More Ways to Get a Good Deal

By now, you can track down bargains like a bloodhound and snipe like a sharp shooter. You can get eBay's proxy bidding engine revving like a race car and shoulder your way into Dutch auctions. This section lets you in on a couple of other money-saving tricks.

About Me

eBay forbids sellers from including links to Web pages outside eBay in their auctions. Yet some of these sellers have their own Web stores, often with wider selection and sales worth checking out. How can you find these stores if sellers can't advertise them? By viewing something called an About Me page (Section 6.1).

If the word me appears next to the seller's ID and feedback rating on an auction page, click it. This takes you to the seller's About Me page. About Me pages are personal Web pages hosted by eBay. Any eBayer can create an About Me page to tell the rest of the eBay community about herself, her hobbies and interests, her family, what she collects or sells. Sellers can use their About Me pages to link to sites beyond eBay. If a seller has a Web store or a brick-and-mortar store, you might find it on their About Me page—expanding your shopping options.

Note

eBay protects only transactions conducted through its site (see Section 2.4.4 for more on eBay's Buyer Protection Plan). If you buy offsite, you're on your own. Shop only in the offsite stores belonging to sellers you trust, after you've bought from them in an eBay auction or two.

eBay Anything Points

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