A whole new world
 Mar 6th, 2001
Advantages:
free, a whole huge vast and fascinating range of goods on offer, ability to sell items yourself, feedback system builds your rep as buyer/seller, well designed site, account info available
Disadvantages:
crooks can operate but not regularly and eBay insurance can cover some of costs lost
Recommendable:
Yes
Detailed rating:
Layout & Design
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Quality of the Content
Range of Services / Products
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  judithritchie
About me:
Hi I'm back and raring to write on Ciao after a 3 month exam break, all of which I PASSED Yippee!! A...
Member since:13.09.2000
Reviews:115
Members who trust:26
Review rated by 31 Ciao members on average: very helpful 
This review received a counterstatement by a party concerned
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It's been a while since I've been on eBay, thank Goodness! That isn't necessarily a bad thing! In fact, I dread going on the site because ... I LOVE it! And I just can't STOP myself! eBay is one of the leading online auction sites. It allows you to trade things not only in the US but in the UK, as long as the seller is willing to sell to the UK. And it is one of the most addictive shopping experiences on the planet. You don't just choose your item, pay the cost and receive the item here. YOu make a bid and you bid against other bidders. You anticipate when the auction of the item you so desire is going to end. And you make sure you are on 2 minutes before the end of it to make a final bid if necessary. It's every man for himself, guys! It's exhilarating!
OK, getting down to details. eBay allow you to sell and to bid for items, so first you must become a member. This is easy quick and simple enough. And unlike many other auction sites you do not have to register your credit card details when you register. You may change your mind, e.g. if you take up selling items regularly and have to pay listing charges, and that's fine because you can add the card details later.
Once you have registered you get to log in every time you go to eBay. You can then visit your account details by clicking on the link to "My eBay". This allows you to
see transactions you have made on eBay in the last 90 days, and also you can see other transactions you made after the 90 days.
As a member if you see an item on auction you THINK you might wish to buy but are not sure, want to see how bidding goes, want to email the seller etc. you have the option to "Watch" the item, so once you log on and visit your account you get to view a list of items you are currently "watching". This is a very useful facility, as it saves searching through ALL the auctions for the one you are considering. It gives details such as the starting price, the current bid and when it ends, whether the item has a reserve (bench price) and it is colour coded to tell you, if you have bid, whether you are still winning in that auction. However eBay automatically email you to the email address you provided on registering to inform you if you have been outbid, and they also send automatic emails when an auction you have bidded on has finished and they let you know whether you have won it or not. If you have you receive a further email with the contact details of the seller and telling you to get in contact to arrange the details of the sale.
As you buy and sell, each party gets the chance to leave feedback about their experience with the other party on your account, and this number adorns your eBay name like degree letters! They are supposed to serve as a CV, selling your trustability to the other party when you want to buy or sell an item. It is a very efficient system that allows you to leave negative or positive feedback. In my opinion (as a buyer) you get a great deal in this membership, all for free! I listed an item to sell once, and thats when it starts costing you. To list an item you must pay a listing fee, and to list my item for about a week and a half it cost me a mere £1.50 or so. This is to cover some of the costs of running this show. However it didn't sell, but I still had to pay the listing cost. C'est la vie.
But I have had some good experiences as a buyer. The first advantage is that you can find things on this site that you may not find anywhere else - ever! I recently bought a 1915 baby foods advertising poster. How kitschy is that?! And for £7.50 I got 1 metre x 1.5 metre poster of a Robbie Williams Lazy Days single poster. And as I had the birthday blues, as an Aquarius on 21 January whilst I slaved overmy revision I popped onto eBay and saw the perfect gift for myself - garnet stones, my birthstone, of which I bought 5 at £1 each. They're the most beautiful little stones too! Those kind of bargains are rarely matched on the high street! Another thing that enchants the first time visitor is the huge vast range of items on sale, from bikes to jewellery to clothes and games and swords and ..... GO AND SEE!!! If you see something you may want, you may want to query the shipping costs. Many people list this kind of information with the items they are selling, but some don't so you will have to email them. Best to do this because you may end up paying more than you would for the item itself! On the auction page you will see the seller's name at the top of the page and their email address sits next to that name. Information concerning the auction is clearly provided at the top of each page, including the starting bid, whether the item is reserve, how many bids so far, when it ends etc. Auctions may be provided with pictures of the product, and I prefer these more as you know what you're getting then. A description is often provided too. The information is more accessible on this site than other auction sites I have found, and it is less confusing than other eBay sites such as QXL. If you are considering expensive items you may want to check whether the seller is employing an escrow service, otherwise you might want to check their feedback ratings to prevent being done out of your money. I read an article in the Guardian about a bloke who bought a computer over £1,000 on eBay. He sent his money away and never saw or heard of it again. The police had trouble tracing him and all eBay could do was to help him via their insurance policy and block the user and prevent him from selling again via that name, although it is possible that he could reenlist under a different name. My friend recently had the same experience with a person who was selling a set of DVDs, and having paid £30 he did not receive anything and discovered he had been unregistered by eBay for misconduct or something similar. Thankfully the seller kept email contact and after promising to send the DVDs out whilst "waiting for stock" he has recently agreed to a refund - to be sent next week. Whether this will be sent or not is a different matter. In these cases eBay are somewhat helpful in that they set up an insurance service paying back a £15 excess and a maximum of £120. However money can still be lost. It all comes down to the seller. I recently bid on a bike for £40 that was using an escrow service.
Once you have seen something you just can't do without, you bid on it. The site is very well designed with everything set out clearly and simply so you won't be confused by a sheer mass of information as you might expect. eBay is an excellent site for those who hunt for things that little bit different than you would find in normal high street shops. The site is well designed and accessible, and you must use the system that's set up to worm out the good eggs from the bad.
Happy shopping!
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by (97%):
by (3%):
08.04.2001 18:48
I'm just off to have a look.
17.03.2001 17:20
I have always thought about getting down to try out things like ebay and qxl.... think im going to go give it a go now! top stuff! SP
11.03.2001 14:27
brilliant op! I lvoe it too, you get such cool stuff