Ebay is basically an on line boot fair on a grand scale. Products are bought and sold on an auction style basis, which is timed to an ultimate deadline. At the finale the bidding can become frantic as the final minutes tick away. If you are interested in buying, selling, reminiscing about things you used to have, or even valuing the entire contents of your attic, I’ll guarantee it won’t be long until you start putting in the bids. It can become strangely and dangerously addictive.
Before you can roll your sleeves up to start bidding or selling you need to register. This part is very easy and takes just a couple of minutes to put in some basic contact details, a username and password.
You can search through the site without too much difficulty by simply typing a keyword into a box with functionality similar to a search engine. A complete list of everything on the site will appear. As there are literally hundreds of thousands of products you’ll quickly become familiar with the filtering functions available. You can restrict your search to particular categories; sort the results by value or time remaining in auction.
When you find the item you are looking for or more generally something
else you weren’t looking for but fancied even more you click on the link and it will take you to a more detailed description and possibly a picture of the item. You place your bid in the bid box at the bottom. Depending on the value of the product, the bid increments will vary. Like a live auction, unless the reserve price is not met, there is no sale. Otherwise your offer forms a legally binding contract.
You can ‘watch’ items, which tags them for future reference. On clicking the ‘My Ebay’ tag you can keep an eye on all items which have attracted your interest, any bid you may have put in, the number of bids in total, the time remaining at auction and more importantly, are you winning? You are emailed the latest status on a daily basis just in case you can’t sit watching the timer all day.
You are well advised to do a bit of research on your seller before bidding. After all shopping online can be a risky business. Ebay provides a facility to give feedback after a sale has been completed. By clicking on the number next to the sellers name you have access to the entire history of that sellers previous trades. You can then make an informed decision whether or not to buy from them.
Once you have placed your bid, then you wait to see if you win. If you get outbid, you will be notified by email so you can go back and try again. To make life easier, when you first place your bid you can put in your maximum bid. Ebay will then bid incrementally on your behalf each time you are outbid until this limit has been reached. This helps you manage your bidding even when your boss calls you in for a chat. Some auctions make use of the 'buy it now' function. The seller may decide there is an ideal price they want for their item, and if you're the first bidder at that price then the auction closes and the product is yours. After the bidding has finished you are advised to contact the seller within three days to arrange to pay for your item. This may also involve clarification on postage and packing, which in most cases is in addition to the bid price but quantified in the selling description. This is all done through Email via the Ebay site. You'll generally have a range of payment options dictated by the seller; these include cheque, postal order and online payment through Paypal. This is an American payment solution provider, which a number of sellers openly criticise.
It is generally accepted that the vendor will wait until payment has cleared before posting your item. Once received you leave your feedback against the seller to help other bidders.
Selling is also pretty easy and again you have to register to do so. On this page you go to selling and scroll to the bottom of the page and click on 'sell my item'
You need to pick an appropriate category, like ciao opinions, so that your product is easily found. Adding pictures and a clear description of your product also helps to sell your item.
You need to give a starting price, which is the minimum you will be willing to accept to part with your product. You have the option of introducing a reserve price, below which you are not bound to sell. This can be used to entice the buyer in and encourage bidding without committing to make the sale. As postage is considered additional, you need to put in details to your description. This is particularly important if you are willing to sell internationally, or are offering insurance etc. After a final review your item will be listed.
At the end of the auction, if your item has been sold you will be charged a fee based on a percentage of the final price. If you have not sold your item the initial fee will be all you have to pay. You then contact your bidder and arrange payment and delivery. It is always advisable to wait for payment to clear before you send the item.
I have seen a number of Ebayers run small businesses using an Ebay shop. The shop will collectively list all your items as a stall. Each can be run as auctions or as fixed price sales. As such they attempt to build on loyalty, reliability etc. just like a bricks and mortar shop but at a fraction of the running costs.
Ebay invoices every two weeks and has thirty-day payment terms. They accept payment online using a credit or debit card or you can send them a cheque.
There are some traders out there that may take advantage of this global market place to make a quick yet illegal buck. So it’s comforting to know there are some protections Ebay have in place. These are detailed in the ‘Safe Harbour ‘section of the site.
You can leave the seller some negative feedback. As this can’t be removed, this is quite strong as it is likely they will lose business. Although they can reregister they lose the benefit of any good trading history. You should really try very hard to resolve the issue and make sure there is no misunderstanding before resorting to this.
Ebay does have a fraud protection programme. This is quoted to reimburse you up to £120 at £15 less than your sale price.
Alternatively if your bidder doesn't pay you can highlight them as a 'non paying bidder' and request a refund of the final valuation fee. Again they can easily reregister but they lose trading history.
Should any detail not be covered by the clearly laid out website, there is a customer service facility to fill in the gaps and resolve any problems or answer any questions you may have.
I know of no other site which successfully brings together so many buyers and sellers and so much stuff being traded!
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Apr 2nd, 2003
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