this useful.