| With more than 167 million registered users eBay is the | | | | computerr, fomputer, vomputer, omputer, xomputer, |
| largest market-place in the world. Tens of thousands | | | | domputer, c0mputer, cpmputer, clkmputer, cimputer, |
| of items are listed every day and the vast majority of | | | | c9mputer, cokputer, conputer, cojputer, com-uter, |
| these don't contain any spelling mistakes. But a | | | | comuter, comluter, comouter, com0uter, comp8ter, |
| significant proportion do, either in the item title or the | | | | compiter, compjter, comphter, compyter, comp7ter, |
| description. | | | | compu6er, compuyer, compuger, compufer, compurer, |
| Now I'm sure you're thinking 'so what, why does this | | | | compu5er, comput4r, computrr, computdr, computwr, |
| matter?' Well the answer is surprisingly simple - these | | | | comput3r, compute5, computet, computef, computed, |
| misspelled auction items cannot be found directly using | | | | computee, compute4, ocmputer, cmoputer, copmuter, |
| eBay's built-in search functions. To find them, you'll | | | | comupter, comptuer, compuetr, computre |
| need to browse the category listings by hand, which is | | | | Now if you're thinking there's no way that someone |
| tedious and extremely time-consuming. As a result | | | | could misspelling such a simple word as 'computer', |
| misspelled auctions get fewer bids and usually sell for | | | | here's a fact. At the time of writing, searching on using |
| less (if they sell at all). | | | | the above list of words results in 46 results, many of |
| If you're looking to pick up a bargain on eBay this is | | | | which had no bids at all because they were hidden to |
| great news but if you want an easy way to make | | | | 'normal searchers'. |
| some extra money why not buy these misspelled | | | | Whilst it is possible to generate the complete list of |
| items cheaply and then sell them on again at a profit. | | | | misspellings by hand it's pretty tedious, particularly as |
| Talk about easy money ! But how do you find them? | | | | the list grows longer as the length of your search |
| If you're going to use eBay's built-in search system to | | | | word increases. Thankfully, though, there's a much |
| find them you'll need to manually generate a list of all | | | | better way. |
| of the possible misspellings for your particular search | | | | Several websites exist that will automatically generate |
| term. Whilst this will work, it's pretty hit or miss, not to | | | | the list of misspelled words for you, all you need to do |
| mention tedious because there are four main | | | | is to supply the original search phrase and usually |
| categories of misspelling. | | | | choose an eBay site to search. However, most will |
| First of all there are the obvious ways: missing out | | | | search the whole of the eBay site and this can be a |
| letters, typing the same letter twice and getting two | | | | problem as you'll get lots of matches from unrelated |
| letters the wrong way round. But then there are the | | | | categories so my tip is to use a site such as which |
| less obvious mistakes like hitting a key adjacent to the | | | | allows you to restrict your search to a particular eBay |
| one that you want. Sounds pretty simple doesn't it ? | | | | category. |
| As an example, let's look at the word 'computer'. Using | | | | So there you have it. Whether you're just trying to pick |
| the above ways of mis-spelling the word results in a | | | | up a bargain on eBay or you're looking for cheap items |
| list of 64 possible misspellings:omputer, cmputer, | | | | to sell on again at a profit, searching for misspelled |
| coputer, comuter, compter, compuer, computr, | | | | auction items on one of the leading third-party eBay |
| compute, ccomputer, coomputer, commputer, | | | | search sites is the first thing that you should do. You'll |
| compputer, compuuter, computter, computeer, | | | | almost certainly save money ! |