How to narrow your search even more?

Let's say you are looking for ads that include certain phrases, or words that go together in a specific order. For instance, if you are searching for teddy bears, you can use quotation marks. The command you would use is teddy bear. This will return a listing of all ads with the words teddy bear in them. The word bear must immediately follow the word teddy for the listing to show.

Reliable sellers have clear description on their refund policy.

If it is not there, then ask the seller for it. If the seller has no refund policy, then do not bid on the item. If the there is no refund policy in the auction description, then make sure you get the refund policy in an email from the seller. In this way, you have a document of the refund policy.

Learn to snipe

EBay's proxy bidding system allows you to set your highest bid and then forget about it. EBay will keep bidding the minimum increment up to your maximum. This is fine if you know exactly how much you want to pay for something. If you are not sure how much you want to bid or if you know an item will be hot, then learn how to snipe at the last minute. Here is how to snipe:

Open one window with the auction description. Open a second window and place the highest amount you will pay for the item and hit Review Bid. Now enter your username and password; but don't hit Place-Bid yet. Wait until 15 or 20 seconds before the auction ends. (Refresh your first window to see the time left). At the right moment, hit Place Bid. With luck your bid will arrive at the perfect time to beat out your competition.

Be sure to synchronize your time with the official eBay time or you could just miss the end of an auction.

You can also purchase a sniping service. I use BidSlammer which is very inexpensive and can snipe the auctions where I am not around.