The Beginners Guide toSearching eBay

Introduction to eBay Pg 2

Chapter 1 - Choosing your keywords Pg 4Chapter 2 – Narrowing your search results with Categories Pg 6Chapter 3 – Understanding how eBay uses your search terms Pg 11Chapter 4 – Eliminating unwanted results Pg 15Chapter 5 - Sorting the search results Pg 16Chapter 6 – Using ‘Search Options’ Pg 17Chapter 7 – The ‘Advanced Search’ Pg 21

Summary and Quick Reference Sheet Pg 23

This work is written by Tom Sexton, owner and web-master ofhttp://www.BestCareerLinks.com.

It may be redistributed freely in its original, unaltered form.This eBook is not for sale, and if you have paid for it, you should seek a refund from the

seller! Please report any such sales of this book to esearch@bestcareerlinks.com.You can find an original copy of this eBook at

http://www.bestcareerlinks.com/ebay-search.pdfCopyright 2007 by TES International

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eBay

eBay is the world’s largest online auction site, with over a billion new listings in 2006.Finding exactly what you want can sometimes be a nightmare. Not to mention the factthat you’re dealing with vendors, or even just individuals that you don’t know. Makesure to ALWAYS read the entire auction page and take note of any restrictions or specialrequirements. eBay has a ‘Feedback system’ for letting buyers and sellers build areputation in the eBay community. Whenever you buy or sell an item in eBay, at theconclusion of the auction, you have the opportunity to leave Positive, Negative, orNeutral feedback for the other person. Look for sellers with Positive feedback, andpreferably large amounts of it. The better someone’s feedback is, the better the chancethat they are an honest, reputable seller that you can trust.

There are 3 formats for eBay auctions; 1) the traditional auction and 2) a Buy It Nowauction, and 3) Classified Ads. I will only be discussing types 1 and 2 in this book In thetraditional auction, the highest bidder wins the auction, as long as the bid is more thanany ‘Reserve Price’ the seller MAY have set. A seller has the option of setting a‘Reserve Price’ that indicates the minimum amount he is willing to accept for the item. Ifthe bids do not exceed that amount, the auction will end without the item being sold.You can not find out what the Reserve Price is for an auction, except by putting in a largeenough bid to exceed it. Starting prices are chosen by the seller and will vary no matterwhich format of auction is used..

In the Buy It Now auction, the seller sets a fixed price, and you can purchase the itemimmediately for that price..A regular bidding format auction can have a ‘Buy it Now’ option also. Once the first bidis made on the item though, the Buy It Now option disappears.

So if you’re in a hurry to get an item, you’ll either want to find the ‘Buy It Now’ formatauctions that have a price that you’re willing to pay, or find some auctions that are endingsoon, and hope you can win one for the price you’re willing to pay. We’ll discuss laterhow you can narrow your search to particular types of auctions, or auctions ending withincertain time periods.

One more quick note before we get started…

eBay has a nice feature which allows you to enter the maximum amount you’re willing topay when you place your bid. If the amount entered is high enough, your “effective bid”will be just enough to beat the highest current bid. The bidding increments increase asthe item’s price increases, so eBay may increase your bid by .50 cent on lower priceitems, and up to $1 or more on higher priced items. If another buyer increases their bid,eBay will automatically increase yours, up to the amount that you have specified. If twobuyers have both put in “max bids”, eBay will continue to increase the bid amount until itreaches the limit set by one of the buyers.

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In this book I’m going to focus on how you can set up and execute your eBay searches sothat you get the best set of resulting listings that you can. I’ll show you how to narrowyour search down by choosing the right categories to search in, specifically forming yoursearch criteria, and selecting the right search options. We’ll focus first on what I’ll call a‘Basic Search’. There’s really no name for it, but the alternative is an “AdvancedSearch”, which will be covered later. The “Advanced Search” allows you to specifyprice ranges, Buy It Now only auctions, location specific results, and more.I’ll cover the Advance Search in Chapter 7.

