Get Started on eBay

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

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. Make a bid. If you decide that you'd like to try to 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. If your bid doesn't work you need to enter your credit card details because you have bid on too many items at once.

  6. 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.

  7. 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 as well at https://www.paypal.com/.

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.
  • 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.
  • Many items have "Reserve" prices, which mean that the seller will not sell the item unless the bids have reached a certain level.

Warnings

  • 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.
  • 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 led 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...
  • 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.

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Sources and Citations

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