Take a Chance, Grab a Bargain. (ebay.co.uk)

Member Name: milmol

Product:	ebay.co.uk
Date:	23/06/02 (123 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Many bargains to be found.

Disadvantages: You take a chance.

My husband introduced me to ebay, he’s a bit of a magician and he found it a convenient way of purchasing magic tricks. Once introduced, I was hooked.

Ebay is an online auction site, selling a variety of items including cars, pottery, collectable items, clothes and just about anything you can imagine. There is no charge by ebay to buy things; the seller pays a charge depending on the item sold, and any special features used to advertise i.e. bold headings and pictures to make the item more attractive cost more.

The layout of the site is excellent, very clear and user friendly, a search is available and quickly takes you to the items you are seeking. To use ebay you have to register, but this is quick and easy. Your e-mail address is protected from everyone and you can contact sellers to ask questions via ebay. Beware, ebay polices the site and should you use this service to buy direct from the seller, cutting out ebay they will jump on you from a great height and remove you from the site.

When you have registered, you are given your own personal page, which is called ‘My ebay’. This allows you to keep track of items you are bidding on, items you have successfully won or items you want to watch and keep track of.

Tips on buying………….When you find an item you are interested in; there are several ways to proceed.

~ You could watch the item until the end of the auction and then bid at the last minute. The problem with this is the auction may be due to end at an inconvenient time for you i.e. the middle of the night or the middle of your working day. Someone else could also beat you at the last minute. I have watched an item when I knew it was due to end. I didn’t want to bid too early as someone else could have bid after me, therefore forcing me to raise my bid. Instead I waited for the last 10 minutes, and then to be sure to win, I placed a Proxy bid (will explain that next) f
or the highest amount I was prepared to pay. This meant if someone bid marginally more than the highest previous bid I would still win.

~ The ‘Proxy Bid’. This is where you decide the highest amount you are prepared to pay for an item, and enter that as a proxy bid. Ebay will then bid on your behalf, but will only increase your bid by the minimum amount necessary. An example of this is you see an item at £2.00 and the minimum bid is 20p, you know you would be happy to pay £5.00 for this item. Enter your proxy bid of £5.00; every time someone bids another 20p, ebay will outbid him or her on your behalf by 20p until someone bids more than £5.00, then you lose. The problem with this is someone may outbid you by 20p, i.e. £5.20. or even by 1p = £5.01. If two bids are entered for the same amount, the first bid always wins, that’s why I always bid an unusual amount, i.e. £5.09, therefore if someone else is bidding and bids £5.00 I win, but if they had presumed I’d bid up to £5.00 and entered £5.01 to beat me, I win. Of course if they went to £5.10 they win, its all a game.

Another useful tool on ebay is ‘Feedback’. This is where other people comment on the buyer or seller. If you are interested in an item, always look at the seller’s feedback. Were other people pleased with the transactions they entered into with this seller? Did the items arrive safely and were they as described? If a seller has no Feedback or lots negative feedback I personally wouldn’t buy from them. This can be hard for new buyers too because until you build up positive feedback as a buyer some people will not sell to you.

Points to remember

~ Always ask any questions of the seller before you bid. It is possible to retract a bid but is not taken kindly unless you have an excellent reason for doing so. Saying I changed my mind is not a good reason.

~ Always ask the price of postage if it is not stated, I
217;ve been amazed at some of the prices I have been quoted, it is usually the buyer who pays for the postage. The seller usually states the method of payment they prefer on the advert. If not ~ ask.

Do not bid on more than one item unless you are prepared to purchase both. Lets say you saw 2 handbags you liked, you bid on one but someone out bid you so you bid on the other. If the person who outbid you retracted, making you the highest bidder, you could find yourself winning both items. Beware, non paying bidders can be removed from the site.

What to do if you win ~ The buyer and seller have 3 days in which to contact each other, this is done through ebay and they then exchange addresses and agree the method of payment. Your email address is protected from all other users,

My personal experience of ebay ~ The first item I saw that I really wanted was a gold charm bracelet for my daughters 18th. I had priced them up in the shops and they were £90-£110 pounds. I checked the type of gold (9ct) and the weight. Bingo. One on ebay, currently going for £36. I bid £38 and watched with bated breath (I was prepared to pay up to £60 but didn’t know about Proxy bidding at this time). With one minute to go I went to ‘My ebay’, expecting it to say I had won the item, utter and complete astonishment to find that at the last second someone had outbid me by £2.00. He too was watching the end of the auction. Now lets say he had put a Proxy bid in at the last minute for £55, he would have won but ended up only paying £40 because the bid increments were £2.00. If I’d put in my proxy bid for £60 I would have won and paid £57, thus increasing his highest bid by £2.00. I hope this is making sense because it sounds difficult but it really is quiet easy once you get the hang of it. Anyway, needless to say I learnt a lesson, if I can watch the item until the end, I always place my proxy bid about 10 minutes to the end to be sure it gets in
but leaves others little time who are watching to outbid me, unless of course they have a higher proxy bid.

I have successfully bought several items on ebay, including designer clothes. My most successful item was a prom dress for my daughter. We had been shopping and priced them up, the cheapest we found was £150 and dearest required a bank loan and many sleepless nights. Now proms also mean hairdos, shoes, nails etc and for many young girls at college ‘Keeping up with the Jones’. Well I’m sorry darling but Mr. Jones must earn a lot more than me because although I want you to be the Belle of the Ball, I cannot afford it, nor do I think it’s reasonable for one night. This is where good old ebay came in. Went to the section on prom gowns and found plenty, a tip is to also look at similar sections i.e. evening gowns and ball gowns as people describe them in different ways. We found the perfect dress, the correct size, and currently selling at £10.00 with one bid. I checked the seller’s feedback, excellent. Then I emailed her to say I was interested but if I won the dress, I needed it in 5 days, obviously not enough time to pay by my usual way. I usually send the seller a cheque, they wait until this has cleared and then post the item to me. All of this usually takes about 2 weeks. The seller agreed I could pay by ‘Bill point’ or ‘Pay pal’; both of these are accessed via ebay. This is a secure method of payment which allows an instant payment by either switch or a credit card; the buyer and seller then receive an email from ebay informing them that payment has been received. The item can then be posted straight out to you.

The auction was due to finish at 11pm one night, I went on line and found it was still at the same price, bid increments were £1.00. I watched until the last 10 minutes and put in my ‘Proxy Bid’ of £20.07. I held my breath, expecting the girl who had bid before me to
have also entered a proxy bid, would it be higher than mine, would the item jump to £21.07? If so I had lost and made her pay double for the dress. No my bid was accepted and the item rose to £11.00. I watched hardly daring to hope, was someone else watching, ready to come in at the last minute and outbid me, either that or bid one pound more therefore raising my bid. The seconds ticked by and no other bids were made, finally the auction ended and the dress was mine. Yes, Yes, Yes, a brilliant feeling. The postage cost £1.00 bringing the transaction to a grand total of £12.00. I paid by Switch and the dress arrived 2 days later. It was beautiful, just as the picture showed, and yes Cinders did go to the ball. No one knew where the dress came from or how much it cost, but she received many nice comments about it.

So you take a risk, you take a chance, and sometimes it pays off. Up to now I have only had good experiences with ebay (touch wood), hope everyone else has as much luck.

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