In order to buy or sell on eBay you have to set up an account by Registering. Thisregistration is FREE, quick and simple, and allows you to buy or sell, save customsearches, set up a user profile, and more. You’ll especially like the ability to save thesearches you have built. Once you’ve built a custom search, you can even elect to haveeBay send you an email when new items are put up for sale that match your searchcriteria.

So let’s getstarted,and HAPPY HUNTING!!

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Chapter 1 - Choosing your keywords

When choosing your keywords, you want to be specific about what you’re looking for,but not so specific that it severely limits the number of auction items returned in thesearch results. Your goal is to get the most listings that have exactly what you’re lookingfor, so you can pick out the best price, or possibly bid on multiple auctions, trying to winone with just what you’re willing to pay.

NOTE: The eBay search process is NOT case sensitive. Using the keywords ‘xboxgaming system’ will get the same results at ‘Xbox Gaming System’.

This is the home page for eBay. You’ll start out by entering keywords into either of thesearch boxes. You can sign in now if you like, but it’s not necessary in order tosearch.

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For example, let’s say I’m looking for an xbox 360 gaming system in eBay. I couldenter the keywords

xbox 360 gaming systemclick keywords to see results

in the search box, hit the ‘Search’ button and be off to the races. At the time thisdocument was written, this search returned only 26 items. Most likely, all 26 of thoseitems will be exactly what I’m looking for. That’s good, or is it??

The problem with this very descriptive set of keywords is that it is ONLY going to returnauction items that have all 4 keywords in the title. In a Chapter 3, we’ll discuss howeBay handles the keywords that you enter, but for now, let’s just focus on the selection.

So let’s assume you change your keywords to

Xbox 360click keywords to see results

Now you’re going to get results that include any auction listing that have the keywords‘xbox’ and ‘360’ in the title. Remember earlier when I said that the Xbox 360 has manyaccessories, and even more games? This search returns 17474 items! Your search resultsare now most likely to contain a large number of Xbox 360 consoles, along with olderXbox systems, Xbox 360 games, and Xbox 360 accessories.

So while searching on very specific keywords is highly likely to return very accurateresults, it leaves out many auction listings that didn’t include all of our search keywords.You’ll want to strike a balance between the quantity and quality of the auctions returnedby your search.

Selecting the right keywords is just the first step in finding an item on eBay. Now let’stake advantage of the fact that eBay has divided its auction items into Categories.

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Chapter 2 – Narrowing your search results with Categories

The first choice you need to make is whether you want broad results from any of eBay’smore than 500 categories, or more qualified results, from a specific eBay category.

eBay groups its items in such categories as Antiques, Art, Baby, Crafts, DVDs & Movies,Real Estate, and many more. Click here for a complete list. There are also eBaySpecialty sites, such as ‘eBay Express’, ‘eBay Motors’, ‘eBay Stores’, ‘eBay Business’,‘Half.com’, and even ‘Apartments on Rent.com’.

If you’re looking for a car, truck or motorized vehicle, you might select ‘eBay Motors’.For Business supplies, you’d select ‘eBay Business’. ‘eBay Stores’ is a feature eBayoffers to those sellers that want to set up online storefronts. If you’ve got a favorite eBayseller, you might frequent their store.

For the purpose of this book, though, I’ll stick with the standard eBay.com marketplace.This marketplace is subdivided into more than 1000 different categories and sub-categories.

So, back to our search……

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A search term of ‘red corvette’ will turn up a wide variety of results including, but notlimited to

Cars in the ‘eBay Motors’ or ‘Antiques’ category,Model Cars or Hallmark Ornaments in the ‘Collectibles’Toy Corvettes in the ‘Toys’ category,Trinkets and Jewelry in the Jewelry categoryTshirts and jackets in the Clothing categorie.

So you see that without specifying which category you want results from, you’re going toget any item that has ‘red corvette’ in the auction title.

