EBay a revolution in home shopping.

EBay is basically an online auction where sellers display their goods and buyers bid on these goods from the comfort of their home / office. Auctions typically run from 1 to 10 days and at the end of the auction the highest bidder wins the item. With some auctions you will also have the chance to buy now at a set price. If you take this option then the auction ends and you purchase the item at the set price. Otherwise the auction is allowed to finish and the winning bidder then pays the seller and their goods are sent to them. If all goes well EBay can be a very exciting and fun way to shop / sell and I have had a very happy time buying and selling on EBay over the last 4 years.

Unlike shopping in the real world, with EBay you only ever see an image of the item being sold, so you can’t touch it or try it before you buy and you are relying on the honesty of the sellers’ description to determine the age & condition of the item being sold. You may never meet the seller / buyer and they could be located thousands of miles from you. So there are endless possibilities for things to go wrong and just as there are crooks in the real world, so to on EBay.
Therefore before you jump in at the deep end take a few minutes to read my simple guide to buying & selling on EBay.

General tips for Buying & Selling on EBay.

Read my previous article on internet shopping.
In order to use EBay you will have to become a member. Sign up and read the instructions provided by EBay, take time to familiarise your self with the EBay layout. Remember you are entering into a legal contract and if you are selling an item and it sells for less then you expected, you are still legally obliged to sell it. The same goes for buying items, if you win an item then you have to buy it. If you don’t you can be banned from using EBay or prosecuted by EBay.
NEVER respond to messages sent to your email address no matter how convincing they look! The most common method for criminals trying to obtain your EBay details are fake emails sent to look like they have come from EBay. They always contain a link which will send you to a login page that will look exactly the same as the EBay login screen. Once you have entered your details the criminals then have access to your EBay account and you have a whole lot of trouble on your hands. If EBay or a seller / buyer needs to contact you then it can be done within EBay, which has its own email service designed to filter out these rouge messages.
Set up a PayPal account for buying and selling. This gives you basic protection against fraud and allows you to transfer money to any one with a PayPal account or accept credit/debit card payments from any one on the net. Leave the dealing in cash to markets and shops.
Use your common sense, if a deal looks to good to be true then it probably is too good to be true. If a buyer asks you to ship to a different address then ask your self why? Be cautious at all times. Once you have parted with your money/goods, there is often very little you can do to get them back if it turns out to be a fraudulent transaction.
If you are new to EBay then the way you can tell if a seller / buyer are doing a good job is through their feedback. This can be positive, negative or neutral and every EBay seller / buyer has the right to leave feedback about their transaction. The more transactions done the more feedback left. As a rule I never buy from a person with feedback less then 90% (this is where 90% of the feedback is positive). If their feedback falls below 90% then there is a problem, this may be poor communication, damaged goods or late posting. What ever the problems I have found that the best way to an easy life is to give them a miss and wait for another auction no matter how tempting the deal may be.
NEVER give your credit card details to individuals, if the transaction requires payment by credit card, use PayPal or a similar service. If this is not offered then alarm bells should be ringing.

Tips for buying from EBay

When you have found an item you want to bid on, check the seller’s feedback; from here you can see all the items that have been bought from the seller. Is the item you are thinking about bidding on similar to previous items sold? Criminals are always trying to hack into EBay accounts, especially ones with good feedback. They will offer items such as laptops at bargain prices. Once you have won the criminal will then make an excuse for payment to be made via Western Union or cash and from this point on you can kiss good bye to ever seeing your cash or item again!
Do your research, check on prices from online stores, you may be surprised at just how cheap it can be to buy new goods from the internet. Make sure you know what you are buying; one brand can drastically vary in quality, price & reliability from another.
Read the description carefully; First glances can often be misleading and where you thought you where buying a Sony Camcorder, you where in fact buying a Sony look a like camcorder.
Make sure postage costs are clearly displayed. You might think you just bought a bargain until the seller informs you that the postage is £25.00.
Check where the item is being shipped from. There is no point in complaining about your item taking 5 weeks to arrive when it was sent from the North Pole.
I never pay cash / cheque or money transfer to anyone with less then 20 feedback points or minimum 90% positive feedback. If the seller is not PayPal verified then buyers beware. If it goes wrong you will have no way of recovering your money. As a rule I only ever bid with sellers that offer PayPal. The only exception to this is on small items with a value less then £5.00 and where I am prepared to loose the money if the transaction does not go well.
Communicate, communicate, communicate, I can not stress this enough. If you are not sure about anything then communicate with the seller. If you do not get a response then keep away.
Don’t get carried away. Write down the maximum price you are prepared to pay and stick to it. In the closing minutes of an auction it is easy to get carried away with the bidding and view it as a competition that you must win! Sure you may win the auction but at what price!
Try to leave your bidding until the last minute, then place the maximum bid you are prepared to pay. A clever way of squeezing the most out of an auction is to get friends to bid up the item when early bids are placed. It doesn’t always work but when it does it can be very successful and will end up costing you much more then you would have had to pay if you had held off on the bidding.
If you win an auction, communicate! Send the seller an email confirming you have won along with your preferred method of payment & postage. If the seller tries to change method of payment to Western Union transfer or cash run a mile!
Do not leave your feedback until you have received your goods. You cannot take back feedback and so if it goes wrong you will have no way of warning others about your bad experience. Once you have received your goods and you are happy with the service, leave feedback. It is good manners to leave feedback first if you are the buyer.
If a transaction does not go to plan, communicate! Do not immediately leave negative feedback as this will often result in the seller leaving you a negative mark in return and your chances of resolving the problem will have been reduced to nil. Mistakes happen, parcels go missing, items get broken, what differentiates the pro from the amateur is in how these problems are rectified. A polite email often gets quicker and more positive results. If that fails then follow the EBay complaints procedure. Only leave a negative feedback if all else fails as this is your last line of defence. No one wants negative feedback!
Do not buy items offered to you outside of EBay. A common scam is to offer all the bidders the item after it has sold along with a message detailing how the winning bidder has chosen not to buy. You will then be asked to pay via cash, Western Union money transfer or cheque and that will be the last time you see either again.

If you follow the above advice you should find buying on EBay a pleasurable experience, remember use your common sense!

Next month How to sell on EBay.

View our main page Newarabia Shopping tips & online shopping mall