AW Daily - Tips & Tactics - During the Auction: Learning to Comparison Shop

Home > Tips & Tactics > Tip

Page 1 , 2

During the Auction: Learning to Comparison Shop

by Dennis Prince

It used to be that when you stumbled across a great find at online auction, you did everything within your power to track it, proxy it, snipe it, or whatever else it took to make that treasure yours. These days, though, bidders have a tremendous selection of goods and sellers from which to choose. And rather than duke it out with other bidders, armed only with your wits, a wad of cash, and a wistful hope that the transaction will come off without a hitch, bidders now can be choosers. Here are some of the new angles and opportunities available to you as you consider comparison shopping as opposed to competitive bidding.

Fewer Venues, More Hits
It's no secret that the online auction arena is settling out, which has led to the clear dominance of a few key sites--both in the consumer-to-consumer as well as the business-to-consumer markets. eBay, Yahoo Auctions, and uBid are among the leaders of the pack, and although that makes the venue competition slim, it adds to the resident density of items from which to choose. Depending on for what you're shopping, you'll most likely turn up numerous hits for your search efforts. And, as the reigning sites gain greater listing volume and attract the lion's share of sellers and their goods, bidders practically are guaranteed the ability to comparatively shop multiple, identical items, side by side, in real time, online. That's choice and that's often a bidder's best advantage.

Let Someone Else Do the Leg Work
Next, your days of combing and clawing through pages and pages of search result listings and competing against other bidders in a virtual scavenger hunt are over. Though surfing and searching still can be a fun way to pass the time, serious bidders now are harnessing the power of auction sites' email notification services (which will send you emails containing auction listings that match specified criteria) as well as turning to search mechanisms outside of the auction sites themselves, such as Vendio's Stores Search. Whatever your passion, type in some keywords and let the services do all the searching for you.

By using Vendio Stores Search, buyers can get listings from not just one auction site but multiple sites--thus allowing for some true comparison shopping. Buyers can browse and compare prices (from site to site) and determine what--and where--the best deal is. Keep an open mind and don't be afraid to break out of the eBay mold and try a new venue--you just might save yourself some cash by being a more open-minded, multi-venue bidder.

Be Picky--It's Your Right
Once you have a nice selection of similar items from which to choose, go ahead and be discriminating about which item you'll consider bid worthy. First, look at the items and determine which ones appear to be in the best condition, the most complete, and the most desirable overall. Of course, choosing the cream of the crop likely will put you in potential competition with other discerning bidders like yourself. Don't ignore, then, the possibility of picking up a slightly lesser quality offering (but still acceptable to your tastes) for a possible lower price. Rank all the items and determine in descending order which might be worth the gold and which might serve as reasonable runners-up.

Next Page | Tell me more