Well "baby" Poppy is not such a baby anymore! We celebrated her 1st birthday on the 3rd Ma...
Well "baby" Poppy is not such a baby anymore! We celebrated her 1st birthday on the 3rd May 2006 and I marked the occasion by returning to work. Look out for me back on here!
Member since:30.03.2003
Reviews:36
Members who trust:52
Well, having been an "Ebayer" for over 2 years now, I thought I'd write an op for the benefit of those who have been living in the dark ages and may not have heard of this little gem!
Ebay is an online community, not just an auction. It has many purposes, although I admit, the main one is buying and selling!! But did you know it had message boards? No?? Well, read on...
Whether you are wishing to buy something or sell things, Ebay caters for most. Imagine a world wide car boot sale which is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year (or 366 next year)!! This gives you an idea of what Ebay does. It is much much more than this though.
Not only does it sell gently used (second hand) items, but many people sell brand new, or even handmade to order, products. Interested? Let me tell you more...
The website =========== The English version of Ebay is www.ebay.co.uk. If you go to www.ebay.com, it will take you to the American site. You can still buy and sell on the American site, but obviously everything is in Dollars and shipping costs can be quite expensive. However, if you wanted to buy something like a Wedding Dress, the low charge for the item may outweigh the shipping. It's worth checking all avenues before making big purchases. Designer clothes and cardmaking items are just two ranges which I have seen for considerably less money on the American site.
When the front page has loaded, you are presented with quite a busy page. On the left is a list of all categories, they are as follows:
Antiques & Art Automotive Books, Comics & Magazines Business, Office & Industrial Clothing & Accessories Coins Collectables PC & Video Gaming Computing Consumer Electronics Dolls, Doll Houses DVDs, Film & TV Jewellery & Watches Mobile & Home Phones Music Photography Pottery & Glass Sports Stamps Tickets & Travel Toys & Games Wholesale & Job Lots Everything Else
Each of the categories has several sub categories which in turn have yet more sub categories. There is also a search engine and many "featured" auctions which people have paid a hefty sum to feature on the front page.
Also on the front page, on the bottom right hand side is a handy tool for beginners. It features a virtual "tour" of the site, how to's
and a link to register.
Along the top of the front page is a menu which will stay static throughout the site. It has the following options:
Browse Search Sell My Ebay Community Home Pay Register Sign In Services Site Map Help
From this menu, you can do practically anything or find out anything you may need. The most useful ones are:
Browse ------
This takes you to a full list of all the categories and their sub categories with a number next to each which dictates how many auctions each category currently has. To browse, you simply click on the category which interests you and up will pop a list of all the auctions within that area.
Search ------
This is similar again, only rather that clicking down each level of category, you search for a particular keyword. On the front page is a simple search engine box anyway, so this section is more of an advanced search. You can exclude words, set price ranges and pick various categories to search in. This is handy if your simple search returns a huge amount of auctions as is usually the case!!
Sell ----
This takes you to the page for sellers. If you have not registered to sell, it will prompt you to do so. I will talk more about selling later on in the op. This link guides you through everything you need to do to set up your own auction.
My Ebay -------
This is the single most useful section for buyers and sellers alike. This area shows you at a glance what you are selling, bidding on and how long each auction has left to run. It shows as green if you are the high bidder / have bids on your auction. It shows as red if you have been outbid / have no bids on your auction. It also totals up how much your current winnings are going to cost (even if you'd rather not know a total)!!! You can also check your account and feedback here.
Registering =========== You do not need to register to browse the site. However, to bid on auctions or to setup your own auction, requires a registration. To avoid bogus bidders, you are required to place a credit or debit card on file if you are using a free email address such as Hotmail or Yahoo.
If you wish to sell items, you need to complete a seperate registration after the main one.
You will need to pick a username and password and then Ebay will email you confirmation to the email address you supplied. This is another security measure to stop people creating accounts with email addresses which don't belong to them.
Come on then Tamsin, tell me about SHOPPING! ============================================
Well, the best bit of Ebay for me has to be the thrill of finding an auction for something you really want, which is sitting at a really low price and bidding! Sad I know! The true excitement comes in those final five minutes! Be warned, people tend to "watch" auctions and bid in the last five minutes so that Gucci watch you think you've won before you go to lunch, might have be stolen from under your nose in the last 5 seconds when you come back!!
The way to bid for items is to click on the "Place bid" icon on the auction's page. This is the detailed page about the item for sale. Normally this includes a picture and some information, including postage and packing prices. Ebay bid on your behalf in increments up to your maximum bid. If there are no bids on the item, you can put a maximum bid in but Ebay will place a bid of the minimum amount until your bid is challenged. For example:
Starting price: £10
Your maximum bid: £20
No bidders
You will be high bidder at £10
Another bidder comes in with a £15 bid.
You will still be high bidder at £15 as your £20 bid was placed first.
The challenger sees you are still high bidder at £15 so places a bid of £25
They become the high bidder at £25
If you are knocked off as high bidder, you will need to place another bid with your new maximum bid, or cut your losses and walk away! Like I do. Yeah right. Ideally, set yourself a maximum and enter that straight away. If you are knocked off as high bidder, you are not tempted to increase the maximum you were prepared to bid for that cute pink fluffy bra set!!
You can contact the seller of the item via the "Ask the seller a question" button. This will email them and they should email you back. This is handy if they've missed off vital info in the description of the product or you're not 100% sure of the details.
