THE place to shop online (ebay.co.uk)

Member Name: liz3yy

Product:	ebay.co.uk
Date:	18/01/09 (123 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great place to find a bargain

Disadvantages: Can be full of fake goods, you need to take care when looking for expensive items

I'm a huge fan of eBay, since it first appeared on the world wide web around 10 years ago it's attracted hundreds of millions of users buying and selling anything from underwear to rubber chickens. I have yet to make my fortune there but have found many a bargain and hugely expanded my handbag and jewellery collection in the process, much to my boyfriends annoyance at times.

Ebay as a company is huge and to go through the ins and outs of it with would fill a book so here in my review I'll do my best to cover the basics.

Ebay started life in the mid 90s, created by Pierre Omidyar as an online platform for his wife to trade Pez sweet dispensers (remember them?) over the past 14 years the site has grown and expanded to have a presence in 37 markets across the world and recently the 10 million live listings landmark.

The UK site launched in October 1999 and now has over 14 million users, me included of course and this continues to grow.

Getting started -
To buy and sell on eBay you need to be a member, to do this you need to register and create a user name. Once your account is approved and set up you're free to browse the site and buy (and sell) at will.

Buying -
Buying items on eBay is a doddle, you can use the powerful search engine to look for whatever item you're interested in. Items can either be listed as auctions or buy it now (BIN) Buy it now simply means you pay to buy the item for the price listed, just as you would from any other online shopping site. With auctions you bid the price you're prepared to pay then sit back and wait to see what happens. A word of warning, it can be easy to get carried away and get sucked into a bidding war. If I see an item I really like I set myself an upper limit and make sure I never go above this. I have bagged myself some wonderful bargains this way.

Selling -
To sell on eBay is simple too, though you do need to register a valid debit or credit card to prove you are who you say you are and that your address is valid etc... It costs money to list items to sell Ebay, this can be as little as 10p for an item starting at 99p right up to £50 to list something bigger such as car or other large expensive item. You can add 1 free photo to your listing and pay to add additional ones. The more clear and precise photos you can add the better I find as people like to have a good clear idea of what they are bidding for.

Feedback -
Each member of Ebay has a feedback profile which includes basic information about them and any feedback that their trading partner has left for them. Leaving feedback isn't mandatory but is encouraged to help other members make an informed decision about who they buy from and sell to.

Feedback can either be positive, neutral or negative, positive feedback generates one point each whilst neutral generates none and negative deducts one from the total score. As your feedback grows you gain different coloured stars which are an instantly recognisable sign of your trust and experience with Ebay. I have only had one instance where I've received feedback that I didn't feel I deserved, the majority of members seem to be very trustworthy and if you use common sense it's hard to go wrong.

Recently the feedback system was changed to make it difficult for sellers to leave negative feedback for buyers, I find this odd as how else are you meant to warn others of bad experiences?

When buying on Ebay you do need to watch out for scammers selling fake goods, I have never bought any myself though I am aware it's a big problem that Ebay don't seem to be doing much about unless of course they receive bad publicity then they start to shout about it.

As a rule I will only buy items on Ebay if they cost me at least half of what they would in the shops otherwise there's little point. I once had a bad experience with a seller who refused to send me an Ipod I had won and I had to claim the cash back which took forever, I therefore wont buy expensive goods anymore as you can never be sure you will receive what you buy.

Ebay encourage people to list items and pay for them using Paypal, an online system where you safely (so they say) send money to anyone with an email account. They offer protection on any transaction claim to help with any disputes if things go wrong. The only trouble with this is that Paypal charge fees when selling items and also for withdrawing money from your account. I therefore don't bother selling on Ebay anymore as the fees cancelled out most of my profit and didn't make the effort seem worth it.

Ebay can be very addictive and I can easily spend several hours on there every week searching for items I need or looking for cheap clothes to complete an outfit or to fill a gap in my wardrobe. I recently bought a wonderful Fat Face jumper for less than £7 when in the shops it would have cost over £40.

If you use common sense and don't get carried away Ebay can be a wonderful place to shop, watch out for anything that seems too good to be true or just plain odd and you cant go wrong.

Summary: A great place to find a bargain