What advice do eBay veterans have for a novice buyer?

Buy only if shipping charges are specified. You don’t want to be negotiating freight after you are committed to buy,

If you easily find something you want, it’s probably not rare. A similar item will show up soon enough. So don’t let the excitement cause you to overbid.

Bid late, to avoid driving up the price. Bidding in the last few seconds is called sniping, which sounds derogatory. But there is absolutely nothing wrong with it.

Misspelled items are hidden gems. Hidden from most bidders, I mean. You might get a great deal on a “Soney” camera or a “Herms” scarf!

If a seller is offering their item as a bid only auction, don’t hesitate to email them and make an lower offer if you can afford to buy the item right away- tell them so in the email. Most of the items I buy on ebay (I buy a lot), I offer exactly what I want, regardless of asking price. I usually get what I want, sometimes a little dickering.

Honestly, Craigslist and garage sales are safer and easier.

Misspelled items! Brilliant, @jaytkay. I would never think of that.

Buy from sellers with high feedback ratings. (This should be a given, but it bears repeating).

You can check to see where an item is shipped from in an item’s description. This can help you determine if the shipping charges are fair, or if you are potentially buying cheap Chinese sweatshop garbage.

Make use of your watchlist. If you find something you really like/want and it has a few days left of bidding, don’t bid on it immediately! This will artificially inflate the cost. Bid wars are not your friend. Instead, add the item to your watchlist, and come back later to see where the cost is, and “snipe” a bid in at the last minute, like @jaytkay mentioned.

After receiving an item you purchase, leave prompt feedback on the seller.

Check out the actual feedback ratings. They might have a 98.9% positive rating, but only because they get at least a thousand ratings a day, and at least one unsatisfied customer per day. Check to see if there’s a common theme among the complaints – item never arrived, seller wouldn’t work out issue, item arrived damaged, item is actually a knock-off or cheaply made (and check against which item you’re buying, if possible). Beware any seller who replies to negative feedback with more negativity; “tried to give refund, but buyer refused to ship item back” is totally understandable, but “buyer is a MORON!!!! Do NOT sell to this crossdressing IDIOT LIAR!!!!@!” tends to be a red flag that if your order has any bumps, you’ll have to just suck it up or have way more drama in your life than you probably want for saving 30 bucks on a blender.

Know that stuff from Asian countries can be a total find, but it can also be very stereotypical cheap crap that looks much worse when it arrives than it did in the picture. And, you might not be able to tell from the feedback, especially if there’s too much to really go through reasonably, because so many people either have different standards of what constitutes a “good” product, or they just reply positively before even checking the item out. So don’t spend more money than you can afford to.

Don’t buy designer things, because there’s almost no way to know if it’s genuine or a knockoff until it arrives.

*that should be “don’t spend more money than you can afford to lose.

In addition to what the above posters have stated, don’t hesitate to communicate with sellers. Keep records of your communication as you will need it if you ever have a dispute. Be observant of seller’s feedback, it tells you quite a bit about the seller. Also, EBay has a Community (not as fun Fluther) with discussion boards, groups, answer center, and more that are very informative.

I agree with all of the above^^^ and as an eBay store owner wanted to provide:

eBay is set up so the customer is always happy. Sellers cannot leave negative feedback for non-paying buyers or for buyers that threaten them, etc. Buyers can open a case against a seller if they are dissatisfied in any way.

Once a case is open, if the seller doesn’t respond, ebay decides the case, usually in the buyers favor. This can mean a partial or full refund which included the shipping fees.

I have been buying & selling on eBay since 2001. I can still count precisely how many times I have needed to open a case against a seller. I purchase antiques, artwork and daily necessities. The most common issues I’ve run into are poor packing and lack of communication. Usually this occurs with less experienced sellers.

As a seller, I do not want a case open against me ever. It cost me money. EBay charges a ridiculous amount in fees for each listing and for my storefront. After “x” amount of cases it depends on volume of sales/items listed is open against a seller, eBay begins to charge more.

If you are anxious about purchasing antique pieces, then look for a Top Rated Seller badge and buy only from a seller that has one, until you have a few buys under your belt.

Clothes
Always ask for measurements.
If items are advertised as New With Tags, that doesn’t mean they haven’t been store displays or have wear and tear from try ons, ask for snags, rips, holes, etc.
Ask if the clothes are from an outlet or are “seconds/imperfect”.

If you receive any items that aren’t like they were described and you don’t want to make the trip to the post office to stand in line and to send it back then contact the seller before you leave any feedback and ask for your shipping refunded and just scrap the item, gift it or donate it. Sometimes a seller has offered to refund my purchase in entirety and I leave feedback that simply says, Reasonable seller. Thank you.