Act fast, but act smart, when searching EBay for bargains

On a recent weekday, for instance, almost 29,000 such items were listed on EBay. Of those, almost 19,000 were luggage items, and 4,500 others included whiskey flasks, travel clocks, mileage upgrade awards (see caveat at the end of this column) and a book on slot-machine secrets. Items more directly related to travel -- airline tickets, cruises, lodging and vacation packages -- represented about 5,500 of the 78 million total items listed for sale on EBay.

To list travel services on EBay, sellers must be licensed to sell travel in all 50 states, said EBay spokeswoman Catherine England, unless that person or business is providing the service sold. In other words, if you own a bed-and-breakfast in Vermont, you can sell rooms at your inn but not airline tickets to get there -- unless you are a licensed travel agent.

Many of the travel agents I saw on EBay displayed their license number on the listing. This enables consumers to look up that number for the state in which they are licensed. In California, you can look to see if travel agents have a California Seller of Travel license at caag.state.ca.us/travel. And although having a license is no guarantee of integrity, "a valid registration signals that the seller of travel has at least followed the law to be registered," according to the state website.

Perhaps some of the best travel bargains found on EBay are listed by individuals. Jim Kainber of Olympia, Wash., stumbled on travel listings while shopping on EBay for charms for his daughter's bracelet.

"I typed in 'Whistler,' looking for a charm, and got all these condos," he said.

Among them was a two-bedroom timeshare condo in the heart of the Canadian resort Whistler for a buy-it-now price of $750 for seven nights. (Buy-it-now on EBay means just what it implies: Rather than bother with the auction process, you can simply purchase it at a set price.) Kainber e-mailed the person who had listed the condo and negotiated the buy-it-now price down to $650. But by the time he went to make the purchase, someone had already scooped it up.

"The moral of my story is, be prepared to punch 'buy it now,' " he said. "I was not and came up short."