eBay: The Missing Manual

During the Auction

You've successfully listed an item, but you can't just sit back and wait for a buyer to send you money. You need to manage your auction while it's running. Keep track of auctions you're running from your My eBay page, where you can see the current price, and, if appropriate, how many bids have been placed, the current high bidder's ID, the number of people who've added your item to their Watch list, and the number of questions you have waiting about the item. Check your auction page to make sure it looks right, respond to buyers' questions, and maybe lower the starting price if you're not getting any bids. This section explains what might come up during an auction.

Finding Your Item

It's easy for one listing to get lost among eBay's millions upon millions of auctions. If you want to check your auction while it's running but can't find it, try one of the following foolproof ways to locate it:

• My eBay. Go to your My eBay page and click All Selling. Your auction appears under Items I'm Selling. Click its title to go to the auction page.

• Item Number Search. Click the Advanced Search link, then type the item number in the text box and click Search. You can get the item number from the confirmation email eBay sent when you listed the item.

• Seller Search. Click Advanced Search → Items by Seller. Type in your own eBay ID and click Search. The results list all of your current auctions.

If you can't find an auction by any of these means, check to make sure that you actually ...