Tips and Tricks to Tackling the Worlds Biggest Online Retailer* and Getting the Best Deal!
I opened my blog e-mail the other day to find this "DV," which asked this:
"Dear Viktoria, I am fairly new to your blog but already love it! I saw you've talked about your Ebay necklaces already, but do you have any more advice on what to get on there?
Keep Up the good work
-Sam"
Well Sam, To answer your question....
Some of my best shopping finds have been off of Ebay and I have to admit, it's a very intimidating website if you don't know what you're doing. Let's face it, we don't all have time to sit there and scroll through millions and billions of results so I'm here to teach you how to narrow it all down to a couple hundred results so you can get the best deals that meet your budget.
Let me start off by saying that if you are new to shopping on Ebay try to stick to just "one size fits all" accessories like scarves, earrings, most hats, necklaces etc. You run a huge risk with clothing shopping of things not fitting, even if the sellers have taken the time to put the actual inches measurements of the garment, sometimes fits are literally lost in translation as the majority of the Ebay shops are distributed out of China and other places overseas. For instance, a "Large" size to them is about a Medium or even a Small over here in the states. The majority of the population over there has a smaller build so when they sell a large t-shirt, it may not be a large at all according to the sizing you're used to.....I learned that the hard way.
I'm going to be searching for a Yellow Bubble Necklace to show you what to do!
1.) Know Your Product
Since we are searching for a yellow bubble necklace, that is exactly what I am typing in the search bar, and scrolling down to the category that best suits my needs. In this case, it's going be 'Fashion Jewelry' so I will go down and click on that. Just make sure whatever you are searching for you describe as specific as possible so you can narrow your results down pretty far right off the bat. Other examples: Tortoise Shell Cuff Bracelet, Turquoise Nugget Earrings, J.Crew inspired Statement Necklace etc.
2.) Filter Search Results to 'Buy It Now' & 'Free Shipping'
The reason this is really important is so there are no hidden charges. Sometimes the price reflected either shows without the shipping cost (which will be listen below) OR it shows the starting price of an auctioned item that you bid on. Both of which are misleading so make sure you don't forget these steps! Buy It Now option will be at the very top of the screen above the search results, and the shipping options will be the left of the screen at the bottom.
Step 3: Know Your Budget
If you don't wan to be spending more than $10 on whatever you're looking for, or only have $15 the spend this month, narrow your results on the side of the screen to meet your specific budget, starting at $0 and then up to your max.
VikTip* DO NOT BE FOOLED by the box below that, 'Item Location'. As long as you're patient don't worry about where it's coming from. When I first started shopping on Ebay I only wanted the US Only items, for no other reason than faster shipping. But I soon realized some of the best deals come from China, and although it can be hit or miss and you sometimes really get what you pay for, other times you hit gold. So don't worry about that extra box, get your stuff from wherever and just be aware that items shipping from overseas take a couple weeks to get to you, but patience is a virtue and as long as you're saving money, don't worry about the wait.
Step 4: Prioritize Your Results
By choosing to display your results from Lowest Price first to Highest Price last you are saving yourself the extra trouble of looking for the inexpensive items, even within your specified price range.
Step 5: Narrow Results By Color
This is arguably an optional step considering some pieces aren't a solid color, or they're just too multicolored to narrow down into one color, but if you're looking for something like a yellow bubble necklace then....well, it's pretty obvious :) 'Main Color' filter will be on the left of the screen again, and when you click on it the box the appears look like this. You can select all that apply.
Step 6: Find Your New Gem!
Now you're done, all you have to do is sort through the remaining results and pick a winner! And lookey what I found ladies....
So there it is, Sam. We just narrowed down 20,356 results all the way down to 258 simply by following the above steps. I hope this helped answer your question! Thanks for writing in :)
xo's
-Viktoria
If you have any fashion or style questions that you want answered in extreme detail, send me an e-mail to allsizefitsone@yahoo.com with the header "DV" or "Dear Viktoria" and I will 100% make sure to answer your question on the blog and give a shoutout! If you just want a quick answer make sure to email me FAQ to have your question answered at the end of the month!
*Just so I don't get all this backlash from people saying I'm lying. On a technical basis, Ebay competes with tons of other companies like Wal-mart and Amazon to be "the biggest" online retailer. I'm not sure if they are THE BIGGEST but I just figured I'd clarify.