By choosing a category, you’re taking the first step in reducing the number of searchresults, and limiting the results to items that fit the type of Category you have chosen.Remember, eBay sellers can choose to put any item in any category. Often times, sellerswill put “related” items in certain categories thinking that if someone is interested, forexample in a ‘red corvette’ that they may also be interested in a jacket with a red corvetteemblem.

You can choose to browse categories and sub-categories without entering any searchterms. Selecting a category

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will take you to a screen showing the sub-categories, and also offering you the option ofdisplaying all items in that category.

Ok, so I’ve digressed again. If you’re not sure what you’re looking for, browsing aCategory in eBay is like window shopping. You can go from store to store (ie. Categoryto Category) all day long, just looking at what is available.

So let’s get back to getting the best possible search results in eBay…….

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If you haven’t already chosen one, you can also wait to choose your category after eBayhas returned the results generated by searching on your keywords. eBay offers you twoways to re-do your search, that will narrow the results to just items found in specific eBaycategories. You can either click one of the categories in the ‘Matching Categories’column on the left side of the page, or select one of the Suggested Searches offered inthe middle of the page.

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*** In some cases, eBay automatically expands your search to include items based on theintent of your search rather than matching the exact keywords provided. For example, ifyou were to use the search keywords ‘drama DVD’ (without the quotes), eBay wouldautomatically include listings from the category DVD that contained the word ‘drama’.This feature can be disabled by putting your keyword in double quotes. An examplefollows.

By using the following search keywords:Action DVDClick to see results

you get listings that contain the keyword ‘action’ and the keyword ‘DVD’, AND listingsin the DVD category that contained ‘action’, even if you’re only searching in a differentcategory.

By using the following search keywords:“action” DVD or action “DVD”Click to see results Click to see results

you get only listings that contain the keyword ‘action’ and the keyword ‘DVD’ in thecategories you’ve chosen, if any. If you click the keywords above, you’ll see that theyproduct similar, but different results.

By using double quotes around your search keyword, you are telling eBay to ONLYreturn items that have your specific keywords in the title. Click here for a completelisting of the eBay Keyword Search Category Expansions.

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Chapter 3 – Understanding how eBay uses your keywords

Now we’ll talk about how you should format the keywords that you enter into the searchbox to get the most accurate results. In Chapter 2, we mentioned using doublequotes around a keyword in order to disable the Keyword Search CategoryExpansions feature.

Entering some keywords in either of these boxes, and clicking on the ‘Search’ buttoncauses eBay to search for those terms in auction titles in all eBay Categories. So let’slook at how we can construct our search keywords to get the more accurate results.

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First of all, if let’s look at what eBay does with the keywords that you enter. Click on theexamples to see the differences between these searches in real time. Each example willopen in a new window. You can elect to have eBay search auction Titles (the default), orauction titles and descriptions.

Search keywords

Action

ExampleClick bold text to see result

More than one keyword

Enter the keywords with a space betweenthem

Playstation 3 60gb

This search returns any items with all3 terms in the title, in any order.

Keywords with certain words in a particularorder

Place quotation marks about the group ofword

“playstation 3 60gb”

This search returns items with titlescontaining “playstation 3 60gb” in thatorder only, but not those containingjust ‘playstation or just ‘3’ or just‘60gb or the words ‘playstation 60gb’

To search for one keyword or another

Put parentheses around the keywords, andseparate them with a comma

(playstation 3,ps3) console

This search returns items with titlescontaining the words ‘playstation 3console’ or ‘ps3 console’.

To eliminate results containing certainkeywords

Put a minus sign in front of the keyword

playstation 3 20gb -60gb

Returns items with titles containingthe keywords playstation,3, and 20gb,but not containing the keyword ps3

So now let’s look at these search terms in action and see how we can best use ourkeywords to find exactly what we want.

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In the following examples, our goal is to find an Xbox 360 console. This is a VERYpopular gaming system, and also one with a lot of accessories and games. Let’s see whata search for just the term ‘Xbox’ gets us.

The first thing you should notice is that this search returns 45810 items!!! That’sprobably a little more than we’re willing to comb through looking for our Xbox 360console. The results include games, accessories, Xbox 360 consoles, and older Xboxconsoles. There are also actions you can take on the results screen to “fine tune” theresults on this screen, but we’ll address those later.

