40 eBay and second-hand buying tips

There's a quick way to glean an eBay product's market value and make sure you're getting a good deal.

Fill in the search box and tick 'sold items' on the left-hand bar. It'll come up with a list of prices similar auctions have fetched. Sort by "Lowest price" and don't pay more than the average. 

eBay bans the sale of intangible items, including recipes, dieting advice and, bizarrely, spells and haunted items. Yet some Del Boy types still sell web addresses with names like "exclusive info" or "tools of great interest".

Other sellers flog mobile phone Sim unlocking codes for as much as £10, when you can do this for nowt (see Mobile Phone Unlocking).

To our great distaste, links to this site have been sold to the highest bidder. In the past, people have sold bank charge reclaiming template letters, as well as links to tools from the site.

Use Google to check exactly what you're bidding for. If it's just "information", you'll usually find the same elsewhere for free.

There's nothing wrong with asking for a discount, even if the listing doesn't show the 'make offer' logo. Haggling works best on buy-it-now listings, or auctions with a high start price and no bids.

To contact the seller, click 'ask a question'. If you're polite and charming, you'll get further. Blunt requests such as "will u take 50p" are usually a mistake. They annoy the seller, and a discount is at their discretion.

Once you've clinched the deal, keep the transaction within eBay – just ask the seller to add (or change) a buy-it-now price. For 20 tips on haggling beyond the web, see the High Street Haggling guide.

Some sellers make basic mistakes, leaving goods going for bargain money (read the eBay Selling Tricks guide to avoid these blunders).

As well as spelling howlers, another rookie error is leaving out key details (brand, shoe size, dimensions) or getting them wrong (saying a console's an Xbox when the photo shows a PS4, for example). At this point, many buyers give up as it's too much hassle.

So contact the seller to fill in gaps. They might not bother with the extra faff of adding it to the listing, so you might be the only one in the know.

Spotted a Fabergé egg listed as a "nice metal egg decorated with enamel"? It's worth knowing eBay only lets sellers do major edits to their listings before the first bid is received.

Once bidding starts, they can only add small updates. So if the start price is low, say 99p, bid before the seller cottons on. Then it will be too late to properly fix it.

In its essence, eBay's just a marketplace. While it's easy to snap up a scorcher, it's just as easy to get burnt.

So it's a good idea for newbies to learn the ropes by bidding on a few small items, such as books or pants. This way, you can learn how the bidding system works before graduating to more costly wares.

Want to check if an item's legit? Why not post it on the MSE Forum's eBay board? Experts in there will tell you whether it looks dodgy.

When bidding, you enter a “maximum bid”, and eBay makes automatic bids on your behalf up to your limit.

Don't enter a round number. For example, if a bicycle is currently selling for £7, and the most you are willing to pay is about £60, consider entering a maximum bid of something like £61.54. If someone else bids £40, eBay will favour your bid.

It's worth being aware of bid increments, the steps by which prices rise. They vary from 5p to £100, depending on the current price. For a list, see eBay's Bid Increments guide.

Sellers occasionally list goods at a rock-bottom figure, but set a reserve, a hidden minimum price. These listings say "reserve not yet met". The seller hopes the low price will attract bidders, but don't want to part with it for that amount.

Avoid wasting your time by asking the seller what the reserve is. They may tell you where to go, but often they're happy to share.

If you bid and don't meet the item's reserve price, you can bid again – without waiting for anyone else to bid against you. If you submit a bid over the reserve price and no one else bids higher, you'll only pay the reserve.

Buy from a trader – a person who makes or sells goods bought with the intention of resale – and you have the same statutory rights as when buying from a shop. This means your goods must be of satisfactory quality, fit for purpose, and as described. See the Consumer Rights guide for more info.

This applies to both new and second-hand items. It should be easy to tell if someone's a trader – look for "registered as a business seller" on their profile. 

With private sellers it's caveat emptor, or 'let the buyer beware'. Buyers' only rights under law are that the product is fairly described and the owner has the right to sell it. There's little legal comeback.

It's also worth noting that under eBay's Money Back Guarantee buyers are eligible for a refund if the item's not as described, ie, if it doesn't match the seller's description of it.

Your right to change your mind within 14 days

Buy from a business seller using an auction or the buy-it-now button, and Consumer Contracts Regulations also apply. 

Under the regulations, buyers who want to return something they've bought online – even if they've just changed their mind – have 14 working days after the date of delivery to notify the seller. You'll be able to get a refund for the item plus the cost of the least expensive delivery option. If you chose a more expensive delivery, you'll have to cover the difference.

After cancelling your order you'll then have 14 days to send the item back, and may have to pay to do so. Read eBay's returns guide for more help.

Want to keep track of an item without bidding on it? eBay lets you add items to a "watch list", so you can relax knowing you'll get an email reminder before the auction ends. Just hit 'add to watch list' at the top right on the site or tap the blue heart button on the app.

If you're picking up in person, there are simple precautions you can take to make sure the transaction is a safe one.

Go with a friend, or failing that, tell someone exactly where you are going and arrange to contact them afterwards.

Take a mobile phone, and stay on the doorstep if possible. If a listing or email looks dodgy, trust your gut and walk away. 

With local classified sites, you usually collect in person and pay cash on collection.

The king of local classified sites is Gumtree, which covers the whole of the UK and sells everything from bikes to beds. Interestingly, Gumtree is owned by eBay. It was bought in May 2005, probably as eBay started to identify it as competition. Thankfully this hasn't affected its free community-based operations.

Many MoneySavers rate second-hand site Preloved*. It's free to join, but to get first dibs on bargains and contact sellers within 10 days of ads going live, you need its 'full' membership, which costs £6/year.

Also worth a look is smartphone app Shpock, which bills itself as a virtual car boot sale. Sellers set an asking price, then buyers make offers, by hitting the ‘private offers’ tab. 

Check out online forums, Loot and your local paper too.

Hundreds of top-quality goodies are available daily for free. It's all about web communities, and the big names are Freecycle and Freegle.

Instead of dumping goods or eBaying them, people harness the web's power to offer them to their local communities. For a full step-by-step guide, see Freecycle & Freegle Tips.