eBay
If you ever use the Internet, or been around a computer at all, wait, let’s just say live in the 21st century , you’ve probably heard of eBay from somewhere or like a lot of people have probably used it as eBay is one of the highest ranking websites on the Internet with millions of hits every day.
Personally I can honestly admit that I am addicted to eBay (Step 1 right?), and have been so since I first got grips with the computer and the Internet in my early/mid-teens, where I use to browse around the web and place all my pocket money in my bank and buy something which I thought was an absolute bargain and wait for it to come a few days later. It has been many years later and I still get as excited to buy something of eBay and the few days of anticipation and excited awaiting for something to come through the door, it is honestly like Christmas to me!
But enough about me, let me tell eBay actually is.
What is eBay?
eBay is a website which allows any Internet user to go sell and buy in an auction format, bidding for items sold by other users across the country and the world. It started as just people selling their ‘old junk’ on the website, but know has developed into an unbelievably large marketplace where you can find almost anything you want, and with different varieties and sellers competing for your businesses and the auction format has now got a friend called ‘Buy It Now’ for instant purchases, so no need to wait around for the item to end. But I do find it more ‘thrilling’ to sit and watch the bidding end and you win it at a bargain price, or have a small scale bidding war, which can get a bit over the top and you end up paying more than you wanted too.
Basically, eBay is a very large market of private users and small scale home businesses selling their goods which you purchase, and pay for via the Internet using an electronic method (99.9% of the time being PayPal) and the seller sends the item to you.
Recently however eBay have gotten some branded outlet stores to join them and they have their own stores on eBay which I found a very welcome addition as they make very good deals on occasion on eBays Daily Deals page, with massive discounts on genuine branded clothing or electronic goods.
Why use eBay?
Well, let me answer this question with another question. What else can you use that is as ‘BIG’ as eBay with as much product and demand as eBay on the Internet offering online auctions? Yeah, no one! eBay’s biggest competition is Amazon, and they are pretty much in a whole different market, so eBay aren’t just a monopoly with online auctions, but they own the bloody dice!
This said, having anyone ever interested in buying/selling something on the web will 9/10 times go to eBay in the UK as classified websites like Craigslist aren’t as popular as they are in America. But this is a good thing as everyone is in one place, so if you’re selling you got a wide range of people as a potential customer, and when you buy, you got lots of items to choose from, so kind off of a ‘win win’ situation (except for the fees, look below).
Tips on Getting Bargains
I find myself saying “eBay it” to someone at least once a week if they ask me where they can buy something, and I really do mean it, if you are after a bargain, eBay is the place, you’ve got to be patient and time it right, you can get such a good deal on something you can’t believe it yourself!
Over the few years I’ve been using eBay, I’ve learnt the ‘tricks of the trade’ on how to get the best price from using eBay when buying, and as a seller you should avoid listing items to such spec to avoid getting a price you are not happy with.
# Don’t look for items during the peak times, this being any time after 6pm as the majority of people come from work and school at this time and will be on eBay buying and stealing any bargains by bidding against you. It’s best not to have competition, mid-day/early morning if you’re after something cheap.
# Look back in the listing to like page 10, sometimes someone will list something cheap under Buy It Now with about 7 days to go. But be quick, others have the same idea.
# Misspelt items, seems stupid, but on occasion someone may have misspelt the listing name and not noticed, so you find it and get it at a bargain price.
# Contact Seller for quick purchase, especially when the item is local. Even though it not recommended by eBay, I’ve personally saved loads just contacting and offering fair price in cash and pick it up to save time on posting it. About 70% of the time the seller is up for it as they save on eBay and PayPal fees which are ridiculous (see below).
# Daily Deals are always worth checking, they often do offer an amazing price for 1 day only with a limited supply (or sizes for cloths) so getting there early is recommended.
Feedback
Feedback is one of those things which all eBay users seem to love. 80% of the time when I mention eBay to someone, I will get asked, “How much feedback you got?” it’s like a competition between eBayers.
Feedback is basically what you get from other users on eBay after a purchase/sale has been complete which adds to a number by your name telling everyone you have complete this many transactions and this percentage of them went well (Positive or Negative feedback). So if you want to see if you can trust the seller, you look on their feedback.
But as with many items, feedback leaves a footprint of what you have been buying (unless the item was set to private which few are), so anyone looking at your profile can see what you bought and sold, which isn’t always something you want people to know, especially if you know the person.
Also some people don’t leave feedback or leave unreasonable feedback, which can mess up your score and that’s like death to a high scoring 100% eBayer to get a negative with 10,000 positives.
Paypal and Payment Methods
It’s a little known fact that eBay own PayPal, probably explains why PayPal is plastered all over eBay. So this is going to be the recommended payment method, and I wouldn’t argue at all with that as when you’re buying something from eBay, it is quick and doesn’t require much effort to click a few buttons and confirm.
Even though Paypal is the most used way of paying for items on eBay, you can still pay for your items using methods such as Postal Orders and Cheque, even Bank Transfers which don’t offer any Buyer/Seller protection as PayPal does (which can be very useful when things go wrong).
