How to Window Shop on EBay

The regular eBay website and search methods work well when you're looking for a fairly specific item, but they can be cumbersome when what you really want to do is window shop. Fortunately there's a way to browse comfortably through photos of large numbers of items in a general category--like straw hats, size 8 sandals or men's extra-large pocket tees. You can broaden or narrow your search as you please and take a closer look at any item as easily as if it were on the shelf or rack in front of you. If only eBay would invent a way to try things on...

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

1. Go to eBay's Playground site. Click the 'Enter' button.
2. Choose a category to browse in by clicking on one of the "Hot Brand" or in-demand items pictured or by picking from the list on the left of the screen. You can also enter a search just as on the regular eBay site.
3. Set "Views" to "Snapshot." This will show you the items in your chosen category as rows of small photos without text.
4. Set "Sort by" to "Best Match" or whatever suits your purpose. You can choose time frame, price, distance or form of payment to sort by.
5. Use the filters on the left of the screen to narrow your search. For example, if you're window shopping for sweaters, you'll be able to filter for style, size type, size, color, price, material, condition, payment options and even specific sellers. If you click on "More choices" at the bottom of each option list, you'll not only see more options but be able to pick multiple answers. You can window shop for orange, yellow and green cardigans and pullover sweaters in Misses XS and S, all at one time.
6. Choose 28 "Items per page" from below the snapshots or whatever number of items fits on your screen without scrolling. This makes browsing easier; just turn the page to see more.
7. Roll your cursor over the small photo of any item to see a larger photo plus a short item description, current price, time left if it's an auction, number of bids and shipping cost to your ZIP code.
8. Click on a small photo to see the full-page listing for the item. This is the same page you would see on eBay's regular site.
9. Review the information and bid or buy, just as you do on the regular eBay site. Happy bargain window shopping!

Tips & Warnings

• You can change your filters easily whenever you want. Your filter selections appear in small boxes above the snapshots. Clicking on the small X in the top-right corner of the box will cancel that filter. Clicking on the words inside the box will bring up a larger box that will enable you to edit your filter choices.
• You are able to access your regular "My eBay" and "Watch" items from the Playground pages.
• Sometimes the Playground gets quirky and doesn't keep up with your filters. If you keep returning from full-page descriptions to a larger set of items than you wanted, try using your browser's back button to return to a snapshot page instead of clicking on "Back to list of items."