shopping eBay like its a blog

For the past few weeks I've been keeping an eye on what brands and stores are recommended for quality and stylish clothing. I'll admit I was shocked at how much some ladies are willing to spend on good clothing. Of course, I was just raised thinking that I didn't need to spend more than $20 on any given item (even shoes, yikes!)

This is where eBay comes in to play... I started doing searches for some of the big brands and was amazed at the prices that you can get some of these articles for. It's great. Someone picks up the huge tab, wears it twice, then decides its not for them afterall... here's where you come in

Most of you probably know you can enter all of your search criteria, then you can "SAVE A SEARCH" and have it email you everytime something matches your criteria. What I found out today, though, is that once your search has loaded, you can save that page as an RSS Feed and have it refresh in your favorite blog reader! OMG! I am so excited. Now instead of wading through emails or reloading my searches everyday... I just open up my Gooogle reader and there is everything that is newly listed since the last time I checked my "ebay search blog".

If anyone would like to know more about it step-by-step, ask away!

18 years ago

Antje

Veteran

Lauren, I'd love to know the details, thank you!

Sarah

Active Member

Me too. From what I've read hear eBay sounds like a great place to shop for clothes as long as I try them on elsewhere first.

LaurenNK

Here's how I created my "eBay blog" shopping searches:

1. On eBay, create a search. I did one for "Banana Republic". Hit search.

2. Then I narrowed down my criteria using the left column: click on "women's clothing" to view only things in that category, or whiever suits you. I'm focusing on just clothes right now. It will refresh with just women's clothing now...

3. Here is where you look further down on the left column, select your price range (way down toward the bottom), I tell it only items within the US so I can avoid extra taxes and high shipping rates.

4. When you have it all narrowed down and selected "search" for the last time to make sure it is updated, you're ready to set it up as a blog.

5. At the very bottom of the ebay search screen is a little orange button that says "RSS". Click on this once, and a page full of HTML gibberish comes up. The address in the address bar is what you need to copy and paste into your blog reader.

6. I use Google's Reader to keep up with my blogs/searches. You'll have to create a Google account to access this feature. Once you have one, go to the "my account" page, click on the "reader" link. On the left hand column, click on "Add Subscription". Paste your RSS address from the ebay page into the little box that pops up. After a few moments it will show up at the bottom of your list of subscriptions. It first has a gibberish title with part of your search in it, so click on it once, and up in the top right menu, click on "Feed Settings" and select "rename blog" to call it "Banana Republic on eBay" or something so you know what it is you'll be viewing.

7. When you select "Banana Republic", all of the newly listed items that fit your criteria will show up on the right side of the screen. As you view it you can mark the box on each item for "mark as read" so it won't show up again. Or you can click on the star and it will remember that one for you. You can view all of your "starred" items on one page later.

Let me know if you guys get stuck anywhere in the process.

I created a search like this for darn near every brand that has been mentioned on this site.

Also, I don't restrict the sizes or categories, I see everything that was posted. I have a hard time trusting the listers on eBay to get it into the proper category.

Have fun!

Thanks Lauren! I already have a Google account so it shouldn't be too complicated. I'll let you know if I get stuck though

Category