eBay's Powerseller Spyware - A Guide to Spying on Powersellers and High Volume Sellers - By Chris Yarbrough

For anyone who’s ever wondered just how much money a powerseller can make on eBay, there is good news; eBay has a built in spy program. This brief guide will show you how to access the proper pages on eBay to start the spy software, and further, how to use it to identify hot products and price points.

To start with head over to eBay and pick a product you are interested in researching. If you are drawing a blank, type in the following: Gateway. This will pull up several thousand listings. You’ll want to narrow that down a bit. On the left-hand side of the screen is a menu called “matching categories”. Click on the top category which is “Computers and Networking.”

After you have pulled up this category move over to the right-hand side of eth screen and click the button “sort by.” Highlight the option “Price: Highest First.” This will rearrange the listings by price. After the screen has refreshed, scroll down to the page until the vast majority of the listings are laptop and desktop systems. Most of these will be priced from $600 to $1000. Take a close look at the pictures. Ignore any listings that look like they were photographed on a kitchen table, and chose one that looks like a stock photo. Click the auction.

Check the seller’s feedback; the higher the better. You are looking for someone who sells, or at least lists, a lot of items. A powerseller with a high feedback number would be ideal. Under the sellers name is a small menu. Click the button marked “View seller’s other items.” If there is only one item listed, find another seller. Once you’ve found a seller whom you would like to spy on scroll down the menus on the right-hand side until you find one called “Search Options.” The fifth box down in this menu is called “Completed Listings.” Check the box and click the button marked “Show Items” located a little further down.

The next screen that comes up shows completed listings from this seller. The listings with green prices are completed listings, and the red are listings that expired unsold. Take a look at what the seller has had success selling, and the price points. In addition, pay attention to the shipping and handling charges. Once you have finished looking over this sellers sales, chose a few more sellers and do the same thing.

Using this simple guide is the easiest way to determine exactly who is selling what, and for how much. This is one of the most detailed looks at eBay selling, and the best part about it is, it’s free. There is no need to pay a company a monthly fee to tell you what’s hot, and what’s not. You can determine this for yourself using eBay’s tools. While it is unlikely this was eBay’s intended use for this feature, it would be foolish not to take advantage of it.

Chris Yarbrough writes for Ebay Guides, a free resource site with hundreds of articles and guides. You can view his guides at http://www.ebay-guides.com.