Hi I have been on EBAY for about a year and a half and this guide is from personal experience on what can happen if you buy without knowledge and without taking the necessary precautions. This is only a short guide to buying I will write more as time goes by and depending on feedback from this guide.

Chapter 1

so you have registered and you are ready to buy. When your new to EBAY you can feel like the world is your oyster and everything is in your reach straight away, you can score that perfect bargain and save tons of money. While this is possible there is a distinct way to do it and those who either don't know the system or choose to ignore it usually end up raising the price far above retail value or getting ripped off pretty badly, getting burned and swearing never to use Ebay again.

Trust me folks rushing in is the first major mistake made by everyone including yours truly. Ebay is like a game of chess its all strategy and patience but I will go in that later.

Auction types:
There are Numerous kinds of auctions on Ebay but the two Auction types you will see most are "Buy now" and your standard bidding Auction. Below I have detailed the two

Buy Now: The name is pretty self explanatory. “Buy now” allows the bidder to purchase the item at the click of a button without going through the bidding process

Although "Buy Now" is convenient like all things it has its tricks and catches. When buying on “Buy it now” CHECK YOUR POSTAGE” quite often you will see an item that sounds like an absolute bargain at $1 has a ridicules postage of $150. This is a straight out rip-off and people get caught on it everyday just by not looking before they click. The best advice I can give you on this matter is go to the Australia post website and checkout the postage for yourself and if I can offer you one more tip of advice on this or any kind of auction READ THE DESCRIPTION before you bid because once you commit to buy the item there is little chance of changing your mind although this is dependant on the seller but most will not retract the bid unless you made a mistake on the bid EG put in $1,000 instead of $100.

Standard Auction:
Once again this auction is pretty self explanatory by the title but is by far the trickiest to master. Auctions can last between 1 and 9 days (at last check) and start at the price set by the person selling the item. Everyone has different strategies for bidding on this kind of auction but these from experience are the two i recommend

Patience is a virtue:
If you are the patient type and can stand a wait put the item on your “My Ebay list” by clicking the “watch this item” button keep an eye on the item from day to day this allows you to keep track of the price of the item and if it goes above your maximum bid to delete it (stretching your budget to bursting point for one item just isn't worth the stress others will come). When the item comes to the last hour place a small bid down to feel out your competition but don't push it too hard or all you are doing is raising the price. Wait until the last 5 minutes of the auction and place down your maximum bid this will do one of two things A. it will scare off your competition into submission or B. the price will go above your budget in which case no matter how good the item was it just wasn't worth it.

To hell with patience:
If you are the impatient impulsive type like me then you just cant wait to buy that once in a life time bargain and although I cant say this method always works its sometimes the best way if you cant sit and watch the item for day after day. IF you find that rare jewel of an item that you just cant resist and say for example it has nine days to go say to hell with it and throw your absolute maximum bid on the item lets the fates decide if you are going to get it or not but what ever you do DO NOT bid again if you get outbid and you cant afford it its not worth blowing yourself out of the water with a ridicules bid and not being able to pay for it all that will result in is bad feedback and that's the last thing you need