Friends, Romans, Guitarists, and Gear junkies - lend me your ears... or should I say lend me you "time" while you read this. Hi everyone, this is Adrian Webb back again for a second installment of my buying gear guide. To recap Part One in a nut shell (you can check it out here), I offer and review several different buying strategies to get the gear you want at a price you don't mind paying. In this article of Buying Gear Guide Part Two I am going to get into the meat and potatoes with not only specific sites to browse but hands-on tips on how to get the prices lower than advertised discount prices.

EBAY SETS THE PRICE

Ebay is an auction style internet site (ebay.com) that has grown to international levels. It allows both buyer to browse and the seller a huge exposure in a multitude of markets and countries to sell their wares both new and used. How big you ask? Let's talk guitars!

This PRS was bought from a guy who won it in a poker game for half what its worth on eBay.

In the USA market alone there are between 50 and 75 thousand guitars available for purchase at any given moment and that's only guitars. Also at any given moment and not counting actual guitars, there are over 200 thousand guitar accessories such as fx pedals, strings, amps, stands, anything and everything guitar you can think of. You say you want guitar jewelry or a guitar ball cap and t-shirt and I don't mean to beat a dead horse but that's another 250 thousand items classified under non-musical instruments. This all sounds great but there a downside in a huge market place like this…it’s expensive. To the seller on average between the listing fees, selling fees, and PayPal fees you are looking at approximately 10% of the selling price to go towards fees. And to the buyer, that marvelous steal of a deal you thought you found most likely has hefty shipping charges attached to it. On the upside, Ebay has an extensive customer service staff to assist in any way to help make the transaction go smoothly. They even act as mediators to settle disputes. One time I bought an item from a seller in China and it arrived without the needed manual and instructions. It took about a week, but in the end Ebay customer service settled the issue to my satisfaction. Why am I going on, and on, and on about eBay? Because this is where you will find most of your deals, and that's what I'm here for…to show you how to find great deals. Another good place internet alternative for deals is Craigs List and I will cover that for you in part three.

OK, so we established that eBay is an important player, if not the most important player when it comes to finding deals. I have been an eBayer (learn the lingo - short for eBay member) for seven years and I must have bought and sold over 50 guitars, along with countless other "stuff". So yes, I would say I know my way around the eBay circuit.

Here are some important tips to follow when using eBay:

It's assumed that you already have an eBay and paypal account, both are free so do it today.

Browse for the item you have in mind to buy and browse often. Luckily I find it relaxing. It's like play time for my brain. When you found the item you need to check on two things:

• The Seller - check the seller feedback score. Check for any Negative Feedback on the seller, read the reviews given by other eBay members who have dealt with that person. Watch out for a low feedback score or a high number of negative feedbacks. If the seller has a low feedback score, the seller has nothing to lose to scam the buyer especially if it's a high ticket item and later simply get a new eBay account. So don't be so excited about making the deal of the century that you lose sight of possible red flags!!
• The Item - It's important to search other sites for the item you want to buy to make sure you aren't paying too much. Also important is to check their shipping fees. Just today I wish I followed my own advice. I bought a new microphone on eBay for my home studio and for whatever reason just for the heck of it I looked it up on the net and the exact same Mic went on sale at Musicians Friend. I actually saved five dollars buying from the eBay seller but I would have preferred paying the extra five dollars to buy from a large, supply house like Musician's Friend than from an ebayer selling items out of his garage.

If you found a deal but it's still more than what you want to pay and it has many bids on it - let it go. The one take-away "deal making tactic" I got from Donald Trump's book, "The Art of the Deal" is the best negotiating stand a deal maker can make is prepare to walk away. This is so true on so many levels and not used just for buying guitar gear. In other words you will enjoy your guitar gear so much more when you know you got it for the best deal possible. If this deal isn't quite the deal you thought, what do you do? Walk away because there will be other deals. Patience is key.

