How to Find and Win Scanner Radio Auctions on eBay Like a Pro

Do you want to find deals on used equipment on eBay?

In this episode, Phil shares his do’s and don’t’s of bidding on eBay auctions.

• Don’t fall in love with an item you’re bidding on and raise the cost by bidding it up.
• Don’t keep bidding and bid against yourself.
• Bid your maximum bid up front.
• Don’t bid round numbers, but bid a weird number of cents on the dollar to help you edge someone out.
• Don’t bid more than an item is worth.
• eBay will almost always side with the buyer; the platform is for buyers, not sellers.
• When you search for an item, look at the completed listings to see both sold items and auctions where minimum bids were not reached or received no bids, and you can average out the cost of what the average eBay market value is on the item you want.
• Don’t forget to factor in shipping costs.
• Phil recommends waiting to make your highest bid until the auction is seconds away from ending.
• Always read the full article and item description.
• Keep an eye out for Buy It Now and Make An Offer listings.
• Does the seller have good feedback?
• Does the seller list other scanner radio hobby items?
• Check for listings with misspellings or listings that don’t name a brand or model from people who are less educated on the hobby.
• Don’t forget to factor in tax on the item.
• Check “parent” categories nested above Scanner Radios, like Electronics, Radio, etc.
• Phil suggests search terms like realistic, Uniden, Electra, Whistler, AOR, GRE, Radio Shack and Radioshack, ICOM-R, etc.
• Especially if there’s a lot of time left on the auction, add it to your watch list so eBay will email you a reminder before the auction ends.
• Save your eBay search terms and set up email notifications to receive the new listings for each search term.
• Links and Sources from this session: