Strong Pound Tips

eBay is full of bargains, but they're sometimes a little hidden. To help you use the functions on the site to track down the items you want and get the most from your money on eBay, we've put together a few of our top tips:

No.1 - Find bargains worldwide
No.2 - Find hidden bargains
No.3 - Find a bargain everyone's missed
No.4 - Let us bid for you
No.5 - Make your best offer for something
No.6 - Compare prices for something
No.7 - Find items near home and save postage

Find bargains worldwide

Change the ‘Location’ setting on the left-hand side of any search results page to ‘Worldwide’ to get details of any bargains that sellers are prepared to post to the UK.

Find hidden bargains

On the left-hand side of any search results page, find the ‘more buying options’ section and in the dropdown menu, select ‘Add Shop Inventory’. You’ll then see a whole lot of items that don’t normally come to light using standard search options.

Find a bargains everyone's missed

Search for items with no bids under ‘Advanced Search’ – you could find something that slipped through unnoticed. By combining this with ‘Items ending in the next hour’, your search is more likely to yield a bargain.

Let us bid for you

Bid Assistant on My eBay lets you select a number of similar items and put a ceiling on how much you are willing to pay. It will then bid on the item ending first. If it’s unsuccessful, it will bid on the item ending second and so on. Particularly good for things like DVDs and computer accessories.

Make your best offer for something

Look out for items with a 'Best Offer' option. Instead of paying the 'Buy It Now' price, simply offer what you're prepared to pay. The worst that can happen is that they refuse your offer!.

Compare prices with P&P included

Go to the dropdown menu under the ‘Sort By’ heading and choose ‘price plus P&P: lowest first’. Next go to the left hand column and look under buying options. Select ‘Listings ending within one hour’. You’ll immediately see which are the best value listings available right now.

Find items near home and save on postage

If you’re buying larger items, like furniture or a musical instrument, avoid costly P&P charges by searching for items close to you – they may be near enough to collect in person. Just go to ‘sort by’ and choose ‘nearest first’ in the dropdown menu. You may need to enter your postcode in the pop-up box.