I joined ebay initially to try to sell a few items that have been cluttering up my house. It was, for me, a 21st century car boot sale...
This would have been OK, but...
Sellers on ebay are the ones who get stung by them. That is, you pay for listing your item, and for any photos of the said item as well as a percentage of the selling price. As a seller i found this a little hard to bear.
MY MAIN COMPLAINT
One place where Ebay fell down with me was that, when it comes to paying their monthly bill, there is a very limited selection of Debit cards that they will accept, in fact, only one - Visa. I have a Switch card. I did not want to set up a direct debit and sending a cheque seems to negate
all of the benefits of on-line trading as you have to rely on the good old Royal Mail (or Consignia, whatever).
CHARGES FOR SELLERS - BEWARE!!
As i mentioned earlier - when you list an item on ebay, you are charged, depending on the first bid price and the category you enter it in (e.g. a car costs more to list - £5). Plus, you are charged for any pictures you enter over the initial one (which is "free").
LISTING ITEMS
It is relatively simple to enter an item for auction, you simply register then follow the 5 step entering process. You can enter your item in many categories, although this costs more, so it can reach more people.
HTML
The use of HTML in your description of the item is beneficial - it costs you less and can lead to a more attractive and comprehensive description. For those of you who, like me, have limited skill in using HTML, here is a way that i worked out to use MS word to do the hard work for you:
1. Write out your description on MS Word - use colour and a fairly large type with lots of space for easy reading and to make it stand out from the crowd
2. Select "Save as HTML" from the "file" menu and enter a name.
3. Open this file on Internet explorer and select the "view" menu - then go down to the option called "source" - a notepad screen should pop up with the HTML stuff written in it. Highlight all of this and cut it - paste this HTML into the description box in ebay
4. Click on the preview description button to see if it has worked and if it has continue on with the listing process.
Your item should now be listed with glorious technicolour and in a better font than the plain old boring ones most people use.
SETTING A RESERVE
You may wish, as i did, to set a reserve price on your item. Be warned, this also costs - £1.20 to be precise - so only do it if you cannot bear to lose something for less than it is worth, soemthing i can't, as a Yorkshireman!
THE AUCTION STARTS
Bidding comences and you get emails telling you when people bid on your item. you can also use your member screens to track items if you have more than one for sale at a time - something which is very useful for at-a-glance status checks.
THE END OF THE AUCTION
At the end of the auction, the highest bidder makes arangements for peyment and you exchange the item for cash. This is determined by the payment settings you select when listing the auction and what you choose as the means of getting the item to the buyer. In my case, i posted my items after i received payment, and both I, and the buyers, were happy with this. Obviously some items cannot be posted and alternatives must be arranged.
BUYING
Buying an item is a relatively simple process. You simply look up your chosen item in a search or you browse around the categories for items that interest you. Then you put in a bid - DO NOT BID UNLESS YOU ARE WILLING TO BUY AS IF YOU WIN, IT IS LEGALLY BINDING - if yours is the highest bid at the close of the auction you have won. Now you pay by one of the seller defined methods and arrange collection.
If your item does not arrive after payment Ebay has many procedures for dealing with this - similarly vice versa if you are selling and the buyer can't or won't pay - which, thankfully i have not had the need to try, so i cannot comment on them.
IN CONCLUSION
Ebay is a very good auction site, compared to others i have seen and used. However, it's definitely a buyers market on there as sellers are hit in the pocket, particularly if your items does not sell, as you are charged merely for listing your product.
As for me.... I think i might have to get the car boot packed next time as it is a lot of effort just to have a jumble sale!!
by (85%):
by (15%):
13.07.2002 17:05
To get our paying charges for the reserve price, use the satrting price as the lowest you will take instead. Best regards Bazza The Mad Geordie
28.06.2002 11:26
Great op, we've had a problem lately that we paid for something but it still has not ever arrived! Do you know how we go about dealing with this?
28.06.2002 10:00
A good review but apart from not mentioning the registration process you haven't said anything about the feedback system, a very important part for buyers and sellers and one of the reasons that ebay works so well. If you use Bid Now you don't have to pay £1.30 for the listing and you haven't mentioned Dutch auctions either. Even as a Yorkshirewoman I have no objection to paying for my listings whether they sell or not, the site owners have a right to make some money from the excellent service that they offer.