After 'playing' with eBay for some months, I have picked up a few priceless hints and tips. I'll share them with you now.

* Know your items worth. When bidding, don’t bid past the items true worth. Use ‘Completed Listings’ to see how much similar items have just sold for. Use price checking sites like: www.snapsearch.com to see how much your item is selling for all over the Internet.

* Look for misspellings, I was able to buy a signed photo cheap as it was listed as ‘Robby Williams’ instead of ‘Robbie Williams’. People searching missed the item incorrectly spelled so I had no competition when bidding. This sort of thing happens everyday on eBay.

* When searching use an asterisk like so: ‘Robb*’ which will find both Robby and Robbie, in this case.

* Time your bids at quiet times so that you’ve no competition, or use www.auctionsniper.com to get your bid in at the very last second so nobody can outbid you. It’s free to try.

* Use the ‘History’ feature to see who else is bidding, what they’re bidding and when. Start your bidding when they’ve gone offline.

* Bid in small increments so that the item’s price doesn’t rise too quickly.

* If you regularly search for the same item, add it to your favourites on the results page. The search will then be employed each day and you will be emailed the results by eBay.

* Pay for your winning bids via PayPal – it’s free for buyers and totally secure.

* If you can’t find what you want on eBay.co.uk, look on eBay.com or do an advanced search and click on ‘Worldwide’.

* If you’re new to eBay, start by buying small items to gain ‘Feedback’. Feedback ratings are taken very seriously on eBay and you’ll find that buying and selling is much more successful when you’ve go plenty of positive feedback. Feedback is what your sellers and buyers leave you by way of a rating. You need all positives if you can.

* When selling, try to time your auction for when the appropriate audience will be online. The end of the auction will be the busiest so ensure it doesn’t end at 4am, for example.

* To give you a clue what to sell, visit http://pulse.ebay.co.uk. It tells you what are the most popular fads selling on eBay at the current time. To be at the top of the list means it is what people are interested in buying and also shows the availability. If it isn’t selling it won’t be featured as sellers wouldn’t get involved in such items. Copy those making the big money.

* Use a good searchable headline when listing your item. Use ‘Playstation’ and ‘Play Station’ for example, to capture the various forms of typing it.

* In your item description, be honest. Tell them if the item is marked or slightly faulty. Give genuine market value.

* Use pictures. Save image fees by linking text to your web site to display several ‘free’ images.

* Start your auction at a penny with no reserve for more chance of success. Obviously, if the item is valuable a reserve is then necessary, but bidders will know that, of course.

* Be prompt once you have sold your item. Get it to the winning bidder, properly packaged, and let them know when to expect delivery.

These are just a few of the useful tips that I've picked up while dabbling with eBay. I do hope you too find them useful.

About The Author

(c) 2006 Martyn Brown 20+ years in the home business industry.

For a free 'work from home' magazine and other business tools, visit: http://www.workinghoursmagazine.co.uk