Often the Cheapest, the Best selection and Secure to boot. (Amazon Marketplace)

Member Name: CokaCola

Product:	Amazon Marketplace
Date:	30/01/09 (45 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap, Wide Range, Secure

Disadvantages: Sometimes things aren't actually in stock.

I'll begin this review by introducing Amazon market place for those people that are unfamiliar with the concept. Everyone knows of the online retail giant Amazon.co.uk, and most people are used to ordering books, CDs, DVDs etc from Amazon, via the Amazon.co.uk website.

Amazon Market Place is also based on Amazon.co.uk, but is a concept based around third party sellers using the website to sell items, a little bit like eBay, but only with buy it now listings. If you go on any listing on Amazon.co.uk, it will often say "5 new and used available" and if you click on that information, you will see a range of items, with a range of prices and conditions. This is the market place, the items from this area are not sold and dispatched by Amazon.co.uk, but by other people, using the Amazon website to advertise.

You pay in the normal way, via the Credit/Debit card that you would normally use to pay for things on Amazon. I am pretty sure gift certificates cannot be used to purchase market place items. Amazon then credits the seller, and takes a portion of the fee for itself as a comission (but this is of no extra cost to the buyer).

The seller then ships the item to you. One good thing about market place is that Amazon insures all listings that are completed using it's own payment system, so if that DVD doesn't show up and the seller won't reply, you do have some protection.

I have never had a problem using Amazon Market place, it is an extremely good way to trade in my opinion, and it is also quite secure. Often Amazon Market Place is the cheapest place to buy an item, with a wide selection to choose from.

The only problem I have had is that a couple of times I have ordered things which sellers do not have in their stocks, so be careful about buying really obscure books etc, and it may be worth emailing to check that it's still in the inventory, just to avoid the inconvieience if it isn't.

Summary: My experience has been really good and I'd definately recommend Amazon market place.