I’ve just made my first sale on ebay......yipeee! Don’t get too excited it cost me more to advertise the bloomin’ thing than I got for it in the end. It was one of a series of photos I took in London a couple of years ago. I kept getting messages at the end of each week when the auction had finished, giving me tips like , why don’t you lower the price and I thought .....stuff that.....why don’t you mind your own business!

I like the idea that there is a kind of big brother watching over it all, this means you are not simply putting all you trust into some one you have never heard of, sometimes for a lot of money, with no come backs.

Ebay is the biggest and best of all the online auction houses, there are infinitely more products than any of the others, for example e-bid and QXL who are relative small fries compared to the mighty ebay!

It is simple to set up a basic account, just the usual name address , all important email, and tel no. the email is the most important means of contacting buyers and sellers and the most secure and convenient. When you need to contact the seller after the auction, all you need to do is fill in a few pre prepared forms and ebay will send an email on your behalf with all the relevant information. It’s quick and easy and it means you don’t have to have awkward telephone conversations with people you have never met before, if you are a bit shy.

So how do you go about buying on ebay? Which is after all the whole point. All you need is your ebay account and a ‘handle’, that’s a ‘nickname’, there’s the usual nonsense, like mr tickle or loveybumblebee, and all that nonsense. and your off ( just bear in mind when you contact people after the sale they will generally use you nickname to contact you so bear that in mind, if you really want to ring some one up on Monday morning and say “it’s bumblebee......I’m just calling for my money...honey”.....be my guest!).

Buy it now option is simply a fixed reserve price that the seller is willing to sell for if you buy at the beginning of the auction, in order to cut out all the bidding rigmarole, you may feel it is a fair price and go for this if you really want the item and do not want to risk losing it in a bidding war (chicken!).

So you’ve put on your MAX bid, all the other bids are coming in, the times ticking off the clock, seconds to go.......auction ended. The page immediately flashes up who is the winner, which you never know until the end because you can’t tell what anyone else is putting on until it’s over. If it’s you, you get your yipeeee.......moment, and then you have to cough up!
If you have won you get all the contact details, in front of you, of the seller for which you can use to complete the deal, as I mentioned earlier. You will get a little email from them in case you forgot you had a bid on “Congratulations from ebay”, setting out all the details and what to next.

Selling’s pretty easy, you need to set up a sellers account, which is basically adding a few more details to your basic account. All you have to do is decide how much your going to start the auction at, many people go for £1, as this excites the crowds, and pulls in the punters. No body really thinks they are going to get an alfa-romeo sports car for a £1, yes they sell them as well, but everybody thinks.....welll.....I might do...you never know......nobody else might want it....yeahhhhh.....Erm.... Welll.........noooooo....actually, but it’s the kind of dreamin’ that makes ebay so addictive.

My advice is start small and work your way up to the more expensive items when you’ve got a feel for it, this way you won’t end up paying over the odds for stuff.