I heard about this site of some friends of mine, who happen to be mad on Westlife. After only being members for a few weeks they had already bid for and won lots of signed goodies, promo CD’s, etc for impossibly low prices. Hearing all this I just had to join up.
THE DEAL
Ebay.com and Ebay.co.uk are two of the largest marketplaces to buy and sell unwanted goods from antiques to CD’s and videos. Other featured categories include ‘Collectables’, ‘Gemstones & Jewellery’, ‘Tickets and Travel’, ‘Toys’, ‘Computers’ and ‘Electronics’. The full listings are available at the click of a button.
SECURITY
All exchanges of goods and money do not go through the site, its only purpose is to put you in contact with prospect buyers and sellers. It is the seller’s responsibility to get in touch by email with the person who has made the highest bid to organise the exchange.
To ensure the member you are doing the exchange with is ‘safe’ you can first of all check their reputation by taking a look at their feedback form. This is where members who have done business with them in the past can rate and comment on their reliability. Obviously, if the member has a load of ‘WARNING:’ comments and ‘negative’ ratings you might think again about doing an exchange with them.
In
the case of a member not receiving the item they have paid for they will be able to claim up to £120.00 on insurance (which is both automatic and free).
There is also an Ebay ‘safety team’ to prevent fraud, trading offences, etc so there’s really nothing to worry about. From my experience, Ebay’s claim that most members are reliable and honest is very true.
HOW IT WORKS
Once registered (a quick and easy procedure) you are free to bid and sell in auctions.
Bidding:
Either you can browse, or search for items you are looking for until you find a product that interests you. Sometimes there will be a picture and a short description of the item, as well as terms and conditions. For example, usually the seller specifies that the highest bidder must pay x much in postage and packaging, or that the auction is only open to people in the UK.
Where you see the ‘bidding section’ you are expected to state your maximum bid which stays private from other users. You may not ever have to pay your maximum amount, it just ensures that if there’s an item you’ve really set your heart on, you won’t lose it just because you don’t check how the bidding is going every day. Ebay call this system ‘proxy bidding’ and there’s a whole page of information on it if you want to read more. On all items, there is a ‘bid increment’ which tells you what your minimum bid must be. This prevents you from bidding just one penny more than a previous bidder.
As you wait for the auction to end (which could be up to 10 days) you can (if you want) receive a daily email stating if you’re the highest bidder or if you’ve been out-bid. There’s always the opportunity to bid again, but the proxy bidding thing means you could have to bid a lot more to get over another person’s maximum bid.
If you win, the buyer will get in touch by email.
Selling:
The first thing to do is to fill out a form. The compulsory headings are as follows:
1. A title. This doesn’t have to be formal or anything and can be in capitals or use special characters to attract a prospective buyer. It will appear on search pages and in the category listings.
2. The category.
3. Description of the item. Include it’s condition, how much P&P will be and any other relevant information.
4. Your own location. Could be relevant so buyers can determine cost of P&P, if not already specified.
5. Methods of payment. You can choose from cheques, postal orders, cash and various different currencies.
6. Duration. How long you want to the item to stay up for auction, you can choose from 3, 5, 7 and 10 days, depending on whether you want a quick sale or not.
7. Minimum bid. The lowest price at which you are willing to sell the item.
Ebay also notes that you can use special icons, bold writing and pictures to ‘enhance’ your listing once you’ve got the hang of it. You can also use various types of auctions including ‘Reserve’, which ensures you get a good price by allowing you to list a secret sale price which is higher than the one quoted, ‘Dutch’, where you can sell more than one identical item at the same time and ‘Featured’, which makes your item come out at the top of all the listings and draw members attention to it. Note that some of these cost more money.
At the end of the auction you are expected to contact the highest bidder within 3 working days to confirm the cost, delivery charges and the address to which the payment must be sent. Once the buyer agrees to your terms, you can get on with the exchange.
MY EBAY
This personalised section which includes:
1. Bidding/Watching page, which lists all the items you’re bidding on or watching. Among other things, it tells you if you’re winning or losing an auction, what your max. bid was and how much time left until the end of the auction.
2. Selling. Has the same sort of information as the selling page, including highest bid and number of bids.
3. Recent feedback form. Includes the ratings and comments from the members you have done business with in the past. It is the only part of this section which is on view to other users.
4. Account. I am yet to create one in my profile so don’t know much about it, but once it’s been set up I think you can use a credit or debit card as an alternative method of payment through a special Ebay account.
5. Favourites. Here you can save your ‘favourite’ searches to go back to whenever you want.
6. Preferences. It’s basically up to you what comes up here. Among other things, you can choose to display the item you last looked at’ and account invoice information.
OPINIONS
Well, I think I’ve given you all the information. So, what do I think so far?
Excellent! I’m having so much fun bidding for stuff that I’ve had to set myself a limit (£20) to make sure I don’t bid away all my money! I’ve only won one auction so far, but I found the seller to be extremely efficient. The trade went very smoothly and I had my product within a few days, in perfect condition.
The product in question was a Buffy, season 4 box set. It was only out 6 months ago and costs £35.00 in the shops; I bought it on Ebay for £18.00. It hadn’t even been opened and I made a saving of £17.00. How cool is that?
The site itself is very well designed – bright and colourful, laid out well and with lots of information. When I first visited I knew very little about how the site worked, but I got lots of information from a useful little section headed ‘New Users, Click here!’ at the top of the home page. It’s very easy to get around, whether you browse the extensive categories or search for items, not to mention fast. My only complaint is that you can’t sign in straight of the index page, which is kind of annoying.
In conclusion, I am yet to see any major flaws at all. There is a lot of risk attached to the site, but it’s worth it for all the bargains you can pick up and the fun you can have competing with other members to get the product of your dreams.
by (93%):
by (7%):
12.03.2003 20:38
I have made about 11 transactions on ebay and only one person let us down when he changed his mind about buying.
12.02.2003 08:22
I started as Auburnsue selling stuff before we moved house and I still use this name for bits and pieces, but I have now opened a shop called Braemargifts and it's doing quite well! So I guess I'm addicted! Susan
14.10.2001 02:36
Good Op, But Ebay Customer Care is seriously lacking :-(