Beginners guide to buying on ebay : eBay Guides

Whilst browsing items for sale, if you see something you want to bid on, hold back if you have time to check if there are other identical items later on.  You could either do a search (you can save searches for use at other times) or just scroll down through the following items to see if you can see any identical items.  If it is something that comes up quite frequently, and you are looking for a bargain, put in a bid just above the current bid in the last few minutes before auction (you can click 'watch this item' well before auction).  If someone else wins, it is no sweat as you can bid on an identical item later on until you will win one at a really good price. 

Make sure you choose one that has a good item description (if there is no item description, your purchase is more risky) and the seller has good seller ratings and feedback (click on 'see detailed feedback').  If you see something you want that is quite rare, it is worth putting in your highest possible bid (the maximum you are prepared to spend) at the earliest opportunity.  This will hopefully put off and outbid other bidders right from the start.  At higher amounts the steps between bids increase.

Seller ratings go a long way to giving confidence as they are done anonymously and people can give their opinion freely.  If you see a seller with negative feedback, don't necessarily write them off though; sometimes you get a daft buyer giving negative feedback for silly reasons.  Look at the table 'recent feedback ratings' and click on the number in the table under negative feedback and it will tell you lower down the page what the problem was and how the seller responded.  Also look at their seller ratings and other feedback to get an overall picture.

A good place to browse for more information is the Answer Centre (click on Community on the top menu) and then click on Answer Centre, followed by bidding and buying.  Very experienced ebayers answer questions on a wide variety of issues/problems (all volunteers) and you can pick up good tips.

Hope this has been helpful ..if so please click yes below