eBay Inc. is a public company and was founded in San Jose, California in 1995; the headquarters are also in San Jose, California. The main people behind the company are Meg Whitman, Pierre Omidyar, and Jon Donahoe however, there is approximately 12,000 employees throughout the world. Ebay is classified under the Auctions sector in the Industry circle and in 2006 generated a Revenue of $6 billion (that's a lot of bidding and buying!)
eBay is usually thought to be simply an online auction website however, they also own PayPal, Skype, and such like.
In April 2006, eBay introduced ebay Express which works like a normal Internet shopping centre offering brand new items from businesses and so forth. Then in June 2006, they created ebay Blogs and ebay Community, which consist of discussion boards, forums, and help talks. I have used both of these and find them very beneficial. For example,
I have only been a member of ebay since December 2006 (I previously used my mother's account before that) and a few weeks ago, I had a problem with one of my auctions; I went onto the discussion and help boards and nearly 50 people replied offering me suggestions!! I put these into practice and the problem was solved. Great!!
TYPES OF AUCTIONS AND HOW THEY WORK>>> There are several types of auctions, including: auction-style listings, fixed price, Dutch auctions (more than one identical item). Auction-style listings - the first bid must be at least the amount of the minimum bid set by the seller. Until a second bid is contributed, eBay will then display the auction's minimum bid as the current high bid. After the first bid, each following bid must be equal to at least the current highest bid displayed plus one bidding increment. These increments increase according to the current bid amount (i.e. 5p if bid is less than 4.99, etc) Dutch - user bids or buys whilst noting how many of that item they desire.
There are fees to pay when selling/listing items. eBay generates revenue from this.
HOW MUCH DO I PAY? You pay the amount at which you won the item plus P+P which is decided by the SELLER, not ebay themselves. This of course, does not apply to 'Collection' items, where the bidder travels to the seller's location to collect the item they won.
I absolutely love ebay! Most of my friends and family use it, or have asked me to bid on something that they have seen and been interested in. I have 100% feedback now and only ever encountered one problem whilst selling an item, though it was not with a bidder but rather with the way I had listed my item! I thought ebay would take a while getting used to as it seemed quite complex at first, however, the most complicated part is, in fact, setting up the account and linking it to PayPal (which really isnt that complicated at all!). Whatever you're looking for, I can guarantee you are likely to find it on ebay. I found things on here which I never even thought someone would sell! I have also bought used items before; I was a bit apprehensive at first but was thrilled when they arrived in excellent condition! Furthermore, I have bought used cosmetics. My friends thought I was mad buying used lipsticks, etc. but all you have to do is sanitise them with non-alcoholic spray and clean the tube up a bit.
As many of you know, I am a total MAC addict and buy many MAC pigment samples on ebay. These allow me to test shades I would never normally wear because they may not suit my skintone, etc. The samples give enough for a few applications and are really inexpensive on ebay!
People often ask me advice on how to notice a bargain and a rip-off. What I normally do is type in the name of the item that I am looking for and sort the search results by "price: lowest to highest". For instance, I have found pigment samples for £1 plus 50p postage, whilst other samples of the same shade and size have been selling for £2 and £2 packaging. In this case, the latter is a rip-off. The sample isn't a bad price but the postage costs are terrible - the samples in an envelope weigh around 20g (I know this because I often sell samples) which comes toaround £1.12 for RECORDED delivery (this is more expensive than standard delivery because the recipient signs a form to say they have received the item, thus no-one can lie and say they didn't receive it, etc etc).
On a similar note, always try to get recorded delivery; many sellers offer this at the payment stage. If they don't offer it, and you really want it, contact the seller via the 'My ebay' page and ask if you can pay extra for recorded delivery. If they are genuine, they will agree to do this.
Also, watch out for the scams; these usually occur when you sell electronic goods such as phones, ipods, laptops, etc. I tried to sell my old laptop and within the 10day listing period, i received around 40 messages from scammers and hacked accounts saying they were global suppliers of electronic goods, etc. Also, I had a scammer (claimed to be living in England) actually buy my laptop and ask me to send it to an address in Nigeria (his "sister"). Basically, his 'sister's' address was actually his and the paypal account he wanted to use for the payment, was a hacked account with someone else's bank details. This seems worrying, but 99% of the time, ebay automatically ban these people. When they don't, you are expected to report the username to ebay and they take legal action.
I enjoy ebay so much...it sounds a bit sad but bidding really gives you an adrenaline rush - especially when you really want the item and you are bidding in the last few minutes!! It can be a bit of an anti-climax when you dont win the item, but don't worry! - there are ALWAYS listings for that same item elsewhere on ebay!
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Jul 18th, 2007
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