Ebay the buying and selling global network (ebay.co.uk)

Member Name: clairelw101

Product:	ebay.co.uk
Date:	28/10/09 (87 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy to buy and sell

Disadvantages: Charges can be expensive

Ebay has been going for some years now and is designed for people to be able to find a marketplace to buy and sell stuff. This can be brand new or second hand and can be from individual sellers or companies that sell on ebay as a business.

You can buy and sell pretty much anything on ebay and from any part of the whole, providing you are prepared to pay for the shipping costs for whatever you have ordered. This is particularly useful if you are looking for something obscure or rare.

The site itself is very easy to use and navigate and if you link up a Paypal account payment for goods/services is very easy. The downside is that when you sell something on ebay they charge you for inputting the item on to the site this could be a few pence for a picture or going into pounds if you want to put graphics on the auction item or change fonts, put reserves on or buy it now prices. Once an item has sold you also owe ebay a percentage comission fee for hosting your sale. The paypal site is also part owned by ebay so when you send money from your paypal account to your bank account they also take a fee off you for this process.

The one protection that ebay does offer when paying by paypal is the buyer protections system which is very useful if you do not recieve your goods or there are issues that you are unable to resolve with the seller. This system also works if you are the seller and are having issues with the buyer. Through this system you can be refunded for no payment items and have fees reimbursed or have money paid back to you for goods that you have paid for.

There are other sites that are starting to crop up nowadays that have jumped on to the ebay bandwagon that offer lower fees etc. however, ebay is a global brand name and it will take a long time for a major competitor to become available that will make ebay look at its prices/charges.

Summary: Useful site one day there will be competitors for it that can make it cheaper