mp4 – Ebay Success – Buy That Item For A Bargain Price by Okky Jones
The internet has opened a whole new world for the astute shopper. It’s now pretty easy to find rare items that in the past could have taken months or even years to source. Now, thanks to Ebay and other online auction sites, you have instant access to a massive range of new, used and collectable goods, all from your own home with the click of your mouse.
However, this means that an item that once would have gathered dust in the back of a second hand store now has global exposure, and collectors worldwide have the opportunity to get their grubby mitts on it. This could mean a bidding frenzy on Ebay. So here’s a few tips to get you on the right path to snagging a bargain.
1 – Search for misspelled items. With the thousands upon thousands of items listed on Ebay each and every hour worldwide, chances are that there are a lot of sellers that accidentally misspell keywords in the title that will prevent the item from showing up in a regular search. If few people can find the auction, then few people will bid and the final price will likely be much lower than it’s correctly spelled cousin. Tools like http://www.oktshun.com – The Oktshun Engine provide search capabilities to help find some of these misspelled gems.
2 – Don’t bid on a 99c item – watch for later. Sellers list items for 99c for two main reasons. One, the Ebay listing fee is cheaper if it starts under $1, and two, items with a low starting price usually attract a lot more attention. Say for example, two sellers list an identical Nikon SLR camera. One starts at 99c, the other at $100 and usual selling price is around $130. The average buyer browsing the SLR listings will probably just ignore the $100 item, but will be exited by the 99c one, open it up, have a read, watch the item and maybe make a bid. The $100 camera may slip away unsold and unwatched without a single bid, but because of the traffic that the 99c starter gets, the final price may well exceed $130.
By all means, don’t ignore the 99c items, but stick them in you watch list for later. The item with the higher start price may be the real bargain.
3 – Sniping – Just nasty, or a handy buyers tool? When I first started buying on Ebay, I couldn’t understand how I could have the winning bid and then seconds before the auction close, someone would outbid me by a few cents. Then I discovered sniping tools. So if you can’t beat them, join them. They provide some nice features which improve your bidding experience, such as the ability to set bidding limits across multiple items and the option to cancel a snipe if you find something better – much easier than trying to cancel a winning bid. My favourite sniper is called JBidWatcher, which I like for a few reasons. One, it’s a program that runs on your own PC, so you don’t have to sign up to a web site and hand over your Ebay password. Two, it’s Open Source, which means it’s free and the program code is available to be scrutinized by any nerd. If there was any dodgy spyware in it, the whole internet would know! And Three, you can setup bidding limits so that you can set up to bid on many of the same item from different sellers, but if you win one, then it won’t bid on the others. Nice. Just make sure you get the real Open Source version from http://sourceforge.net/projects/jbidwatcher/ (Sourceforge is where all the Open Source programmers hang out) – the downside to the open source code is that anyone can take it, alter it for their own benefit such as adding spyware, and then make it available from software search sites.
4 – Check out the bidding history and then research the other bidders. This can be a lot of work, but for big ticket items, it may be worth it. At the top of the item details, there will be a ‘History’ link. Open it up to see how many other people are bidding and how many bids each person has. If the highest bidder has made lots of bids, this probably means that the maximum price they’ve set isn’t much higher than the current bid as they’ve eased their way up a few dollars at a time to just push the previous high bidder off their perch. The next thing you can do is view the other bidder’s feedback and have a look at other items they’ve won. They may purchase similar items regularly giving you an indication of how much they’re willing to pay for an item, which will give you a guide on what you should set your maximum bid to.
5 – Beware shipping and hidden insurance costs. Always be sure to factor shipping and insurance costs into your final maximum bid. Some sellers, particularly those from overseas, will list the item at a low price but have a ludicrous postage amount. In addition to this, they may also have a compulsory insurance amount set too. Unlike the postage amount, the insurance amount is only displayed at the very bottom of the listing so you’ll need to go and hunt for it. I was stung buying an MP4 player from Hong Kong – I thought I was getting a bargain until I won the item, went through the checkout process, and discovered there was a $40 compulsory insurance charge attached. It was in the listing so there was nothing I could do about it, but it was buried right at the bottom where I didn’t notice it. Beware!
