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eBay is the world's largest and most frequently used
online auction site. You can use it to buy and sell all sorts
of items, from old records to upcoming sports tickets. Here's
a short primer on how to use eBay and its features.
Steps
- Register with eBay. You will be required to provide your
name, email
address, and other information that will help to identify
you as a user of the site and allow you to bid on items.
You will also need to create a username and password.
- Search the site. Now you're ready to get started with
bidding. In the search box at the top of the page, type
the name of an item or type of item that you are looking
for (e.g. Beatles records, or simply The Beatles). You can
do a general search, or search within several categories
such as Music, Sporting Goods, or Books.
- Sort your results. Many searches, particularly for popular
items, will show several pages of results. In order to find
what you want more quickly, you can sort the items by price,
time left in the auction, date of listing, or payment options
available.
- Find out more. By clicking on an item in the list, you
can find out further details about the item, such as where
it ships from, the seller's feedback rating from previous
customers, and a picture of what you would receive.
- Make a bid. If you decide that you'd like to try and buy
the item, you can bid on it by clicking "Place Bid". Most
auctions will require bids in increments of at least 50
cents (for example, if the most recent bid is $7.00, your
bid will have to be at least $7.50.). You can also type
in a maximum bid amount, and eBay will continue to bid for
you up to that amount. This is helpful so that you don't
have to sit online and continually watch the item.
- Monitor the auction. Every once in a while, you will want
to check on the progression of the auction and see who else
has bid. If you are not the high bidder, you can raise your
bid up to the end of the auction in order to win the item.
- Pay for your item. If you win what you were bidding on,
you will receive an email notifying you of the sale. From
there, you should either contact the seller to discuss details
of payment and shipping, or wait for him or her to contact
you. It is considered polite to complete this part of the
process as soon as possible. Paypal is the most common payment
processor used by eBay buyers and sellers to send and receive
payments, so you should consider signing up with Paypal
aswell at www.paypal.com item.
Tips
- Some auctions will have an icon next to the price of the
item that says "Buy It Now". This means that you can purchase
the item for a certain price without having to get into
a bidding war with another person. Be warned: this price
can often be higher than you might otherwise have paid.
- Many items have "Reserve" prices, which mean that the
seller will not sell the item unless the bids have reached
a certain level.
- If you don't win an item, sellers will often direct you
to similar items they are auctioning off, or you can do
another search yourself. Ebay is a huge place, so don't
get discouraged if you don't get what you are looking for
right away, there is always more similar items.
Warnings
- Do not make bids that you can't actually back up financially.
Each bid you make on eBay is considered a binding contract,
and you will be given a poor rating (or possibly worse)
if you back out on a winning bid.
- Be aware of the snipers. Many bidders wait to the last
few seconds of an auction to make a bid and many use a "sniper
program" to do the bidding.
- You can be lead to pay more than you expected or losing
the bid if you wait until the last few minutes or seconds
to do your final bidding.
- Better to do some research and decide ahead of time how
much you want to spend on the item and put in a proxy bid
approximately 2 minutes before the end of the auction and
then don't look at the auction until it is over...
- Always make sure to check the shipping costs. If you
bid on an item for $100.00 and the shipping is $300.00,
you will be paying $400.00. If you are only willing to pay
a certain amount for an item, check the shipping costs first.
Sources and Citations
Article provided by wikiHow,
a collaborative writing project to build the world's largest,
highest quality how-to manual. Please edit this article and
find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How
to Get Started on eBay. All content on wikiHow can be
shared under a Creative
Commons license.
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