| If you know what you're doing, you can | | | | through the whole category? You might be |
| quickly find what you're looking for on eBay. | | | | surprised by what you find. |
| Here are a few golden rules. | | | | |
| | | | Few people realise just how powerful eBay's |
| Be specific: If you're searching for the | | | | search engine is - a few symbols here and |
| first edition of the original Harry Potter | | | | there and it'll work wonders for you. |
| book, you'll get further searching for 'harry | | | | |
| potter rowling philosopher's stone first | | | | Wildcard searches: You can put an asterisk |
| edition' than you will searching for 'harry | | | | (*) into a search phrase when you want to say |
| potter'. You'll get fewer results, but the | | | | 'anything can go here'. For example, if you |
| ones you do get will be far more relevant. | | | | wanted to search for a 1950s car, you could |
| | | | search for 'car 195*'. 195* will show results |
| Spell wrongly: It's a sad fact that many of | | | | from any year in the 1950s. |
| the sellers on eBay just can't spell. | | | | |
| Whatever you're looking for, try thinking of | | | | In this order: If you put words in quotes |
| a few common misspellings - the chances are | | | | ("") then the only results shown will be ones |
| that fewer people will find these items, and | | | | that have all of the words between the quote |
| so they will be cheaper. | | | | marks. For example, searching for "Lord of |
| | | | the Rings" won't give you any results that |
| Get a thesaurus: You should try to search for | | | | say, for example "Lord Robert Rings". |
| all the different words that someone might | | | | |
| use to describe your item, for example | | | | Exclude words: Put a minus, and then put any |
| searching for both 'TV' and 'television', or | | | | words in brackets that you don't want to |
| for 'phone', 'mobile' and 'cellphone'. Where | | | | appear in your search results. For example: |
| you can, though, leave off the type of item | | | | "Pulp Fiction" -(poster,photo) will find |
| altogether and search by things like brand | | | | items related to Pulp Fiction but not posters |
| and model. | | | | or photos. |
| | | | |
| Use the categories: Whenever you search, | | | | Either/or: If you want to search for lots of |
| you'll notice a list of categories at the | | | | words at once, just put them in brackets: the |
| side of your search results. If you just | | | | TV example from earlier could become |
| searched for the name of a CD because you | | | | '(TV,television)', which would find items |
| want to buy that CD, you should click the | | | | with either word. |
| 'CDs' category to just look at results in | | | | |
| that category. Why bother looking through a | | | | So once you've found your bargain item, bid |
| load of results that you don't care about? | | | | for it and won it, what if it all goes wrong? |
| | | | Don't worry - eBay has a thorough dispute |
| Don't be afraid to browse: Once you've found | | | | resolution procedure, and we'll cover it in |
| the category that items you like seem to be | | | | some depth in the next article, so you'll be |
| in, why not click 'Browse' and take a look | | | | prepared if the worst happens. |