Should auctions be this much fun? (ebay.co.uk)

Member Name: Caradawn

Product:	ebay.co.uk
Date:	27/04/03 (82 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: popularity of the site, bargains, good for selling

Disadvantages: nothing can be perfect!

I am (or was) a bit of a hoarder, but have come to the conclusion that I really needed to have a big clearout. Particularly as we need to start looking into buying a bigger house and don't want to have to take unnecessary extras with us. I didn't want to just throw everything away, as a lot of it is in good condition and in most cases hardly used. Going to a car boot was an option, but it just seemed so much hassle, so I kept putting it off. I kept hearing things about eBay, but didn't have the courage to try it out until I read another write up on the site. It made me think that maybe you could buy and sell more things than just antiques and collectables.


**So what is eBay?**

If you spend any time at all on the internet (which you most probably do), then you have probably already come across eBay. Either as a pop-up, pop-under, a link on another site, or quite possibly from reading about it on this site! But just on the off chance that you haven't heard of it before, I'll try and give a brief description of what it is.

EBay is quite possibly the biggest and most popular auction site on the internet. In addition the UK and USA, eBay has sites local to various other countries; Germany, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore, just to name a few. For anyone who might be interested, the full list is on the eBay home page.

Practically anything and everything can be auctioned on eBay, within limits. Obvioiusly illegal items, stolen goods, pornographic material and used underwear (so nothing for perves!) are not allowed; although sometimes these sorts of thing do slip through the net. Meaning that yes it is possible to be sold stolen goods and caution is recommended when buying on the site.


**First Impressions**

When I first went to have a proper look at the site, I was pretty much a novice on the internet. I have had internet access coming up for one year
and previous to that I had no

on-line experience. So at first glance I found the eBay home page a little bit daunting. It is quite colourful, the main colours being yellow and blue and there are a lot of page links and information. However, this neither makes the page look cluttered nor, on closer inspection, does it make it complicated to navigate.

Near the top of the page your attention is drawn to a yellow and blue search box which incorporates very useful links for nervous novices, on things like: how to bid, register, sell and why eBay is safe. At the very top of the page are the main links which remain constant whichever page you are on. These will take you to the Home page, Register, My eBay (once you are registered), Site Map and Sign Out. There are also the Browse, Sell, Services, Search, Help and Community links which go into sub-categories depending which area you are in.

On the left of the home page is the categories list, which is quite extensive and has sub-categories. Below this are the speciality sites then links to the other global sites should you wish to visit them. Below that is a quick access list of the top 10 searches. On the right of the home page you will find all the featured and spotlighted categories of the moment. You also have the option here to browse by region and theme.


**Registering**

Registering really is a simple and straight forward process. You need to fill in a form with your name, address and email address. Then you need to create a user id for yourself; this particular part is not as easy as I first thought, because nearly all the user names I wanted to use had been taken. You may have to be quite inventive here. Choose a password for yourself, and enter your date of birth and you're away...at least to the next page! I don't remember exactly what happens next, but I think (as with a lot of on-line programmes) you need to confirm your
email address in a link
which is sent to you.

Onc
e your sign up process is complete, you can bid on auctions. You will have to register again separately in order to sell and for this you will need to enter credit card details. If you just want to buy though, no credit card details are needed.


**Buying/Bidding**

Even if you only want to sell on eBay I would recommend you try buying first, in order to get a feel for it. You will also get yourself a bit of a Feedback rating and this will give people more confidence when buying from you. If you are anything like me though, thinking of something to buy may take a while. After all, I wanted to clear out the clutter and not add to it. It must have been about a month after registering that I came back to eBay to see if I could find some Asterix comic books for my Nephew. I wasn't expecting to find any as I had been round all the shops and had no luck; but I put in a search and came up with a couple of pages of Asterix comics and others bits. Once I started bidding I was hooked. I would never have thought it could be so much fun! WARNING: you could find it addictive!!