But there is a big downside to sellers using Paypal (see below).
Delivery Costs
A pet peeve of mine on eBay is where people charge more than they need to on postage. You see a good deal and are about to bid when you realise the person is charging £4 to post a T-shirt, which I know costs no more than £2 to post, 1st Class. Worst being for larger items as people have no idea how much to charge and overdo it to make sure they don’t lose money, I always recommend finding a local person selling the item and contact them about pick up, as this save you money and them lots of time and fees (if you pay in cash).
So do look out, don’t be scammed unnecessarily by P&P fees.
Hong Kong / China Sellers
You may notice some items (especially electronics) will have lots of listings from Hong Kong selling something for a very cheap price with free shipping and so on. I’ve found out on lots of occasions that the price is honestly not worth the wait off up to a month (no joke) to realise that what you’ve been waiting for so long is actually a piece of junk and break within a few days or not work at all. If you want to save money, this is not the route to go on.
However if you have a spare £1 in PayPal, I like to play a game called, “How much can you buy with £1”, it is really fun and I managed to get about 10 pairs of headphones and some PSP/iPhone screen protectors for £1, a VERY nice deal I’d say.
Seller Fees
Possibly the worst thing about eBay being the only website to offer what it offers is it can charge almost anything it wants too for you to sell on their website.
The fees I find are quite ridiculous as it charges you to List the item, which varies on what your listing and how much you’re charging and how you’re selling it (Auction/Buy It Now). But this ranges from around 20p starting above 0.99p for an auction and 40p for a Buy It Now. Which in all essence is fair and I am happy to pay this.
But this isn’t it! Once you’ve sold your item, you’ve got to pay a percentage of what you sold the item for, which in total is about 10% of the sale price (not including P&P costs). May not seem a lot but if you sell something for £25, you lost £2.50 from it! The costs use to be much smaller and people could make a decent profit selling on eBay, but now it will ruin you!
Wait, not finished yet. Once you got past the mugging eBay give you, you enter PayPal turf. For receiving money from someone from an eBay sale, PayPal take some of your money for using their service, from every £25 sent, Paypal take a further £1.20 of you, and it varies by amount sent!
Worst made worst, eBay owns PayPal, so they first mug you and then PayPal comes along and gives you a final kick in the ribs!
Refunds/Disputes
As mentioned above, using PayPal offers some protection just in case someone wants their money back for a purchase, and the seller is not cooperating, you can dispute the matter with PayPal and they come to a fair and honest agreement (based on their policies).
Honestly, I bet a very good majority of disputes go to the buyer as I’ve been through a few in my time on eBay on both sides and PayPal have a very simple algorithm which looks like this –
Buyer gives Seller money = PayPal rob seller = PayPal Make Money (Happy)
Buyer has bad experience with Paypal = Uses other Payment Method = PayPal Has Nothing To Rob (Sad)
Seller has little choice in Payment Method = PayPal 99.9% of the time = Paypal wins
So basically, if they lose a customer who gives in money, they will lose money hence the idea is to keep the customer happy. The guy who gets the money needs the other person to use PayPal.
It’s a bit unfair and doesn’t always work like that, but don’t be looking for PayPal when disputing anything as a seller.
eBay is useless with disputes, they tell you to go to PayPal.
Scammed
As a few people may know, the Internet isn’t the friendliest of places, and throw some money in the mix and you get some mean people, as I call them….Scammers (take away the ‘mers’ and replace the ‘a’ with a ‘u’)
I’ve been on the side of a Nigerian scammer when I first started eBay, someone offered me a very sizable amount of money for a Mobile Phone, I agreed and they sent me a *fake* email showing I had funds in PayPal, but luckily I was intelligent to realise it’s not showing up in my PayPal and called them, and they told me it was a scam.
Another scam I was recently part off and I unfortunately couldn’t avoid it even though I tried. A person I sold a ‘virtual’ item too, which was an Amazon Giftcard (the code to redeem it), and 2 months later they ask their bank to get the funds back off me because of an ‘unauthorised transaction’ which is absolute rubbish and PayPal did very little to help as it was a virtual item and I didn’t post anything physically (no tracking or proof of sending). I lost a considerable amount of money.
But I learnt my lesson. If you have to sell something virtual, always send something to the other person, the next time I sold a voucher, I sent an envelope with a piece of paper with the code on it, and got proof of postage which I saved. I always recommend doing this; otherwise it will bounce back at you, even if the person seems genuine.
Final Words
Even though there are numerous things wrong with eBay and PayPal, mainly being the large fees and some users being ignorant on occasion, I still love eBay as a user for purchasing as I get a minor thrill in getting something I would never otherwise dare to buy in a shop, as sad as it seems.
If you haven’t used eBay, do give it a try, you’ll realise that it is the best, especially for electronics and occasionally the Daily Deals with come up with some nice clothing items (got to admit, in the recent months, a lot of my clothing has come from Daily Deals).
As you may be able to tell from the review, I highly approve of eBay, although the fees are unfair, the buying experience is next to nothing.
eBay - Its like Internet Crack, Addictive & Expensive! 
Exceptional, but I'm out of Es' for the day.