Navigating eBay the Easy Way

The navigation bar is at the top of the eBay home page and lists five eBay
links that take you directly to different eBay areas. Using the navigation bar
is kind of like doing one-stop clicking. You can find this bar at the top of
every page on eBay. Hovering over some of the links reveals a subnavigation
list with links to other, related (and important) places.

Think of links as expressways to specific destinations. Click a link and, the
next thing you know, you’re right where you want to be. You don’t even have
to answer that annoying old question, “When are we gonna get there?” from
the kids in the backseat.

✦ Buy: Takes you to the page that lists the top-level eBay categories and
provides many buying-related links, links to the home page’s Featured
Items (see Book III), and a Search window, as shown in Figure 2-3. You’ll
find a mini-version of your My eBay page here, with drop-down links for
your favorite searches, sellers, and categories. From this page, you have
many ways of finding any one of the millions of items for sale on eBay.

You’ll find top-level categories on the Buy page. When you click to
browse a category (for example, Books), you’ll be brought to a category
hub page that lists the subcategories of that category. Click your desired
subcategory, and you arrive at the subcategory page, where you see
three yellow tabs at the top of the listings. These tabs offer you different
viewing options to browse:

• All Items is the default setting for the page. This option delivers on
its promise — you see all items, including auctions and those items
that can be purchased immediately using Buy It Now.

• Click the Auctions tab to see only the items that are up for auction.

• The Buy It Now tab isolates a view of all items listed with the Buy It
Now feature.

You can sort in these ways:

• Best Match is the default search option; it sorts the listings you see
by their relevance. A listing’s relevance is based, in part, on past
successful buyer behavior for similar items. The added reasoning
behind this search is to identify sellers who provide great buying
experiences and sellers who don’t, all gauged by the use of Detailed
Seller Ratings and feedback ratings.

• Time: ending soonest allows you to view the category listings in time
order, with the soonest to end on top. (This is the way I always sort
when I’m browsing.)

• Time: newly listed shows the items that have recently been listed in
the category.

• Time: ending today displays items that end in the next 24 hours and
are displayed with the item ending soonest listed first.

• Time: new today is where you can get the jump on other bargain
hunters and see the full listing of items launched within the past 24
hours.

• Price + Shipping: Lowest first sorting can be deceiving. Many sellers
list their items at an extremely low starting price to attract bidders.
You may have to wade through twenty pages of ninety-nine cent
items before you reach the dollar ones — a huge waste of time.

• Price: Highest first and Price + Shipping: Highest first are good
choices if you’re looking for high-ticket items in a category.

• Distance: nearest first. If you want to buy a large item (sofa? refrigerator?
car?) and would rather save on shipping or want to drop by
to inspect the item, this is the best search for you.

You can also search through the category. Type some keywords in the
search box to find, for example, a particular book. Because more than 20
million items are up for auction at any given time, finding just one (say, a
book on antique Vermont milk cans) is no easy task.

✦ Sell: Takes you to the first stop of the Sell Your Item form that you fill
out to start your listings. (More on how to sell in Book III.) You also see
a bunch of links that can take you to a zillion different places on eBay.
Stop by someday when you have a lot of time on your hands.

✦ My eBay: Takes you to your personal My eBay page, where you keep
track of your buying and selling activities, account information, and
favorite categories (more about My eBay 

✦ Community: Takes you to a page where you can find the latest news
and announcements, chat with fellow traders in the eBay community,
find charity auctions, and discover more about eBay. Several boxes in
the subnavigation bar correspond to the links on the page (more on the
eBay 

✦ Help: Opens the eBay Help Center overview page (which consists of a
search box in which you can type your query) and links for help topics.

Below the eBay navigation bar (on most eBay pages) are powerful links that
are just as important as the links on the navigation bar:

✦ eBay Logo: Takes you directly to the eBay home page. Use this link from
any other page when you need to get back to the home page right away.

✦ Categories: When you click here, there’s a drop-down menu for all
eBay’s top-level categories.

✦ Motors: Takes you to the eBay Motors site. Here, you can find links that
connect you to the largest vehicle sales site on the Web.

✦ Stores. To view or browse eBay stores you click here.

✦ Site map: Provides you with a bird’s-eye view of the eBay world. Every
top-level (or main) link available on eBay is listed here. If you’re ever
confused about finding a specific area, try the site map first. If a top-level
link isn’t listed here, it’s not on eBay — yet.

✦ Sign In/Sign Out: This link, which is below the navigation bar, toggles
between Sign In and Sign Out depending on your sign-in status. This is
an important link, and I remind you about it throughout the book. When
you’re signed in, it reads Hello, followed by your user ID.