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Hidden eBay Auction Discounts

Discount hunters seem to love online auctions. They have all sorts of tips and techniques for snagging huge deals. One of the easiest techniques for finding deals is so obvious that you might not even see it - misspelled auction titles.

The vast majority of eBay users find the products they bid on by typing in the product name into the search tool. EBay sends back a list of auctions that match those terms. But, misspelled titles can mean that an auction doesn't show up in the results for people searching for that item. The fewer people who find the item, the fewer bidding. Fewer people bidding often means lower prices.

If you are planning an auction of your own, check and re-check the spelling of all of the key words in your auction title. But, if you are buying, search for the misspellings and you can save a bundle.

So, how do you find misspellings? The most straight forward way is to write out the key words for the item you are searching for. Usually you want to include the brand name, the model name, and sometimes product description. For example: ACME 2703J Widget. Next, write out the various ways people can misspell each word. Sometimes people don't know the correct spelling and spell phonetically, sometimes the press the wrong key on their keyboard. Other times they switch around letters in the word.

Next, paste each of the words you came up with into the search box and then search for the typos.

Doing this manually is a tedious process. There are a number of tools available that will create the variations for you automatically and they are all helpful.

Here is a little tip. If you see a good auction going where you think you might save some money, don't bid. Just watch the auction and place your bid at the last moment. This way you can keep from staring a bidding war over the product and you will make better deals. This practice is called 'sniping' and, yes, there is software that will snipe for you too!