Tips for beginers (ebay.co.uk)

Member Name: mrsbbq

Product:	ebay.co.uk
Date:	28/11/01 (174 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: vast selection, great prices, easy site to navigate

Disadvantages: some items over priced, seller expects buyer to pay for postage in most cases, it can be several weeks before you get the item

I love to shop. I hate spending money. Where does that leave me (and my wallet)? The answer to my conundrum is e-bay. To be able to bid you need to register - the hardest part of using the site. For security they send a password to the e-mail address you have given them - so type it carefully! Once you have registered then you are able to buy and sell.

On the home page, e-bay lists general categories like antiques, automotive, books, coins, etc. If you click on one of these categories (for example books), that brings up a further list of sub-categories like audio, children, fiction. Be careful, you can spend hours reading through what people are offering for sale. Anyone want a 1936 Ayshire digest? You can use the basic search facilities within these sub-categories. For example, if you are in the category Annuals, you can search for 1970 and chose from the huge number of annuals published in that year (an ideal gift for someone born in that year).

When using the search facility, beware of using too general a term (like star wars) which will bring up 1000's of hits. A more specific term like star wars DVD will take you to the two or three on offer. And dont forget, if ebay dont have it this week, goodies are being added every minute so check back often.

When you do start bidding or selling items, then your most useful page will be "my ebay". There you can see every item you are bidding on, and check on the progress of the items you are selling. Ebay also offer a facility to "watch" an item, so if something catches you eye but is several days off the end of the auction then you can add it to your list and bid nearer the closing date. Be careful of leaving it too late tho, towards the close of bidding some items can get very busy.

The best items to sell are those small enough, and robust enough to post. There are 1000's of CDs, DVDs, videos and games for sale, so before you pay out the full price see wha
t ebay has to offer. Shop carefully though, because some items I have sold have gone for MORE than I paid for them. Use dooyoo to check prices before you bid. And remember in most cases the seller will expect the buyer to pay postage, so watch out for that added cost.

Read the descriptions carefully. Make sure that what you are buying is exactly what you want. Although, having said that, the couple of times I have accidentally bought something that turned out to be not what I was expecting it to be (in one case I bought the same DVD twice, my fault for not checking I was bidding again on the SAME item) I just put it straight back on e-bay (and in the case of the duplicate DVD I even made a 50p profit).

E-bay also offer a local service, where you can search for items available in your area (I guess this is to rival the for sale ads in the local newspapers). I am trying this out with a couple of items that really are too large (and expensive) to post. To avoid selling these items too cheaply I have put quite a high reserve on them, and I have stated clearly that the buyer pays full postage and packing if they are unable to pick them up from me. This is also handy if you want to see the goods before you hand over your money, especially if a lot of money is involved.

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