Ebay- Going once, going twice, SOLD! (ebay.co.uk)

Member Name: rossmoorlock

Product:	ebay.co.uk
Date:	23/02/01 (900 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Excellent Company

Disadvantages: Haven't found any yet.

About a year ago I thought that I would have a quick look on www.ebay.co.uk. I have been a Carlton Ware porcelain collector for a number of years and ebay had been recommended to me quite a lot of time.
Looking back on it now I wish that I had never gone to the site, because I am now addicted and cannot stop bidding on items.

Ebay states that they want you to be able to
buy with confidence and I think that their site allows you to do this very easily.
Another good thing about ebay is that they want to know what you think about them. They have a link on their page which allows you to review the site and basically tell them ways of improving it. This is very good, as ebay understand just how important it is that their users are happy.

They also have a charity auction catagorie which is run by a Company called Petal. This is a very good section of the site.
They also have a very good help page which is easy really easy to use and you will soon sort your problem out.
You can also chat with other buyers and sellers on the site, so that you get to know some of the people that you trade with. They have a news section, where news is posted on the site. This is also very good and very interesting.

On ebay you can buy or sell items at very little cost. I have been to lots of real auctions and I have to say that ebay is not quite as exciting but when it gets down to the last few minutes on an auction my heart does tend to beat a bit quicker.
The great thing about is ebay is that you can bid on items in the luxury of your own home and your comfy computer chair. It's very easy to use and the website is set out very well, and even somebody that has never used the net before would find it incredibly easy to find what they were looking for.


Sellers put up items on the site that are to be sold at auction. They can choose how long they want their item to be on for. So if they wanted it to be on for 5 days they w
ould select five days. The maximum time for an auction is 10 days. You have to have a registered account with ebay to bid on any of the items.

It does not cost very much to sell on ebay. The seller has to pay a certain amount to put the item on, and have to pay more if they want to put a reserve on the item.
The more money that the item sells for the more money that you have to pay ebay. But don't worry you will never have to pay anything more then £2 and if you don't sell the item you don't have to pay anything.
Don't be afraid to try and sell things on ebay.

I search for a number of things on ebay from china to green day memorabilia and they always have so much on the site to choose from.
All you have to do is search the site for a rough outline of what you are looking for and all the auctions will come up on your screen.
Ebay do not allow anything illegal to be sold on their site. No drugs, pornography or weapons.


Headings
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These are the main headings on the site....
antiques & art, books, films & music, coins & stamps, collectables, computers and games, dolls & dolls houses, jewellery & gemstones, photo & electronics, pottery & glass, sports, toys, everything else, but there are other little sub-heading to break down the items into more detailed categories. This makes it really easy for you to find what you are looking for on the site, and I think that this is why ebay is so highly recommended by all of its users. It is just so incredibly easy to do. This also makes it addictive to the users too.

The good thing about Ebay is that not all of the sellers know exactly what they are selling. I have bought some antiques on the site for less then half of what they are worth. This makes the site exciting and always makes you want to go back, because you just don’t know what you are going to find.

When I first used ebay I was not that worried about peopl
e ripping me off as it came so highly recommended to me, but after a week or two it hit me about just how easy it would be to rip buyers off.
Ebay offer a number of things that stop the frauds.

Every buyer is covered by free insurance. The limit is £120 but this does put your mind at rest if your item has not come to you through the post yet.

You also have to be registered with ebay and this is done by email. So ebay knows who everybody is.

Ebay frequently check their site for illegal items so that you won't be bidding on anything dodgy and to make sure that the site is free of criminals and to make sure that everything runs smoothly.

When an auction has ended and an item has been sold the buyer or the seller have to contact each other within seven days. Failure to do so, will get ebay involved to sort the matter out.

The thing that put me at rest the most was the feedback on each member.
After an auction has finished and the buyer has received their item in the post, the seller leaves feedback on the buyer and the buyer leaves feedback on the seller. So if everything went quickly, money received on item, good communication and the item was well packed then the seller and buyer would give each other positive feedback.
So when I bid on an auction I always look at the seller’s feedback before hand.
This helps a lot. It is always worrying bidding on some bodies item when they don’t have any feedback because you don't know who they are and you don't know where they live or whether you can trust them or not.
In a situation like that, you just have to trust them.


In an ideal world ebay wouldn't have wanted to have done anything like the above, but now you can't really trust anybody so it had to be done.

Ebay is free to join and takes less then a minute. You are free to bid on any item.

