Advice from Take our Word.com

1. SEARCH REGULARLY

Ebay allows you to list auction or fixed price items for 1, 3, 5, 7, or 10-day periods. Most sellers choose longer periods because they are buying more advertising for their money but I'm finding more and more 3-day auctions. So try to do your searches at least every 3 days.

2. SEARCH MISSPELLINGS

It's easy to misspell Furstenberg and to type Pulizter instead of Pulitzer. If you can find a quality designer item that has a misspelling in the title, you will probably compete with a much smaller pool of buyers for the item.

3. DON'T JUST SEARCH THE VINTAGE CATEGORY.

Not everyone offering vintage clothing is a vintage dealer. Sometimes people are just clearing out Aunt Anna's clothes from the attic and don't have a lot of experience with either vintage clothes or selling on eBay. Often you'll find these items buried in the Women's Clothing category which appears before the Vintage category in the eBay listing process. So search for VINTAGE VICTORIAN BLOUSE in the Clothing & Accessories category rather than VICTORIAN BLOUSE in the vintage category.

4. SEARCH TITLES AND DESCRIPTIONS

Not all sellers include the word VINTAGE in their auction titles. To be sure you find all the VINTAGE VICTORIAN BLOUSES, be sure to check the box under the search field to search both titles and descriptions.

5. GET CREATIVE WITH YOUR SEARCHES

It's easy to find high-end vintage by searching for a designer's name but you can also find high-quality items by searching on fabrics (brocade, velvet, mink, cashmere), searching for high-end department store names (Saks, I. Magnin, Bonwit Teller) or searching for ESTATE SALE buried inside auction listings.

6. USE AN AUCTION SNIPING SERVICE

Sellers, of course, want you to bid on their items as soon as possible. Their hope is that several bidders will become interested in the piece and bid up the price. Smart buyers take a different approach. Instead of entering their highest bid early, and watching it get bumped up by other bidders over the next few days, they wait until the final seconds of the auction. Even better, use an auction snipe service. For a small fee, these companies will place your bid in the last few seconds of the auction and you don't even need to be at your computer! No more forgetting that you wanted to bid on something--the snipe service does it for you. I like these services because if I enter my highest proxy bid too early, someone can keep bumping up the bid trying to discover what my highest bid was. If I enter it in the last few seconds, I may end up getting the item for a lot less than if I bid in the first few hours of the auction.

7. ALWAYS CHECK SELLER FEEDBACK

Again, not everyone offering vintage clothing on eBay is a vintage clothing dealer. If someone has great feedback but has been selling auto car parts, it might be wise to ask the seller a few specific questions about the item before bidding. What you think of as Mint condition and what they're calling Mint condition could be vastly different. Also, as a seller who talks to other sellers, I know that sometimes negative feedback is left for sellers that is unwarranted. Or things like Katrina happen and your auction item never gets sent. A negative feedback or two every couple of years is not a big deal. What you should be wary of is a pattern of recent negative or neutral feedbacks. Drill down and read why they were left. If you are unsure about a seller's responsiveness, send a simple question to them and see how quickly and accurately they respond.

8. KEEP A LIST OF YOUR FAVORITE SELLERS

You can add a seller to your list of Favorite Sellers by clicking on the link in one of their auctions. You can also sign up to be emailed when your favorite sellers add new items. You're never out of the loop and it makes browsing a lot more fun when you are looking at items that you consistently like.

9. BROWSE, BROWSE, BROWSE

Browsing eBay can be just as much fun as browsing at the mall. Looking for bargains? Browse through vintage by Lowest Price First. Want to see the crème de la crème? Browse by Highest Price First. If you have lots of time, do what a friend of mine does: every day, EVERY day, she browses the Newly Listed vintage category items and stops when she reaches the first listing she saw the day before. She wants to make sure she never misses out on a great item.

10. PIGGYBACK ON ANOTHER BUYER

Do you find you keep losing auctions to the same buyer? Do you find that the same people seem to be bidding on the same auctions as you over and over? Piggyback on them by doing a SEARCH BY BIDDER. Enter their bidder ID and you will be able to see a list of all the items they are currently bidding on. Chances are good that they have found a great vintage item that you missed!

With these tips you should be able to find all kinds of vintage clothing and accessories on eBay. One final tip: be sure to pay for your items quickly and establish good feedback of our own so you can continue to buy vintage bargains on eBay.

Mary Kincaid has been buying, wearing, and collecting vintage clothing for over a decade. Visit Zuburbia, her Vintage Clothing Blog, to see her Vintage Pick-of-the-Day and get tips, info, and insights on vintage clothing.

Copyright 2005, Mary Kincaid. May be reprinted in its entirety with full credit given to Mary Kincaid and a link to www.zuburbia.blogspot.com.


Shared Movies, 75% Each Sale. - Movie traffic, great seller, great conversion, Now with Google/Yahoo Tracking!
Witchcraft Exposed! - Powerful Spells about Love, Luck, Wealth, Money, Protection, etc. Guaranteed Results from the European Wizards. Great Affiliate.


Article Index: | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57

More Articles: