eBay Saved Searches

For the past 5 years or so, my secret shopping weapon has been the eBay saved search.  The feature allows users to subscribes to highly customized searches that deliver daily emails with active listings that match the chosen criteria.  

My eBay shopping strategy goes a little something like this:

1. Identify a full-priced (or ridiculously expensive) item on a retailer's website. 

2. Start an eBay search featuring the item's name.  Start filtering by size, color, and price.  Typically, I set a price cap of $20 - $50. 

3. Wait and review email results.  Sometimes it's a matter of days.  Sometimes it's a full year.  Sometimes the item never becomes available.

4. Pounce.

It's a tedious but effective process that requires quite a bit of patience.  But given the fact that it's Frugal February, I figured that it's time to hit the reset button.  As of 7:30 am this morning, my saved search page is now a barren wasteland.  It's for the best, really.  Most of my searches were a bit outdated and were delivering daily digests of ruffled, unflattering items.

Thanks for the good times, saved searches.  Maybe someday we'll meet again.