Bidding, like everything else on eBay, was much easier than I first expected. First find an auction in the list which interests you and click on it. This takes you to the auction page. At the top of the page are the auction details; ie: start bid, current bid, how long the auction has left to run and some information on the seller. It is a good idea to find out a bit about the seller before you bid on their item. If you click on the seller's user name it takes you to a form where you can email a question. Following the user name is always a number for that user's Feedback rating. Click on this and you can see any positive, neutral or negative comments on that user. A negative comment may not necessarily mean an untrustworthy user. It could be just a misunderstanding or a genuine mistake. However, if a user
has a lot of negativ
e feedback, you may want to s
teer clear. This is a rare occurance though. Most users will have only positive feedback.

Back on the auction page, if you scroll down or click on the 'description' link on the left you will find a description of the item being auctioned and in most cases a picture of it. If you decide to bid, you can either scroll down again, or return to the top of the page and click the 'bid' link. There really is no need to tell you exactly how to bid, because there are simple instructions which will guide you right through the process. If you should be unsure of anything then there is bound to be a link nearby which will answer any questions you have; for example if you wanted to know about 'proxy bidding'. This is something I use a lot. I decide on a price that I don't want to go above and eBay will automatically bid up to that price for me. This is a totally free service and when I get out bid an email will be sent to me to let me know. You also receive an email to tell you if you have won or lost an auction.

TIPS ON BUYING:
*This sounds like common sense, but...don't bid until you are certain you want to buy. Have a look at similar auctions first and you may find similar items in better condition or with lower bids.
*Choose a price that you are comfortable paying (don't forget that postage and packing costs will usually be on top of the auction price) and try to resist going above it. If you don't win this item, there are bound to be others; unless of course it is a one of a kind item, then I guess it is worth as much as you want to pay for it.
*Contact the buyer within 3 days (this is actually a rule) and let them know how you want to pay (this is a courtesy). Sellers appreciate good communication and prompt payment. They will be more likely to give you glowing praise for your Feedback profile than if you are a slow payer and not very communicative.

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*
*Selling**

Now
that I'd bought a few Asterix comic books and got a few feedback points I was ready to nervously venture into the selling side. I clicked on the 'Sell' link and it came up with a login page. After attempting to log in with my current details I discovered that I needed to register separately to sell. You can use the same user id and password as you do for buying, or you can use a complete different set of details. As with your original account, registration is free. You will, however, need to enter bank and/or credit card details for them to run a credit check and so you can pay for listing charges.

Before registering they recommend you read through some information. There are five links that you should have a look at: Learn how to sell, Learn about listing policies, Seller's checklist, Selling fees and of course Create a seller's account. Once you have completed the registration process, you are ready to sell and can start as soon as you want.

Click on 'Sell' and log in. You will have the option of selling at a standard online auction, which will be the default selection, or selling at a fixed price. Click 'Continue' when you have made your choice (I personally only usually do online auction) and you will then be led through a five step process in order to list your item. First select your catagory, then give it a title and description, add picture/s and details (duration of auction, start price etc.), select payment method and postage costs and lastly review your listing before submitting it. It is actually quite a straight forward process and if you should get stuck on anything, there is usually (as always) a link next to the box which will answer your questions. The form will also save some of the settings that you enter saving you a bit of time next time you come to list something.

There are costs involved in listing and selling your item. There is a listing fee which
sta
rts at 15p and a fi
nal valuation fee, which is a percentage of what you sell the item for. The listing fee goes up depending on the start price you set. If you want to set a reserve price then there will be an additional charge for this, although I believe it is refunded if your item reaches the reserve. I don't tend to set reserves myself.