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Changing our keywords to ‘xbox 360 system’ greatly increases the accuracy of ourresults, and now we’ve got 1113 different auctions to choose from. We will still getsome results that aren’t what we’re looking for (eg. The ‘Silver Chrome Xbox 360System skin skins kit faceplate’ ), but we’ve got a pretty good listing of auctions tochoose from.

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Chapter 4 – Eliminating unwanted results

Many times when searching for a product in eBay, you’ll get resulting auctions that don’treally have the item you were looking for. For example, when searching for thekeywords ‘xbox 360’, you may get auction titles like:

Instructions of how to buy Xbox 360Mystery Auction for Xbox 360Buy my other product not Xbox 360Raffle for Xbox 360

One way we can reduce unwanted auctions from our results are to “negate” certainkeywords in our search. That means that eBay will remove auctions titles that containcertain keywords from our results, as opposed to adding them.

For example, in order to remove the ‘Silver Chrome Xbox 360 System Skin skins kitfaceplate’ item from our previous search (on page 14), we could modify our keywords asfollows:

Original keywords: New Keywords:xbox 360 system xbox 360 system –skin

Adding a ‘-skin’ keyword to our search tells eBay NOT to show any auction title that hasthe word ‘skin’ in the title. You can also combine search features. Using a dash in frontof multiple keywords bracketed by double quotes prevents any titles from being includedin your results that contain the exact keyword combination that you place in the doublequotes. For example, using the keywords

Xbox system –“Xbox 360”Click to see results

would return auction titles that contained the keyword ‘xbox’ and the keyword ‘system’,but NOT titles that also contained the phrase ‘xbox 360’. You might use this search ifyou were looking to find versions of the Xbox other than the model 360.

Returning to an earlier example of trying to find a red corvette….. Searching on thekeywords ‘red corvette’ from the eBay home page returns a total of 855 auctions.Searching on keywords ‘red corvette –jacket –hotwheels –sweatshirt’ reduces our resultsto 792. Since you won’t always know all the different non-car results that can show up,negating keywords is most effective when you specifically know of some type of relatedproduct that you don’t want to show up in your search results.

On great way to eliminate unwanted results is to add the keyword ‘-not’ to your searchkeywords. That will eliminate any auction with the word ‘not’ in the title, and preventsresults such as

Blue corvette not red corvette orXbox 360 not PS3

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Chapter 5 – Sorting the search results

eBay offers you several ways to sort the results of a search. You can elect to sort yourresults by the following criteria. Click on any criteria to see the resulting auctions so youcan compare the results. Each is based on a search for the keywords “playstation 360gb”.

Criteria Result / BenefitPrice: Lowest first Sorts auction listings by price, and starts with the lowest current

bid.

If you’re only looking to spend a certain amount, sorting bylowest current bid will show you auctions that might still beunder the price you’re willing to pay.

Price: Highest first Sorts auction listings by price, and starts with the highestcurrent bid.

This will show you the most that has been bid on the items youare searching for.

Time: ending soonest Sorts auction listings by their ending time.

If you’re in a hurry to get an item, you’ll want to bid on theauction that is ending soonest. The sooner the auction ends, thesooner the seller will be shipping the product.

Time: newly listed Sorts auctions listings by their listing time.

This shows items that have most recently been added in yoursearch results. If you’re not impressed with any of the existingauctions, you’ll want to check back, and sort your results thisway to see the latest items that have been put up for sale.

Distance: nearest first Sorts auction listings by the distance from your location. Yourlocation is determined by you entering your zip code.

This is mostly relevant when you are bidding on items that willnot be shipped. Some auctions will state “Pickup only” becauseof the size, weight, etc of an item.

Best Match Sorts auction listings by relevancy to your search keywords.

This sort attempts to find the “most relevant” items for thekeywords you have entered. The relevancy is based onpurchases made by other eBayers, category, and some othercriteria.