If you found a deal but it’s still more than what you want to pay and it has no bids on it, let the auction run out. Then contact the seller and either make an offer, or ask what's the lowest they are willing to take for an immediate sale. Keep in mind that contacting the seller through eBay for a private sale is against eBay rules. Alternately you can try what I did just last week - I asked if the seller wanted to make an even guitar trade and I was shocked to hear him say yes. I always wanted to add a Switch Vibracell guitar to my collection. The Switch Guitar is a 100% unibody made of a polymer graphite similar to that of a bowling ball. There isn't a bit of wood on the entire guitar and yet the tone & sustain of this guitar is amazing. This one was a top of the line Signature model in mint condition with high end pickups and came with a fitted hard shell case. I in turn had a Hamer double cut gold top with P-90's I was tired of and willing to trade. I suggested an even trade and he agreed. YAY!! We both get new "toys" to play with and the only expense was shipping... Let me make it clear that although this particular transaction turned out fine in all fairness to my readers I have to be the first to admit this kind of deal is against the eBay rules and can go wrong in the following ways.

• No protection from eBay.
• Descriptions of used guitar gear is very subjective and when you get the trade it more often than not won't meet your expectations.
• The other person may just keep your trade and not send you anything at all and what can you do when that person is thousands of miles away? So I don't advocate this sort of deal. I am thankful that this particular one-time trade went smoothly THIS TIME but I'm not sure if I would do it again. Actually Craigs List is the better way to go for this sort of transaction

How to Avoid Costly eBay Shipping Charges - another great eBay feature that I'll mention here is Ebay lets you set many search filters to find just the item you are looking for. They also allow you to set filters for WHERE you are buying the item from. Under DISTANCE, you can set how many miles from your zip code you are willing to travel for LOCAL PICKUP. This way you avoid shipping charges that can sometimes be significant. I once sold a Ovation deep bowl 12 string with Original hard shell case and my shipping charges were $62.50, Oooouch! So watch your shipping charges both buying and selling eBay items. Back to local pickup, just so you know - the item will most likely need to be fully paid for before the eBay seller agrees to a local pickup.

Free Selling and Buying Software Tools - When selling, the most crucial listing time frame in a eBay auction is the last 5 minutes of your listing. Ebayers usually spot what they want to buy, and they watch, and they watch until just before the listing ends and go in for the kill and unless you are using the right software that allows you to list multiple items at the same time, you have the frustrating task of creating your listing one item at a time and as you will learn - there is a specific window of opportunity for optimum selling. Do you want to miss your prime time to sell by having your listing end at noon on a weekday when everyone is at work (or school), or do you want your listing to have maximum exposure and end at prime time when your potential buyer is home for the evening, has already had supper, and now watching your item!?! Ebay offers free software that you install on your computer and it gives you complete control of how and when you list your item(s). It's called Turbo Lister. Just go to ebay.com and search "TURBO LISTER" and all the information you need to download, install, and use Turbo Lister will be right there. I use it myself and has worked well for me!

When buying, the most crucial time is the last 5 minutes of the listing, exactly the same as when selling. Most people including myself wait for the very last minute to bid. However, a better way to give the best possible bid to win the item you want is through a software called sniping. How sniping works is you tell the program the maximum bid you are willing to offer for the item you are bidding on and it automatically bids for you. Just like a hawk circling overhead it literally posts the best bid on your behalf within nano-seconds of the listing auction end. I have literally seen a guitar that I was interested in shoot up five hundred dollars in a matter of seconds. Needless to say when I saw how high it finally sold for I didn't feel bad because the price tag was way more than my budget would allow. Most of the time this is not a free program but I go the extra mile for my readers and scored not one but a couple free versions of sniping software. I'll leave it up to you to read up on them, check their reviews, and make sure there aren't hidden costs. 1- GIXEN.COM, no download required, places best bid for you at the very last minute, and your computer doesn't have to be on. My only caution on this one is that all your ebay information is on their servers. 2- BAYGENIE.COM offers a fully functioning FREE version, and a PRO version that offers more functions and flexibility. Again my only word of caution is for you to do due diligence. Check it out carefully and see if the program parameters works for you.

If you like my articles or can add additional information that your fellow FG readers could use, send me in your comments I would love to hear from you. Stay tuned for the conclusion of this "Buying Guide" series covering getting the best prices from CraigsList and even brick and mortar retail stores too. - Adrian Webb