Though the eBay marketplace was once known specifically as the world's premiere online auction venue, today auction format sales are a shrinking part of the eBay marketplace and the larger eBay landscape. Here are five ways to shop and buy on eBay without having to monitor an item and repeatedly bid in order to win it.
- Shop Only "Buy It Now" Items. Most of the items for sale on
eBay.com these days are in fact available for immediate purchase, no bidding
required. To shop eBay only for these items, use the
advanced search tool
(accessible from the eBay home page by clicking the word "Advanced" next to
the search box) and check the "Buy It Now" box about halfway down the page
after typing in your search terms. All of the items you see this way are
available for immediate purchase and payment simply by clicking the "Buy It
Now" button.
- Shop eBay Classifieds. Formerly known as Kijiji, eBay now also
hosts a
classified ads network with local and regional hubs not unlike
Craigslist, only with better images and ease of use, at
eBayClassifieds.com.
Everything on eBay Classifieds is available to you now, no bidding required.
- Shop Half.com. As a go-to site for book buyers, movie and DVD
buyers, music buyers, and video game and consumer electronics buyers,
Half.com operates very much like any other retail store you'll find online—but
for the fact that the prices are more like eBay prices and the
website is
owned and operated by eBay.
- Shop WorldofGood.com. eBay is often typecast as a low-rent
marketplace, more flea market than fabulous, with little to offer the
discriminating buyer. This isn't the case for eBay.com, certainly, but it's
even less the case for the truly distinguished eBay
World
of Good online store, at
WorldofGood.com, where you can buy spectacular goods from around the
world without ever placing a single bid.
- Use the eBay Proxy Bidding System. Yes, you can shop and buy eBay auctions without bidding wars and without spending any extra time beyond what you'd spend shopping anywhere else. A basic yet little-known and poorly understood eBay feature called the proxy bidding system enables you enter a single price, once, with nothing more for you to do. Either you pay your price, you pay less than your price, or the item is unavailable to you—and eBay will tell you this without your having to lift an additional finger. Yes, there is a small learning curve, but once you understand proxy bidding, you'll be able to shop all of those deliciously cheap auctions on eBay without needing third-party tools and without ever feeling as though you're shopping by auction. Isn't that what it's all about?
