Better than a car boot sale !! (ebay.co.uk)

Member Name: Karenwilson

Product:	ebay.co.uk
Date:	11/11/01 (152 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Make money

Disadvantages: Can spend too

Most of you now know all about Ebay the auction site so I am not going to do a detailed opinion on how it all works and what you need to do. If you would like to find out more on the site I suggest you have a look and use their guided tour. It was very helpful and I managed to work it out, so it must to be good. My opinion is about my experiences with the site both as a buyer and a seller.

I placed my first bid on an item a month ago, I had been looking some time previously but was a little unsure about the whole process of paying the seller up front and waiting for your goods to arrive. Anyway I took the plunge and placed a small bid of £2.75 not much money but I was then able to see how the process all worked.

Once I placed my bid I went into my Ebay homepage and it showed what I had put a bid on and if it was green I was currently the highest bidder and if it later turned red I had been outbid. Ebay also send you notification by email if you are outbid to give you the chance to review whether you wish to proceed any further. Luckily my first ever item that I won there was no competition and the process was fairly easy. The bidder and seller have three days to make contact with each other via email. Being eager I sent the email immediately and told them where I lived. This is important, as they need to know your address so they can work out the postal charges for you. Most items that you bid on you will also have to pay the postage on top. This is the most common process although they do have a “buy now” scheme, of which you can buy the goods straight away without going into the bidding, but usually this way you end up paying a lot more, to tempt you into this method they sometimes offer postage free by doing this.

After I sent my email within a few hours the seller contacted me with a price as to the postage and packaging charges and the address to which I had to send my cheque to. The money was sent the next
day and I waited in anticipation for my goods to arrive. I was still unsure about paying this way, but the gentleman whom I was in contract with seemed pleasant and friendly enough.

Four days later a little package arrived and sure enough it was what I had bid on and was in very good condition and well worth the money. It is common courtesy on this site to send feedback to the seller/buyer to let others know what trading was like with them. After quite a few good feedback comments they are rewarded with stars for how good they are and how many transactions they have done.

Now it was my turn to be the seller, and I sent my husband into the loft to find some things that were waiting for the car boot sale we said we would do this Summer but never got round to. He came down loaded with books, videos and a selection of toys. After several drinks and shouting at the computer we finally worked out how to download pictures of what you wished to sell, so the buyer could look at what they were interested in purchasing. You can sell without pictures but I think that more people sell items when you can actually see what you are bidding on. Ebay charge for every item that you sell but it is only a small amount like 45p a video and they also take a small percentage of the price that you sell the goods at.

Once all my goodies were on the Ebay site for seven days of the auction all I had to do was wait. It was really exciting and my husband and I regularly checked to see how the goods were going. At the end of the seven days we sold roughly half of what we put up for sale, which is not too bad and they went for very good prices much better than what you would get at a car boot sale.

The buyer contacted me within a couple of days and I packaged the goods up ready for when the cheque was received and then sent the goods once I had banked the cheques. There are plenty of other paying methods but because I am pretty new to all this I am j
ust sticking to postal orders and cheques for the time being.

Since taking a keen interest in this site I have found that the best selling items are videos, toys and unusual items. I have found that people are not always keen on large hardback books as they may buy them for a bargain price but it could cost more to send them through the post.

My tips on buying items is that when you have found what you wish, make sure that it will not cost you the earth to get the items to you. Some Ebay members seem to make a large profit on postage and packaging of the goods. You can email the seller before you bid if you are interested in finding out a rough idea how much transporting the goods will cost.

Well I hope that I have given you a bit more of an idea of how the system works and hopefully I may have tempted you into selling some of your unwanted items. Personally I find this a lot more exciting then standing out in all weathers selling your goods at car boot sales for a very small fraction to what you originally paid for the goods. Ebay is all done from the comfort of your computer chair.

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