SELLING TIPS:
~Selling is really a learning curve and you will pick up things which work best for you as you go along, but here are a few tips that I have picked up over the months.
*Keep your title simple, but try to add relevant details. For example if you have a football club badge from the 70s you would need to have at least 'Football' and 'Badge' in the title along with the club name eg. 'Liverpool'. This is so that it will come up in any searches buyers perform. Then you might also want to add the year it was made in order to draw attention to your listing.
*When I write my description, I find that keeping it simple and honest works better than trying to write a sales letter on it. If there is slight damage to what ever you are selling, say so. It rarely stops people from bidding and quite often when they get the item, they are not only prepared for it not being in perfect condition, but the item is often above their expectations. Some sellers don't mention any damage and you end up feeling let down when you get the item.
*If you can, add a picture. The first one is free. People don't like bidding on what they haven't seen so you are likely to either not to sell or only get a bid or two.
*You don't have to add the post and packing costs when you list your item, but I would recommend that you do. Personally I don't bid if I don't know the postage charges, just in case it ends up being more than I can comfortably afford.
*Try and work it so that your auction finishes at the busier times of the day and week. A lot of people recommend Sunda
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ernoons for getting extra last minute bids. If your auction finishes on a week day though, you might want to have finishing in the evening when people are home from work and have had their dinner. A lot of bidders prefer to bid on auctions which don't have long left. They are more likely to win them that way.
*As with buying, when you sell contact the buyer as soon as possible and try to keep them well informed.
*Deliver the item as promptly as possible and pack it well. I assumed that the worst thing that could happen to a package is for it to be thrown around a bit, but I had an item that arrived at it's destination crushed. If you are unsure whether you can package it well enough to protect it write FRAGILE all over it. This seems to help though I wouldn't want to put any bets on it!


**Other Services**

Apart from the standard auctions, eBay offers other free services. You can create your own 'About Me' page which is like a little web page on which you can tell people about yourself and your aims. You can set up you own eBay shop, which is ideal if you have a particular line of items that you wish to sell. You can list shop items under 'buy it now' or as an auction and there are as many catagories for shops as there are for auctions.

Under the community section you can find a whole host of useful information and services. Here is where they post news and information on promotions. There is also a chat forum where you can talk to other eBayers and get useful information from their experiences. There is even a suggestions box and an about eBay section where you can "learn everthing you ever wanted to know about eBay".

There is just one more service under the buying & selling catagory that I feel is worth a mention. If you have a few things you want to sell, but for whatever reason you either can't or don't want to sell them yourself you can make use of a trading ass
is

tant in your area. Or if you are an expert at selling you can become a trading assistant. A trading assistant will sell items for others. EBay will register you as a trading assistant a keep an accesable directory, but the assistant and client have to negotiate their own terms together; for example who foots the cost of listing and what fees the trading assistant will charge.


**The Competition**

There are of course other auction sites out there (eBid and Freeserve to mention a couple), but they just don't seem to do as well as eBay. It is a bit of a vicious circle really. They don't do as well as eBay because they don't get as many users and they don't get as many users because they don't do as well. In theory the other sites should be cheaper to buy from as they have less bidders, but it doesn't always work out that way. For example I sometimes use eBid, which is a free auction site. Although I have found some good bargains there, but on the whole I find that the sellers put rather high starting prices on their auctions. This is probably because they know they won't get many bids and it isn't going to cost them anything to keep it listed until it does (if ever) get a bid. I have a few items listed there myself and they get very few views and I have yet to sell anything. On eBay very few of the items I have listed have failed to sell and when you re-list they will quite often sell second time around. If they do sell on re-listing then eBay will refund your second listing cost, meaning that you only pay the listing price once.

So although there are costs involved on eBay it is still definately worth your while to list there as your costs are easily covered by the amount of bids you get. It is certainly better than not selling at all. As for buying, you can get just as many bargains on eBay as any other site and you are more likely to find what you want as there are a lot more listings.


><
br>**Co
nclusion**

Over all, the reason why I personally like eBay so much is because it is fun and easy to use. I have managed to get items which are hard to find in the shops, quality childrens' clothes at a fraction of the retail price and various other bargains; all from the comfort of my own home. On the selling side, I have managed to sell items which are of no use to me for more than I would get at a car boot sale. I have barely scratched the surface of what is in the attic and have already managed to get hundreds of pounds back on what I have sold. I have managed to sell things that I would never have thought would sell, which isn't so good for the local charity shops as it means I'm taking them less.

My recommendation is, give it a try. It really is fun and easy to use!



~#~ Caradawn ~#~

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