You can find some bargains on eBay, but I find so many people are put off by horror story gossip of people buying faulty goods, or paying over the odds. Firstly, the Ebay search is done based on the keywords in the title of the auction. So think of words which describe your item, are simple, and common. On your first search, select sort by: relevance. Find an item which resembles the item you want. Look at the title. Next, copy and paste (or take the most valuable terms) the terms from this title into your search, and search again. On your second search, select "Buy It Now" and then sort by Price + Shipping: Lowest First NOTE: Very important to select both these options, because then you only get items you can buy instantly, and secondly, you are calculating the whole cost, as a lot of users jack up the shipping price to make up for cheap items. Find the cheapest item. Next, look at the seller. What you are looking for is the % of positive feedback they have received, and also, how high the number is next to the start by their name. What you want is a high number in both columns. I say as a general rule, no less than 98% positive feedback. Once you are sure all is on the up and up, go ahead an purchase! Simple! For an extra tip, a lot of items can be found very cheaply from china on ebay. These items are listed on all ebay (.com, .co.uk, .ca etc) sites, with free international shipping. The lowest buy now price most people set on ebay is 0.99 CURRENCY. If you buy a cheap item from China on Ebay UK, it will cost you 99p, if you buy it from Ebay.com and get it delivered to the UK it costs 99c, making it 65p. It is worth considering this if your item is coming from China / Hong Kong, it may not seem like a huge saving but it does add up! Hope this helps at least someone to take the plunge and use ebay! I have found so many good items so much cheaper this way!
I have often done the "conversion rate" trick on Amazon. I can often get things more cheaply at Amazon.com rather than Amazon.co.uk. Often, the items are simply being sold at a much lower price regardless of the conversion rate. I can only assume this is because there is a larger market in the United States than in Great Britain. You need to be careful if you buy DVDs using this trick though: they will often be encoded in a different "region" so you might not be able to play them unless you change your player's region. This might have changed but I believe you are only allowed to change a player's region a certain number of times before it is locked to your final choice permanently.
IMO, ebay has become such an unpredictable place to shop that I just avoid it entirely. eBid.net is great, and it's rated as the best alternative to ebay. If you're selling anything the cost are a fraction of what ebay charges! I really haven't had anything to do with ebay in several years because of their policies.
Don't forget to research what you buy before buying it there too. This isn't necessary for everything, but in many cases, if it's a popular brand here and it's being sold from China, it's counterfeit. I've come across this so many times. Ebay is FULL of counterfeit and expired products (not just from china), so look into it first, find out how to identify counterfeits and ask the seller to prove it's the real deal.
