Items on eBay

Buying Designer Shoes on eBay

Author: Allison Thompson

If you are considering making that ultimate purchase of a pair of designer shoes on eBay then here are some simple rules that you should follow to make sure that the item you get is what you want and the price you pay is right.

1. Advanced Search

You will find when carrying out a search that there are lots of designer shoes for sale by sellers in the Far East (i.e., Malaysia), but you will often find that these are fakes or replicas and although cheap they will charge you high postage and packing costs to send them to you.

By carrying out an advanced search of a particular item it gives you the chance to choose lots of different options, so you can if you wish start your search by choosing women’s designer shoes from one country or another, or as new items only or as a buy it now item or just for items that are being sold in the country where you live.

2. Shoe Size

You will find that most of the stores that are on eBay will provide you with a sizing chart which will help you to convert the size of the shoe from US to UK or to European sizes and vice versa. However, those items being sold in general auction listings (those which are not sold at an eBay store) it is a good idea to check the size of the shoes and what format that it is in (i.e., US, UK or European sizes). If you are unsure what size they are you can ask the seller to check the size or you could visit one of the eBay shoe stores and use their size chart.

3. Postage and Packaging Costs

It is very important and so that you will not be disappointed when you have won the shoes of your dreams to find that you have the same amount again to get them delivered to you. In some cases international delivery of items can be extremely high, so it is a good idea to check with the seller before bidding to confirm the cost of postage and packaging. If you decide to purchase a pair of shoes through an eBay store you will find that most of them offer a discount of postage and packaging if you purchase more than one item. It should be remembered than when you are bidding on an item you are actually committing your self to purchase it should you win the auction and this means that you are accepting the costs being charged for postage and packaging.

4. Are the shoes authentic?

Fortunately, nowadays eBay will not allow sellers to list any item that is a fake or a replica, but because of the large amount of people that are listing auctions on their site every day it is something that they police and enforce stringently. However, occasionally you will find an item that is either a fake or replica being auctioned and these are quite noticeable. Normally the photos being used are not clear (originals) and there does not seem to be an email address where you send questions to the seller to. So one way of making sure that the item you are buying is authentic is through one of the many eBay stores. People who have set up these stores are usually heavily involved in the eBay community and promote the right ways for carrying out an auction on eBay.

5. When do you shop?

It is strange but when people are listing items to sell on eBay they do not think about when the auction will finish and on occasion you may find that you have been able to bag a great bargain where designer shoes are concerned either around midnight or early in the morning. It all depends on where you live and it is a good idea to check out the auctions in your particular country, you may find that an auction that ends at either 6.00 am or 12.00 (midnight) will be far quieter or there will be no bidding going on at all compared to say at lunch time or during the early evening.

6. How to bid.

If the item you are interested in is a buy it now and you find that you are happy with the price being offered the simply bid and pay for it there and then.

However if you are involved in an auction for designer shoes that are highly desired, then you may find yourself entering into a bidding war with another bidder, but if you preserve you may be lucky enough to win the auction.

Always be aware of what your doing, you don’t want to get carried away when involved in an auction, or you could you find yourself paying far more than you intended.

If you can do not bid early on the item early on in the auction as this will on cause the price to go up swiftly and you may end up competing for the item with another bidder.

Any item that you are interested and if you are able to leave the item on watch and bid at the last minute as this will do a couple of things for you:-

Firstly you will be able to see just how much the shoes are going to sell for and also how many people are bidding for this particular item.

Secondly, allow yourself enough to bid on the item say five minutes of less. Then as your skills improve you will find that you can leave it with only a couple of minutes to go before the auction when you will make your bid. Then all you need to do is enter your maximum bid amount and hope that no one comes in and bids on the item after you.

Finally, remember that the other bidders involved in the auction will have entered a maximum bid and you will not know what it is until you actually make a bid yourself. By allowing yourself a few minutes before the auction ends you will have time to increase the bid you have offered in order to win that pair of designer shoes that you want.

Allison Thompson, who has an invested a large amount of money in shoes and boots over the years and decided to build a site dedicated to designer shoes for all the women out there. If you would like to know more than please visit www.shoes.whatshewants.info.