When you win an auction, Ebay email you telling you that you won and include the total cost including P&P and the sellers address and methods of payment they accept. This should be information which was available to consider in the description of the product. Many sellers accept Paypal which is an online payment service. Again, using this requires registering! You can find more info at www.paypal.com
If you send a cheque, many sellers will wait until the cheque has cleared before posting the item. If you pay by Paypal or other online payments, many will send the item much sooner.
So what if I want to sell that collection of David Bowie LPs in my loft?? ======================
Well, selling is just as easy. Clicking on the "Sell" option at the top of the home page, takes you through a series of questions to help you set up an auction. You have various options which cost various prices to list. The general prices are as follows:
Opening Value or Reserve Price Listing Fee £0.01 - £0.99 £0.15 £1.00 - £4.99 £0.20 £5.00 - £14.99 £0.35 £15.00 - £29.99 £0.75 £30.00 - £99.99 £1.50 £100.00 and up £2.00
Ebay will then take a cut of the final selling price of the item.
Final Price Range Fee Percentage £0 - £29.99 5.25% £30.00 - £599.99 3.25% £600.00 and up 1.75%
You settle your bill monthly. Ebay email you to tell you that payment is due or if you have a credit / debit card assigned for fees, they will automatically debit that. If your item does not sell, you can relist it for free and you are not charged a final price fee.
Feedback ========
So how do I know if a seller / buyer is trustworthy? This is where the community side of Ebay comes in. There is a points system, similar to Ciao without little coloured dots!! Next to each username is a number. This relates to feedback left from previous transactions. Positive feedback increments the number by 1. Negative feedback will lower the number by one. It will tell you whether the user has 100% good feedback or has had some bad feedback. You can read everything that anyone has ever written about the user before you make a decision to trade with them. I highly recommend you check this feedback before placing bids.
I have had a few problems before, with people bidding on my auctions and not paying. The customer service is pretty good, although communication is all done via email. This can be very slow although you do get responses in the end. They refund all fees incurred by Non-Paying Bidders and these users are eventually barred from the site.
There is an awful lot more on this site than I would like to bore you with here. I suggest you check it out. There's a whole world of message boards if you become an Ebay addict!
Finally, I would like to recap with the following advice:
1) Make sure you read all the hidden charges before bidding - P&P can be extortionate so that bargain may not be the bargain it seems.
2) Read feedback carefully before entering a bid. A bid is a legally binding contract which you are obliged to keep.
3) Ask any questions before bidding. If you are unsure of the authenticity of an item for example, ask the seller. If they do not reply, do not bid. Genuine sellers list genuine items as such for they have nothing to hide. If in doubt, do not bid.
4) When selling, always upload a photo if you can. It makes buyers more eager to buy something they can clearly see. It costs no extra to upload one photo to your auction, so take advantage.
5) Finally, set yourself limits and stick to them!! Like I do. Hahahaha!
As an extra, thanks to SueMagee's helpful advice, I thought I should include some of the risks which you take and protection Ebay offers you, should anything go wrong!! I've not had anything go wrong except a couple of bidders who've not paid, but as stated earlier, the listing fees are all reimbursed as long as you follow the correct path to log a "Non-Paying Bidder alert".
However, you could possibly be sold items which are not as stated in the description. For example, I mentioned counterfeit goods, but also stolen goods. There is not much you could do to predict this, or counteract it in my opinion. You could easily buy stolen goods at car boot sales unknowingly. However, there is in place a protection policy called the "Buyer Protection Program" which reinburses up to £105 to the buyer in case of fraud. However, this is only a fraction of what you lost. To claim £105, you would need to have lost £300 or more. To read more about the scheme, check out http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/index_popup.html?confidence=payment-fraud.html for more information.
There is also a list of what is prohibited to be sold on Ebay. The list includes
Aeroplane Tickets Alcohol Animals and Animal Parts Catalogue and URL Sales Bulk Email Lists Satellite and Cable TV Descramblers Counterfeit Currency and Stamps Counterfeit Items Credit Cards Drugs and Drug paraphernalia Embargoed Items Firearms Fireworks Football Tickets Government IDs and Licences Human Parts and Remains Links and Credits Lockpicking Devices Police Badges Prescription Drugs and Materials Shares and Securities Stolen Items Tobacco and Tobacco Products Travel Vouchers Used Undergarments
So as you can see, a lot of "problem" items aren't allowed to be sold, but Ebay doesn't "police" the auctions so things do slip through. The is a way that members can report suspicious auctions, and Ebay will investigate them.
Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy using Ebay as much as I do! Tamsin xx
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Comments about this review »
Andyx 17.06.2004 16:52
I am also a member of Ebay and I dont think I could ever life without it especially from a sellers stand point. Great Review A++
Story_Weaver 16.05.2004 23:31
Very informative review, but I agree with bigbaz on the customer services, they are dire. My missus has been flogging brand new cosmetics and thongs and knickers for a while now and has had vertually no problems from almost 1000 sales. Mark.
Jackietob 02.03.2004 13:03
I've browsed, but never bought or sold anything, I imagine as soon as I start I won't be able to stop. Jackie
Advantages: Great for making money, selling things you don't want/need anymore or buying things that you are looking for! Disadvantages: The morons that attempt to rip you off.
slashtwg 02.05.2004 (02.05.2004)
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Nov 18th, 2003
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