Using Ebay to buy and sell toys - part 3

In this final post on using Ebay to trade toys, we look at the buyer’s role.

You start off by typing keywords to narrow your search for the items you are looking for.  Some sellers do not even know the names of the toys that they are selling, hence sometimes the actual names of the toys you want are not stated in the auction title.  Over time, you will become creative in generating likely keywords to find those ‘hidden gems’ auctions.  Such mis-named auctions are likely to be missed by many other buyers, hence your chances of winning it at a low bid are higher.

As you go through the list of auction items, you can shortlist the auctions you wish to ‘watch’ and save them using the Watchlist function provided in your Ebay account.  You can then monitor your Watchlist conveniently from 1 page, instead of bookmarking multiple links.  Ebay will remind you via email when your Watchlist auctions are ending soon or have ended. 

As a buyer, you must make it a good habit to always clarify any doubts that you have with the seller before even bidding on an auction.  If you are living in a different country from the seller, always email the seller at least 3 days before the auction end date; to confirm if the latter ships to your country, and to get a shipping quote before bidding.

If you are interested in bidding on multiple auctions offered by the seller, ask the seller for a combined shipping quote for all those items.  Many sellers are happy to give you a more favourable quote as it saves them handling work if you do win all their auctions. 

Before you bid on an item, do your market research on similar items that have been sold on Ebay for over at least the past 2-3 weeks to be sure that you are getting your intended items for a fair market price.  You can refer to the listing of all the recently ended auctions of similar items for the final auction prices.  You can also personally monitor the final auction prices in your Watchlist as the auctions end over the weeks.

Once you have confirmed all that you need to know from the seller’s auction page and from the seller’s email reply, you may plan your budget price and bidding strategy.  You must have in mind the highest fair price that you are willing to pay for the item.  This helps you to keep to a budget.  Look at the starting bid and the current bids (if any).  Most auctions of very highly sought after items are likely to be on the Watchlists of other potential buyers.  Many buyers also prefer to swoop in at the last few minutes before the auction ends (we call this ’sniping’).  Hence even if an auction seems to attract very few bids till its last day, be prepared for a likely ’bidding war’ in the very last hour. 

When bidding, you bid by entering the maximum price you are willing to pay.  The increment amount will depend on the auction itself.  Some buyers prefer to put in their bids only at the end, so as not to inflate the auction price too early, which might also attract unwanted attention from more rival buyers. 

For me, sometimes I bid early (a few days before) and sometimes I bid in the last few minutes.  Doing the latter can burst your budget if there is a ‘fierce’ bidding war.  This usually happens for the more popular toys; though sometimes it also happens for very common toys when newbie collectors (who did not do enough research) engage in bidding wars with other newbies.  Hence they only serve to inflate the price of the common toy (which is easily available for much less) and make the seller happy.

If you put in a bid, Ebay sends you a confirmation email and also notifies you immediately if you get outbidded by another buyer.  If you win the auction, the seller usually contacts you within 24 hours (part of the seller’s customer service) and you make your payment for the item and its shipping (usually via Paypal) to the seller.  You can also be proactive and contact the seller after the auction.

If you lose the auction, Ebay will suggest other similar ongoing auctions for you to consider via links on your Watchlist and on the ended acution page.

So there you have it, the basics of using Ebay to buy and sell your toys (and other items).  If I do recall anything I missed out, I will add them in later posts.  That’s all for now!