P3D What is eBay? Here's an answer :-)

["Alexa R.W. Smith" <arws@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Since P3D has now been about 90 percent discussion of the fine points of
> bidding on ebay for a considerable length of time, I would like to comment
> that for those of us who have never had any interaction with ebay, it's
> getting pretty boring. I think it would be a very useful application of
> one percent of the P3D ebay bandwidth for someone to post a general
> introduction of what ebay is and how to get involved with it. If that were
> done, at least us poor ignorant folks would know what's being discussed at
> such length on P3D.
> 
> John R

Hi John (and others),

I've used eBay for about 2-1/2 years now so here's my description of the service
:-)

eBay is the largest on-line person-to-person auction site.  
(http://www.ebay.com)

Anyone can be a buyer or a seller (or both) of pretty much any type of item 
(i.e. coins, toys, books, clothing, 3D memorabilia <g>, movie memorabilia, adult
items, computer hardware/software, etc)  If you're a buyer, you can browse for 
items by category or use the search engines on the site to search by keywords or
by seller names.  You can even search by completed auctions to see what final 
prices were on items.  Most items are listed for 7 days but some are shorter.  
When a buyer wins an item, they just pay the final price and usually shipping 
(some sellers add a handling charge).  A buyer doesn't pay anything extra to 
eBay.  Sellers pay a listing fee plus a percent of the final price to eBay.  
Sellers either have a credit card on file for monthly billings by eBay or can 
send in payment every month.

So how does it really work?

As a buyer, if you find something you want, you click on it and it takes you to 
the viewing page.  There you will see the item #, the seller's name, the minimum
bid price, # of bids already in (if any), the description (many have pictures 
with them now unlike at the beginning of the service), the seller's location to 
help figure shipping costs, plus details on how the seller wants payment and 
his/her shipping prices.  This last varies considerably with most sellers 
accepting checks but will wait for it to clear before shipping.  Many prefer 
money orders and some are businesses who accept credit cards.  There are some 
sellers on eBay who will *not* deal with international bidders and they usually 
have that stated but fortunately they are not the majority :-)

So now you like what you see and want to bid.  First you have to be registered 
with eBay (all sellers and bidders do).  Once you are registered it's simply a 
matter of entering your user name, password and bid amount some time before the 
auction ends and you're in the game!  (I won't go into the details of this since
we've had quite a discussion on it already <g>)

Once the auction has ended, within a day or so, eBay sends an email to both 
seller and bidder notifying them of the final outcome of the auction.  
Technically, eBay requires bidder and seller to contact each other within 3 days
or the high bidder may lose their position.  As a bidder, I always send an email
to the seller if I haven't heard from them in this amount of time just to be 
sure I'm in but I think in general people are a little looser than the 3 day 
time limit.  What sellers AREN'T looser on is the payment time.  One you have 
made contact with each other, exchanged mailing addresses, confirmed how the 
item will be shipped, etc., send payment PROMPTLY!  Some sellers have a 7-10 day
cutoff for receipt of payment.  In any event, sending payment quickly will 
result in great feedback for you.  

Once the transaction has been completed and you have the item in your hand, it's
time to leave feedback.  eBay lets both buyer and seller leave either positive, 
neutral, or negative feedback on the other.  This results in your eBay rating.  
At 10 positives you receive a star by your name and different colored stars as 
your rating increases.  This is a good system IMO as it gives you some idea of 
who you're dealing with.  Like anything, it can be abused, but it works pretty 
well overall.

Wow..this went on longer than I thought it would but I hope it helps!  BTW, even
if you have no interest in bidding on items, it's pretty fun to just browse 
through eBay and see what's offered and the going prices.  Have fun!

Alexa
 


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