eBay® for Dummies®, 6th Edition

Chapter 5. Seek and You Shall Find: Research

In This Chapter

• Getting real-world buying advice on collectibles

• Obtaining solid online buying advice

• Checking out information sources for savvy buyers

• Conducting a special item search on eBay

Picture all the stores you've ever seen in your life, located in one giant mall. You walk in and try to find the single item you're looking for. Man, that's tough! Consider also walking into a store with thousands of aisles of shelves with tens of millions of items on them. Browsing the categories of listings on eBay can be just as pleasantly boggling, without the prospect of sore feet. Start surfing around the site and you instantly understand the size and scope of what's for sale there. Everything. Without question, you'll feel overwhelmed at first, but the eBay staff has come up with lots of ways to help you find exactly what you're looking for. As soon as you figure out how to find the items you want to bid or buy on eBay, you can protect your investment-to-be by making sure that what you find is actually what you seek.

Of course, searching is easier if you have an idea of what you're looking for. In this chapter for collectors, I offer the first-time buyer some expert tips and tell you how to get expert advice from eBay and other sources. I also give you tips for using the eBay search engine from a buyer's perspective.

Note

The best advice you can follow as you explore any free-market system is caveat emptor— let the buyer beware. Although nobody ...