Ebay (ebay.co.uk)

Member Name: REALTRAVELLER

Product:	ebay.co.uk
Date:	25/10/09 (41 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Bargains

Disadvantages: Occasionally you need to chase the seller

Ebay.co.uk is the Uk version of giant auction website Ebay.com

Together with Amazon and Yahoo, Ebay was set up in the early days of the Internet boom. It was designed to be an online auction venue, and it has remained faithful to its origin.

Today Ebay is a multi billion listed company on the Nasdaq.

I have used Ebay for at least 10 years, probably more. Initially I was a buyer only. In order to bid on Ebay you need to register and and once you have done so, you will be able to use their search engine and bid for items.

I mainly bought books and CDs. The search engine on Ebay is remarkably good, so that if you type in with the correct spelling what you are looking for, a list of items for sale will come up,normally sorted by chronological order (the ones closer to the end of the auction on top).

I found that Ebay can easily be addictive. In my case at least, there was the thrill of getting items for a bargain price. As I said, I was (and still am) mainly interested with books and cds. Items are listed with very low starting prices and in most of the situations the price only goes up in the last few minutes of the auction.

I still remember the time I got a Lonely Planet guide of France which was 2 years old for 15 pennies plus postal packages. I did not need or plan to go to France at any point in the near future, but I have been to France many times and although a trip was not planned, I knew I would go back at some point.

The addiction also comes from the thrill of winning something, if only an auction. The last 30 seconds are really exciting. You bid, then you watch if anybody is going to outbid you and all techniques apply. Should you make a pre emptive new bid, just to make sure you have the item? Some time the price sky rocket. And you need a good connection with your pc if you want to place a bid in the last 10 seconds.

These days I bid much less. Have I ever been victim of a scam or was the item I bought not delivered on time or faulty?

Well, luckily scams, no. On few occasions the book was not that pristine as it was advertized, on one occasion a book described as not new arrived as new as you can have it an a bookshop (nothing against it, off course) and there were only a couple of occasions when I had to chase the seller.

I never buygood from people with less than at least 5 previous sales on thier record.

Payment can be made by cheque, by Paypal (I hate them!) or bank transfer, normally it is by Paypal.

Finally, for the record, my boyfriend has bene buying bicycles and spares for bicycles for few years on Ebay and he(we) got quite a few real bargains.

I never sold anything on Ebay, so cannot comment on that.

Summary: Some bargains