A Beginner’s Guide To Saving Money By Using eBay
It’s the time of the year when we’re buying gifts and need to be savvy about the way we shop. eBay is a great place to buy presents for all of the family – it’s also a great place to sell some of the gifts you receive that you don’t have a use for and they’ll just add to the clutter in your home.
eBay has been around for some time now, and it’s amassed a stellar reputation. During its early days, there was a lot not to like about the site, but it’s cleaned up its act since. Nowadays, it’s a bustling online market and a great place to save money.
Saving money is a very important part of your financial life. The more you save, the less you waste. Money not spent is money you can put aside for more important things in the future. The question is; how exactly can you save money by using eBay? Here’s a short guide, full of a few tips to help you out.
Bid, Don’t ‘Buy It Now’
On eBay, you have two main ways of buying something. You can either bid for it, or you can buy it for a set price. If you want to save money, you should always bid. Bidding is a very good way of getting things for an absolute bargain. There are some tactics involved here, the main one being that you shouldn’t bid until the last few seconds. You can also set a maximum bid, so you automatically keep bidding if someone else ups your bid, until you reach your maximum amount. You can get things for a fraction of the price that they sell on the high street with some smart bidding tactics.
Arrange Delivery Yourself
There have been many instances where you may see something on eBay that looks reasonably priced and have rushed to but it only to find that the delivery costs are way too high. This is normally the case for very bulky items, as sellers have to pay couriers more money to ship something big and heavy. Sometimes, they flat out refuse to deliver and offer collections only.
Never mind, as you can save money by arranging the delivery yourself by using sites like Shiply to find delivery services that will pick your item up from the seller. They do it for a cut-price as they tend to be going towards your location and passing by the seller. So, it’s a slight diversion for them, rather than actually going out of their way like normal delivery companies will do. If the delivery costs are too high from the seller, arrange them yourself to save more money.
Sell Your Old Stuff
Finally, you can save money by selling some of your old goods. If you have things lying around the home that don’t get used or some Christmas gifts that you can’t return but don’t have a use for, sell them on eBay. List them for a ‘Buy it now’ price, but make sure you accept bids too. When the item sells, you get paid and can save the money you earn. Put it away in a savings account, use it to go towards an investment – it can help you be more financially stable.
It’s evident that eBay is a very useful website for anyone trying to save a few extra pennies. If you use it as your main online store when shopping for clothes or other material goods, then you will greatly decrease what you spend over the course of a year.