Nine (!) Tips for Buying a Soccer Replica Jersey on eBay

eBay can be a great place to buy a replica soccer jersey. But it's easy to get ripped off, too. The principal of Caveat Emptor -- let the buyer beware -- applies in spades.

With that in mind, here are some eBay buying tips.

1. Don't bid on the first replica soccer jersey you see. There are plenty of fish in the ocean and almost as many soccer replica jerseys on eBay. There are lots of poor quality replicas ... make sure you check them all out.
2. Check out the prices on completed soccer replica jersey auctions. You want to get a feel for the real going price. (To search on completed auctions, however, you must be an eBay member. If you haven't signed up yet, get to it!)
   
   Here's the procedure to search completed auctions:
• Click Search.
• Click the Advanced Search tab
• In the Search Keywords field, enter your search term,
  ie: "Manchester United away jersey"
• At Item type, select Completed Items
• Click Search



eBay will show you a list of recently completed auctions, sorted by ending date. You can sort this list on four criteria:

• ending first
• newly listed
• lowest priced, and
• highest priced



Take a look at the Price column .. that's the ending price of the auction. The Bids column lets you know how many separate bids were placed on the item. If the Bids column is blank (ie: shows a dash rather than a number), no bids were placed and the item did not sell.




3. Do not buy from a seller with 0 (or very few) completed auctions. If you see a great jersey at a great price from a seller with no completed auctions, walk away.
4. Know your soccer replica jersey seller. Read their feedback and check out what their buyers have to say. If they have negative ratings, the hairs on the back of your neck should start to stand up. Again, if it looks bad, walk away.
5. Don't get carried away. Now that you've done your research on the completed auctions and the sellers, you'll have an idea of what and where to bid. Don't let yourself get carried away by the excitement of the auction process. Set yourself an upper limit and don't go any higher. (Remember that fish in the sea analogy.)
6. Wait until late in the auction to bid. If you bid early, you may inflate the price faster then necessary. Be patient and wait it out. There's a whole science built around bidding at the last minute (sniping), but I won't get into that here.
7. Don't be too fast to pay for your replica soccer jersey. Once you win an auction, resist the temptation to pay immediately. This is especially important if the seller has only a few auctions under their belt, contact them via eBay's email system and verify the sale and the amount you need to pay. If you feel that you are buying from a super trustworthy seller and you have no questions, you might send the funds via PayPal without further contact. Sellers may like buyers that pay quickly, but they shouldn't resent a question or two before you zap them the cash.
8. NEW! Watch out for buyers that will only accept BidPay and do not accept PayPal. It will cost you money to send funds via Western Union's BidPay. Why should you have to pay a few extra bucks just to send money? Another one I found out the hard way.
9. NEW! Take the shipping costs into consideration. Shipping costs vary widely from seller to seller. If you live in the United States and you buy from a seller that is shipping from within the United States, it should cost less than five bucks to ship a single jersey via USPS Priority Mail (sans insurance). If you buy from a seller who ships from overseas (even if they themselves say they are located here in the States), you will pay much more for shipping. One seller might ship the first shirt for $9 from Thailand, while the next might charge $12 plus $2 insurance. If you're buying multiple shirts from the same seller, you should always look for a discount on shipping on the additional shirts.