Once you have searched for your items that you want, it wi
ll come up with all of the different auctions on your screen. Click on the one you want to look at and it will bring up all the details of the item. Like the description, how you can pay, postage details and also where the seller lives. There may also be a picture of the item. This is very important because obviously the postage and packaging is going to be a lot more expensive if the seller lives in New Zealand. So be aware of that fact.
It is easy to bid on the item. When you have the item on your screen, at the bottom of the page is a space where you can put in the amount of your bid. It tells you the minimum bid that you are allowed to put in.
Once you have done that it will tell whether you are the highest bidder of not.
If you are the highest bidder it will say "congratulations" but if you are not it will say, "sorry you have been outbid by another bidder"
You might not even have beaten the reserve. This can be very annoying at times, but you just have to keep on putting bids in until you are either winning the bid or the bid has gone too high for you.


You will also receive an email confirming your bid. This will tell you how much you bided and whether you are the highest bidder or not. Don't rely on these emails though, as in the past I have lost items because the email did not come telling me that I had been out bided. This was very annoying.

You have to remember that ebay is just like a real auction and even with five minutes left when you are thinking yes I am the highest bidder, somebody might outbid you. I have done this myself.


The "my ebay page" is the best bit about ebay. This allows you to watch the items that you are interested in. When you are on an item, click on " watch this item" and it will put it into your "my ebay page". Then click on " my ebay " and it will bring up a page with all the items that you are watching. This all
ows you to easily find the items you are watching without having to search through the categories for them. It tells you the highest bid and the amount of bids that it has had on it.
You have to be signed in to look at this page.



When I first went on ebay and saw loads of things that I wanted I tended to bid straight away even though I knew that they had about 5 days left to run. What I do now is bid with about five minutes to go. This makes it difficult for anybody to outbid me, as there is so little time left.
I only bid on items that have pictures because it is easy for somebody to make a reproduction of antiques so I have to be very careful.
You can also ask the seller questions if you have anything you want to talk about with him/her. This is very useful and allows you to make sure that the seller is real.


I have many things that I want to sell on ebay but I just haven't got round to it yet. I can't just jump into it as I have to arrange all of the post and how I am going to let people pay for my items. This takes a bit of time but I am sure that when the money starts rolling in I won't be complaining.


Well I am sure that you are thinking that there must be one bad thing with this site. Well if you are then you would be right. I personally have only had a couple of bad experiences. Both of which were sorted out in the end but got me very worried.

1) A few months ago I bought an antique on an Ebay auction. It was only for about £70, so to all of you rich people out there that would not be that much, but to me that was a fair bit of cash. I contacted the seller and the item was sent off to me very quickly. When it arrived I was all excited. Ripped open to the box, only to undo all of the bubble rap to find about seven pieces of china. I was sure that I had only paid for one item. I soon realised that my item had been smashed in the post. I then got a bit worried. I mean what if the s
eller thought that I had broken it and wouldn't give me my money back. Thankfully the whole problem was sorted out very quickly as the seller had insurance but this could have turned out a lot worse and I could have ended up losing my £70.

2) This only happened about three weeks ago. I bided for a tennis racquet on ebay and one the auction. I had paid only £50 for a tennis racquet that I knew would have cost me in the shops about £180, so obviously I was very happy. I emailed the seller telling them that I had won the auction and a week later I was still waiting for a reply. At this point I was a bit concerned as I thought that the seller might have thought that he/she was not going to sell the racquet as such a loss and just had not bothered to contact me. In a situation like this ebay suggest that you get in touch with them, so I did this. I emailed them explaining the situation. They sent me an email back with the seller’s personal information. Like his address and phone number. I phoned up the seller only to get an answer phone message. I was very concerned at this but luckily I had not sent off any money yet.
Two weeks after I had first won the auction I received a phone call from somebody called Alex. The seller of the tennis racquet. He said that he had been away on work for a while and that he was very sorry for any trouble and confusion he may have caused. Thankfully this problem was sorted out but again it could have been much worse.



My Ebay Tips
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All I would say is that there is no need to jump in and bid straight away when you see an item that you want. Wait until the time has run out a bit, then bid, as it gives less time for other people to bid on the item. Recently I have been bidding right at the last moment with about two minutes to go, as this gives the other bidders very little chance to get another bid in.

Put the items that you are interested in onto your "my ebay p
age". This comes in very useful.



If you have any questions that you want answering about the item that you are buying email the seller and they will be willing to help you.

Read the item description very carefully. Make sure that you know exactly what you are bidding on, and make sure that everything is as it should be.

Look back on seller’s feedback to make sure you can trust them and to see if they are reliable. This gives you reassurance.

Check where the item is located before you bid. You don't want to end up paying £20 to get it into the country. (Been there done that)
Make sure that you know what time the auction ends, because you don't want to log on to the ebay site only to find that the item you were interested in was sold five minutes before.
But most of all, have fun and enjoy yourself.

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