eBay an eBargain?
Written: Mar 30 '03 (Updated Mar 30 '03)
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| Full Review |
I am reviewing eBay because I have been buying for years and selling for about 6 months, so here is my feedback, in hopefully more than 20 words (I’m over that already.) and less than 2,000. EBay is a complex, complicated site, I will attempt to make this simple.
What is eBay?
I feel that if you don’t know you must be hiding underground. But in case you aren’t, just a few words about what the site does. Founded in September 1995, their mission is “to provide a global trading platform where practically anyone can trade practically anything.” And they have accomplished that mission. EBay is wildly popular and can be quite addicting. You can buy and sell virtually everything from Antiques, Musical Instruments to Everything Else. There are community forums and discussion groups.
You can search for items by price, category, words, and by the buyer or seller. You can even store up to 15 of your favorite searches in My eBay and receive email when new items appear in up to 3 of your favorite searches. You cannot sell items including alcohol, animals, credit cards, food, fireworks, tobacco and weapons.
My experience:
This is an auction site. Like any auction you may lose out at the last second and that has happened to me. My buying and selling experiences have both been very positive. I reviewed one product I bought, a CuisinartScale and have recently sold a couple of items. I received this from the buyer though a personal e-mail is not necessary, “Thought I would let you know that your shipment arrive Monday in fine shape. Again, thanks for the quick service.” I asked him to leave me feedback, or rate me, and he did. Ratings are very important. If you have negative ratings, people will be less likely to buy from you.
The items I have won have all been received on time and in great condition. The items I have sold have been paid for right away and with little problems. The problems I will address below in what I will call Things to Know. I think this will be the most helpful way to review this complicated site.
Things to Know:
~You must, must, must, whether you are a buyer or seller read everything there is to read about eBay. You must read all the policies, all the frequently asked questions and all the help topics, as much as reasonably possible. As a buyer, there are dutch auctions, reserves, buy now options, proxy bidding and more. As a buyer you have to be able to pay. Sellers take various methods of payment. Please read about this. I ran into a tad of trouble as a seller because I hadn’t read everything. I will talk about that in a moment.
~Realize that not everything is a bargain so do your homework. Just because that scale is on eBay doesn’t mean you are going to get a great buy. The seller may start the bidding out higher than she or he should and you’ll end up paying more than if you were to buy it at a regular online store without having to watch the bidding or having the bidding done for you. (proxy).
~As a buyer you may get an invoice from the seller or you may not but you will be notified that you were the winner and you will be told what to do next in terms of payment and/or contacting the seller for some reason. I have had very good interactions whenever I have spoken with a buyer.
~If you are leaving negative feedback as a buyer or seller you will be encouraged to try to work it out with the seller because once a comment is left it cannot, and that is emphasized, retract it ever.
~As a seller, make sure you read the seller’s tips. There are listing fees. There are also extra fees for pictures if you go through eBay as your picture host, fees if you would like your item in the featured gallery, fees if you want to list it as a gift, and more. It is really important that you understand this or you will end up with having sold nothing and owing a lot of money.
~As a seller, accepting payment was tricky for me. I probably didn’t read the FAQs well enough and when I wrote to eBay about my PayPal account, they referred me to PayPal since the two, though they work together, are separate. What wasn’t clear to me is this: I have a PayPal account. I assumed that the buyer would pay me through PayPal and that would be the end of the story. Not so. What will happen is this: Most likely your buyer will pay PayPal with a credit card. When you go to confirm the sale, you will be taken to a page that says you don’t accept credit cards so the PayPal payment didn’t go through. I found out that I had to accept credit cards, which costs money. It isn’t a lot of money. It works out to be about $4.00 per $100 of sales that you will pay. As soon as I accepted that and agreed to it, the payment went through.
~The seller can determine shipping charges at the time of listing the item or when the auction is done. You can also choose how long you want the item listed and can spend an additional $.10 for 10 days rather than 7 days which will cost you a listing fee determined by the price of your item.
You can choose to sell internationally or not. Again, learn how to be a seller beyond what I am telling you. It would take me pages to go into detail.
Customer Service:
Customer Service via e-mail has been excellent for the most part. There have been a couple of glitches but first, I’ll talk about myself as the seller: I receive a confirmation that my item has been listed. If it sells I receive a congratulations letter. I have not had luck with links that have come in my e-mail, although eBay is very good with sending e-mail, following up on concerns and even asking you to respond to a survey if you have asked for help. For example, twice now I have gotten an e-mail saying "If you want, you may create and send an invoice to the buyer at".... with the link. Well that link takes me to a page that says the transaction is over. So I haven’t sent any invoices. I haven't contacted ebay about this because I haven't found invoices necessary anyway.
~As the seller you are sent an e-mail that the buyer has paid and the person’s address.
When I had the problem with PayPal and the credit card I called eBay’s customer service because the credit card seemed to be an eBay issue, not a PayPal issue and that is true. The customer service rep was not very nice. I didn’t understand him at first and he was short with me because he had to repeat himself. Eventually I understood what he was saying but I think that interaction could have been better so from my experience I’d rather stick with e-mails.
My final thoughts, finally:
I love buying and selling on ebay, though I haven’t been very successful selling. It depends on your item – some items sell better than others, like anything else. As a buyer I have been very happy with my items.
I like eBay so much that I said just the other day to my husband “Before we buy anything, let’s check ebay first.
Please feel free to leave a comment or a question.
EBay has partnered with half.com. If you want to read about them, here is the link:
Half.com
Another eBay purchase and how I take pics to sell on eBay:
My cheap digital camera but it works
Recommended:
Yes
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