In today’s society you will be hard pressed to find another human being who does not know at least a little something about Ebay. In case you are one of the slim minority and actually do not know what Ebay is, well Ebay is an online auction site. There are no other auction sites that can even come close to Ebay’s popularity.
If you have never purchased anything on Ebay then you are certainly missing out. Ebay is an enormous marketplace full of almost anything that you could possibly ever need to purchase. Ebay has computers, books, clothes, household furnishings and even vehicles. You can bid on items or you can use the “Buy It Now” feature that many listings offer and purchase your item immediately.
If you are contemplating doing some internet shopping on Ebay, then you have picked a wonderful time to jump in. First you will need an Ebay account in order to shop. Creating an account is as simple as any other website. You will need to create a username and password, along with filling in a few other items like name, address and email. After all of that you will be ready to start shopping.
Next you can do a search for the particular item that you are shopping for. So say, for example, that you are looking for a pink baby girl’s hat. Just type in “pink baby girl hat” in the search box and click search. You will then get the results of your search. There could be thousands of Ebay listings for whatever you are interested in purchasing. The “pink baby girl hat” search brought up sixty-six different listings when I searched for it.
Once you find the listings of the item you are looking for, it is time to start browsing through them. You can prioritize the listings by end time, start time, price (high and low), who accepts PayPal for payment and even location closest to you (this is useful for large items that you may need to personally pick up from the seller). If I am in a hurry to purchase something immediately then I will choose to prioritize the listings in order of which ones end the soonest. If I am just doing some casual shopping I like to have the items listed from lowest price to highest. You just choose which ever one you would prefer to use.
Once you have browsed through the Ebay listings and found exactly what you want, it is a good idea to read the listing CLOSELY. You will need to read all of the seller’s requirements. Some will only accept PayPal for payment. Some sellers expect payment immediately upon the auction’s end. Some will allow you to wait a few days before you are required to make payment. You will want to check out how much the seller’s shipping costs are so you will not be surprised when you get a purchase total.
Check out the seller’s feedback also. Feedback is a very important component to Ebay. Feedback is literally feedback from previous buyers and sellers who have had transactions with this particular person. You’ll want to know if the seller is bad about shipping slowly or not shipping at all. If the seller has a lot of negative feedback then I generally steer clear of them. I don’t care how badly I want an item, if the seller has a lot of negative feedback I’d rather pass on the item than risk getting my money taken and not receiving my item. So check that feedback!
Once you have read and understand all of the information in the listing and you have determined that this is exactly what you want, it will then be time to go after it. If the seller has a “Buy It Now” button on the listing then you could purchase the item instantly. If there is now “Buy It Now” button then you will have to bid on the item. I like to just bid my maximum price and then sit back and wait. That way if I get outbid on the item I will know that it just went over how much I was prepared to pay for the item. Ebay automatically bids for you up to your maximum price. So say the item you want is at a $2.00 bid and you are willing to pay $5.00 for it. Go ahead and bid for $5.00. Ebay will then bid up to your $5.00 maximum bid if anyone else comes along and bids on the same item. But once someone else bids over the $5.00 then you will be outbid and you will have to decide if you are willing to pay more. If so, you will then need to go back and bid again. Bidding wars can quickly escalate in the last few minutes of popular Ebay auctions.
If you win the auction, you will then receive an email from Ebay letting you know that you are the winner and that you need to make payment. Sometimes the seller will contact you and sometimes they won’t. Either way, you will just need to follow the payment preferences that the seller had in their auction listing in order to pay the seller for the item. Once the seller receives your payment they will then ship your item to you. You will normally receive the item in the mail in a few days. After your item arrives, check it to make sure it is exactly what was listed in the auction. If it is then you should go leave feedback for the seller. They will have left feedback for you also. Some sellers will wait until after they get feedback from you before leaving feedback for you, but I abhor that and never do it when I am selling. If you are unhappy with your item….be it because it’s the wrong item or it’s broken, damaged or just not what was listed in the auction…..then you should immediately contact the seller. Many sellers will work with you in order to have a successful transaction. If the seller is at fault and they refuse to do anything about it there are ways to contact Ebay (and PayPal if you paid through them) in order to get some satisfaction. Don’t let a bad transaction ruin your enjoyment of Ebay. It will happen to all of us at some time or other. I know I’ve had both a bad seller and a bad buyer or two. It’s just a rite of passage on Ebay.
Viola! There you have it! Shopping on Ebay is so easy and very enjoyable. Try it today. You may just acquire a new addiction…….Shopping on Ebay!!