Category Sorts auction listings by the category in which the item is listed.

This allows you to sort by, and see all the different categories inwhich your item is listed.

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Chapter 6 – Using Search Options

In addition to the ‘Advanced Search’, eBay also offers additional search options thatshow up in the left hand column of search result pages. These options allow you tofine-tune your searches even more.

Note that you can Customize which options display on search results pages. If youare allowing ‘Cookies’ to be saved on your computer, your Customizations should“stick” once you’ve changed them. Once you’ve selected which Search Options youwant, click on the ‘Show Items’ button to cause a new search.

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Clicking on ‘Customize’ (see previous image) takes you to the following screen, whereyou can choose which ‘search options’ you want to show up in your ‘Search Options’box.

To add an option to your list of choices, select an option in the ‘Available SearchOptions’ box, and then click on the >> button. Likewise, to remove an option from yourlist, select that option in the ‘Options you want to display’ box, and click on the <<.When you’re done, click on ‘Apply Changes’.

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Here’s a brief explanation of options, and when you might want to use them.

Option PurposeLocation Choose the Country/Region of the seller. Default is Worldwide.

Use when you only want to purchase items from a seller in acertain country.

Items within X milesof Y

Select the amount of miles (X) and enter a zip code (Y).

Use when you only want to purchase items from sellers within acertain distance from your zip code. This is especially helpful infinding items where no shipping is offered, and you will have topick up the item.

“Show only” options. Choosing one of these options filters the auctions that will beshown in the search results.Items listed withPayPal

Shows only auctions where PayPal is accepted as a form ofpayment.

Use this option to find auctions that accept PayPal.Buy It Now items Shows only auctions that have the ‘Buy It Now’ option.

Use this option when you want the item quickly, and are willingto pay a fixed price to Buy It Now.

Free Shipping Shows only auctions with free shipping.

Use this option to find auctions with free shipping.Get it Fast items Shows only auctions that participate in the ‘Get it Fast’ program.

Use this option to find auctions that commit to offer at least oneform of overnight shipping, and that ship within one business dayof receiving cleared payment.

Completed Listings Shows only auctions that have been completed.

This option is handy for researching the latest prices that havebeen paid for an item in eBay.

Gift Items Shows only auctions where the seller has flagged the item as a‘Gift’.

Sellers may choose to list their item as a Gift. This is purely theopinion of the seller. If they list as a gift, they may offer “gift”services such as expedited shipping, gift wrapping, or shipping tothe gift recipient.

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Best Offer Shows only auctions that have the ‘Best Offer’ option.

This option can only be added to Fixed Price auctions. The ‘BestOffer’ option indicates that the seller is willing to accept offersfrom buyers. The seller can accept or reject the offer.

Items listed as lots Shows only auctions where you are bidding on a ‘lot’, that is, aquantity of more than 1 of the item.

All items includingStore InventoryItems

Shows auctions, but also shows items listed in eBay Stores.

This adds items from eBay Stores to your search results.Listings ‘Endingwithin’ X

Select a value of X (hours or days). This option shows onlyauctions ending within the time period you have chosen.

This option is useful if you know you want to purchase an itemwithin a particular time frame.

Listings ‘Ending inmore than’ X

Select a value of X (hours or days). This option shows onlyauctions ending at least X hours or days from today.

Listings ‘Startedwithin’ X

Select a value of X (hours of days). This option shows onlyauctions that have started within the last X hours or days.

This is useful for finding new auctions that have started within thelast X hours or days. Use this to see only newer auctions.

Items priced X to Y Enter price values for X and Y. This option will limit your searchresults to items where the current or starting bid is between theprice ranges you have set.

Items listed in US $ This limits your search results to items which have a price in USdollars.

Some auctions may have prices in foreign currencies. You areresponsible for paying the seller in their listed currency.

Multiple itemlistings

This option shows auctions that offer multiple quantities of thesame item.

