Auction: a guide to (Tips for Buying and Selling at Auctions)

Member Name: Edward_H

Product:	Tips for Buying and Selling at Auctions
Date:	10/03/01 (85 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheaper than shop price

Disadvantages: Can be quite unreliable

I am a fan of online auctions. They are definately the cheapest way to go about shopping, for things you want, things you need or totally useless things that sound fun. Indeed browsing the auction sites can be quite fun, looking at all the products that people are desparately trying to rid themselves of.
I recently went through nearly all the auction sites, searching for mp3 players. Many auction sites are really just sites that allow people to sell their unwanted property. These sites (such as Ebay, Yahoo, QXL and swapitshop) are not the best ones to look at. Although they may seem cheap, there is certainly a risk element involved in shopping here, the chances are that the product you buy is broken. It has happened to me, and there is usually no way of getting your money back because the auctions are not run by the company, but by the people.
So after a raw deal, I decided to search different types of internet shops. Then I found company auctions, these are auctions run by the company that is selling the product. These are not only cheap but, reliable. I almost bought the D.A.P jukebox from creative (at MSN) for £200, which is £150 off the shop price. Because these auctions are run by the company they will not be broken, or if they are you can return them. Be warned though, because the auctinos are run by the company the starting bids can be high and the final bids can often run above the shop price.
I finally bought my Mp3 player in a shop, but I had a good experience in Online auctions.
So my words of wisdom are:
Try to find the company auction site for the product you are wishing to buy. If you can not find it, then look on other auction sites, but make sure you talk to the seller before buying (either phone or text) then judge if he is reliable. This way you are less likely to get a bad deal.
I found the best auction site was MSN, then Yahoo. These are easy to navigate and have reliable sellers.
Good luck!

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