Most of all have fun. Ebay and other auction sites are a great way to find collectables as well as new and used household items. The convenience of shopping from home is wonderful, and the thrill of snagging a bargain is always exhilarating. Best wishes and happy bidding!
About The Author
Okky Jones is the web site manager for http://www.oktshun.com – The Oktshun Engine. He’s a keen ebay buyer and seller and loves helping others achieve online auction success.
Traveling to your office, doing household chores, driving your car, working on the computer, or at any other place, people are hooked on to their MP3 and MP4 music and video players. If you are traveling in an airplane or a bus you will find over 50% of the people having small headphones stuck into their ears.
What has made these small devices enter our lives so quickly that everybody, young or old, is now hooked on to it? MP3 music format, first introduced in 1993, started the era of compressed internet audio format. With the advent of broadband connectivity people freely uploaded and downloaded music from the web. This gave rise to pocket MP3 players.
There are two types of MP3 players or digital audio devices: flash-based players and digital hard drive-based players. Flash-based players hold files in the internal memory or external memory cards, and so they can hold up to 8 GB of files. While the hard drive-based players can connect to a hard drive that can hold up to 160 GB of audio and video files based on the hard drive technology. This means that you can store your entire music collection in your pocket!
MP3 players became very popular with the introduction of iPod, a convenient MP3 player with long battery life and storage space. The best part was that iPod can be connected to your computer and you can transfer your music directly from it. You can even make play lists, favorite folders, and arrange your files in many ways according to your convenience. Being among the pioneers, the iPod brand name has become synonymous with MP3 or MP4 digital players.
MP3 players are so well-liked that people have found many other uses for it. The most popular use is for podcasting. Podcasting lets the user automatically download radio-like programs, or TV-like video feeds, and other audio inputs, etc., directly from the net into the device. These could be downloaded and played at the owners` convenience.
MP4 players are even more advanced. They can play audio as well as video files. Apart from the MP3 and MP4 formats these players have capability to play WMA/PlaysForSure (from Microsoft), AAC (from Apple) and ATRAC (from Sony), AVI, ATV, ACT, SMV, MPEG4, MTV, DMV, MPV and AMV, etc.
Most MP4 players can also open in JPEG and GIF formats. They play videos in AMV or MTV formats that are converted easily through conversion software from other popular formats. These MP4 players also support plain text viewer (ASCII format) so that you can read e-books. A lot of enhancements like FM radio player, phone books, camera and voice recorders, video games, etc. are also coming today to make it a complete digital device.
There are many brands available in the portable audio/video player market but the market leader is Apple iPod. All major brands like Sony, Panasonic, Philips, Olympus, etc., have made their own versions of MP3 and MP4 players. These players are available in various shapes, sizes, colors, storage space, battery life, and more.
If you are looking to buy an MP3 or MP4 player check for all the features mentioned above. The most important attribute is the battery life as these portable players are mostly used on the move, so it would be difficult to charge them. iPod boasts the highest battery life among all other players. There are a lot of accessories that you can purchase along with your MP3 or MP4 player. Though all the brands provide headphones along with the player, it`s a good idea to buy the ones that you like.
This article is under GNU FDL license and can be distributed without any previous authorization from the author. However the author´s name and all the URL´s (links) mentioned in the article and biography must be kept.
Hey Readers! I’ve been comin across some crazy stuff the past few days from a few different blogs around the web which I just had to share with you. Check em out below…
Step by step guide: YouTube, limewire, DVD, flash, video to iPod
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Users may choose any non-protected file from their iTunes library or any media file on their system that can be opened by QuickTime (MP3, AAC, MOV, MP4, … Read More…
Chuwi W3000 PMP reviewed: better MID than SmartQ managed
Chuwi's W3000 still looks unlikely to arrive on US or European shelves any time soon, but that hasn't dulled the enthusiasm of the guys over at MP4 Nation. … Read More…
That’s all the news for today guys, so until next time, thanks for stopping by.