Items from a specificseller

This option limits the results to auctions offered by a specificseller.

eBay Giving Worksitems

eBay Giving works is the dedicated program for charity listingswhere you can buy items to support nonprofit organizations.

Number of Bids This option allows you to only show items that have a certainnumber of bids. You define the lower and upper limit of thisrange.

Classified Ads This option causes only Classified Ads to be shown in the results.Store InventoryItems only

This option causes only Store Inventory Items to be shown in theresults.

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Chapter 7 – Advanced Search

The Advanced Search offers the same functionality of the basic search, plus someadditional criteria that you can use to customize your search results. You can still enterkeywords to characterize your search, but you don’t have to. Some of the optionsavailable under the Advanced Search don’t require keywords. There are also other thingsyou can search on, such as an ISBN for books, eBay seller’s ids, and more. Here is ascreen shot of the Advanced Search page:

Now I’ll explain the different options (not all shown above) that you have on theAdvanced Search page.

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Search by: UsageBidder This option lets you see a list of the items that a particular

bidder has bid on or bought.

You must know the bidder’s eBay id in order to use this search.Category This option allows you to quickly search for items in a specific

area of the site. You can search within a category, in a basic oradvanced search, in your search results, or in an eBay Motorssearch.

Completed Listings This option allows you to search for auctions that have endedand therefore see what items have recently sold for.

Country or Region This option allows you to find items listed by sellers from othercountries.

Currency This option allows you to find items listed in a particularcurrency.

Favorite Searches This option allows you to run one of your Favorite Searches.You must be signed in to save and use a Favorite Search.

Gift Item This option allows you to search for items that Sellers havemarked as ‘Gift Items’.

ISBN This option allows you to search for books by their ISBNnumber.

Item Number This option allows you to search for a particular eBay ItemNumber. Each item in eBay has a unique item number, sosearching by item number will return exactly one result.

Keyword inTitle/Description

This option allows you to search for items described by thekeywords that you enter. By default eBay only searches theauction titles. You can also elect to have the search include theauction descriptions.

Multiple Item Listings This option allows you to search for auctions that offer multipleitems.

Single Seller This option allows you to search for items offered by a singleseller. You must know the seller’s eBay ID.

Multiple Sellers This option allows you to limit your search to a group of sellers.You must know the sellers’ eBay IDs.

‘My Favorite Sellers’ This option allows you to search for items among your‘Favorite Sellers’ list. You must be signed in to access your‘Favorite Sellers’ list.

Zip/Postal Code This option allows you to search for items in a particularzip/postal code, or city. This is useful when you’re trying tosave on shipping costs, or you’re planning on picking the itemup.

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Summary

I’ve covered a LOT of information in the past few pages, and hope that some of it helpsyou to get better search results, and therefore get better prices on the items you purchasein eBay. This last page will make a nice little printout to keep handy when you’researching for items in eBay.

In order to get better search results in eBay

1) Choose descriptive keywords, but not so many that you limit your results2) Search in specific categories, or limit the results you’ve gotten by choosing a

Category.3) Structure the keywords and choose keyword operators to tweak the search results

a. For example, use “xbox 360 console” (with double quotes) instead of‘xbox 360 console’ (no quotes) to get more specific results

b. Use parens to designate a search for one term OR another (eg. Using(ps3,playstation 3) consoleSearches for ‘ps3 console’ and ‘playstation 3 console’

4) Negate keywords to remove unwanted resultsa. Use the dash option to remove results containing certain keywords (for

example: xbox 360 console –“playstation 3”5) Use sorting options to filter your results (e.g. Price –lowest first, Time: Ending

soonest, Best Match, etc)6) Use Search Options (box on left side of browser window for eBay page) to filter

results by ‘Buy It Now only’, ‘Completed Listings’, ‘Gift Ideas’, etc.7) Use the Advanced Search to further limit your results to ‘Certain Sellers’,

‘Location specific auctions’, ‘items a particular bidder has bid on’, etc.

Now that you’ve learned how to create more productive searches, why don’t you visiteBay and try out your new skills!!

Happy Hunting and Good Luck!!!!