auctions.yahoo.com

This is basically the only online auction site i use, for one reason and one reason only, it is free to sell things where as all other sites (that i have come across make a charge)

For the Seller things could not be easier, register (which is free) and browse the categories or search for particular items and bit on them, all the information you require is there.

nce you go into the item your interested in the screen is fairly well layed out, you have the seller information which tells you who is selling the product (suprising huh), there is also a number nxt to that person, this is there rating (the higher the better) you can click on these and read people opinions on the seller when they have bought things, there are also various other links to the sellers other auctions etc (all self explanatory)

In the middle you have the auction info:
current bid: how much the auction price is currently
time left: time left till close
high bidder: who the highest bidder is
no of items: self explanatory
no of bids: on item
satrted at: auction started at this price
bid increment: how much auction goes up by (minimum amount)
location: where the item is
opened/closes@ self explanatory
ID: is the auction ID

on the right is place a bid, this is where your do your ting and bid

underneath auction info is a section for notes, most of these are self explanatory but watch out for reserve price not been met, this means there is a reserve or minimum price on the auction, if the bidding does not reach the reserve price the seller does not have to sell, (you do not know what the reserve price is unless you send the seller a question, which you can do in the question & answer area)underneath all this is a description of the item and maybe a picture.

things to note:
the search facility is a bit weak, for example i might want to search on all the CDs that do not have a reserve price, well i cant do it, i can only search on a particular CD title for no reserve

watch out for postage costs, these are generally in the description, but if not send a question asking how much postage is, for that matter do the same if it says there is a reserve

some auctions have a buy price: this means if you bid that price straight away you have won it, however be clever here, some sellers put a buy price but no reserve so you can still get it at t he cheaper price. An example

a CD is for sale, the auction price is £5.00, it says a buy price of £10.00 BUT there is no reserve and the bid increment is 10p (yes 10p it does get that low), if you play your cards right you could bid £5.10 and still win this auction as there was no reserve.

altogether a really good site, and recommended. whilst im here, check out my items, my ID is stevepeto