Decorating Dos and Don'ts With eBay

Do read the entire item description.
Marian McEvoy, author and design-industry veteran, will never forget the purchase that drove this lesson home. "I found a fabulous wing chair for my living room — gorgeous fabric, one-of-a-kind design and it was a great bargain." A week or so later, a mysterious package arrived in the mail. "I opened it, wondering what in the world it could be, and there it was: a doll chair," she laughs.

To avoid similar mistakes, "read every word in the item description and e-mail the seller with any questions," McEvoy says. If the listing doesn't include measurements, is vague about the condition or origin of a particular piece, or leaves out any other info you consider pertinent, use eBay's "Ask seller a question" button to pin down the seller on those details. If he or she doesn't respond in a timely manner, forget the auction and move on. There are millions of more fish in the eBay sea.

Don't assume sellers can spell.
Careless spelling mistakes can easily be turned to your advantage. If a seller types "Crate & Barell dish set" into his or her listing, those searching for "Crate & Barrel dish set" will never see it, which leaves the field wide open for you to snag the set.

Hint: Use an asterisk when you search for particular words to find both correct and misspelled terms. For example, searching "art dec*" will yield both the correctly spelled "art deco" listings as well as the items listed as "art decco."

Don't overlook potential.
Auction offerings aren't always pristine, but don't let that stop you from rooting out gems for your home. For example, "there are thousands of great lamps on eBay," McEvoy says. "Many of them simply need a $15 rewiring job or a new shade." Don't let frumpy fabric or a garish color scare you away, either: "If the price is right, interesting but beat-up items can be given new life and still be a bargain." Look for furniture you can reupholster or paint; old frames you can have fitted with new glass; and frayed textiles you can cut up and use as tablecloths or pillow covers.

Don't assume all sellers know exactly what they're selling.
Most sellers on eBay are understandably ignorant about which design period their item belongs to. It's not unusual to discover Federal furniture listed as Colonial, and vice versa, so be sure to search for both terms. Melanie Haiken, a longtime eBayer in San Rafael, Calif., collects pottery that's distinguished by a "bake oven" mark on the bottom, so in addition to browsing the general "Pottery & Glass" category, she plugs that particular term into the search box and — bingo!

Do know whom you're buying from.
The saying "All you have is your reputation" couldn't be more true than it is on eBay. Some eBayer sellers use their cloak of Internet anonymity to rip off buyers, provide shoddy service or sell sub-par merchandise.

One eBay seller, for example, specializes in Rachel Ashwell "Shabby Chic" goods. Unfortunately, she's also notorious for hawking Ashwell's low-end Target line as the real deal, inflating prices and sometimes taking payment but never shipping the buyers' items. A quick browse through the seller's feedback rating (the numerical link next to the seller ID), will clue potential buyers in to her scheme, saving them cash and disappointment.

If a seller has little eBay history or a feedback rating that's less than 98 percent positive (or even if it's above 98 percent but recent feedback has been negative), proceed with extreme caution, says Marsha Collier, eBay for Dummies author. To bring negative and neutral feedback right to the top (it's often buried in dozens of less-critical reviews), try entering a seller ID into this handy tool.