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Using
Ebay
Many
of our readers no doubt have heard of Ebay. This
popular auction website has been featured in several
recent TV and news reports, and is raising a lot of
interest. In our column for the next several issues we
will be looking at Ebay, and how to best use this
excellent online market.
How
many of you have been to an auction? Do you remember
going around the different item lots, seeing if there
was anything of interest? Did you get hold of a
bidders card, and stand there in the crowd waiting for
the auctioneer to reach your selected lot number? Do
you remember your nervousness, excitement, or maybe
your sweaty hands as first one, then another called
out their bids? Then you put your hand up, and called
your price. Do you remember the elation you felt when
the hammer went down, and you had the winning bid? Or
the disappointment as the price went way over what you
wanted to pay?
If
you have ever participated in an auction, then this
scenario will be familiar to you. Now, through the
advance of technology, you can do the very same thing
sitting at home in front of your computer—on Ebay.
Ebay,
found at www.ebay.com.au, is an auction market
conducted through the Internet, and they sell just
about anything you can imagine. Actually, Ebay is only
the administrator and provider of the auction market—the
sellers are from the general public, people like you
and me.
Before
we go in and use Ebay, lets have a general look at how
Ebay works. That way we will be better prepared to use
it when the time comes.
Ebay
has two basic parties—the seller, and the buyer. The
seller has an item he or she wants to sell. They list
the item they are selling with Ebay, who charges them
a small fee for using Ebay’s resources. The seller
lists their item with a minimum price that they want
to receive. This is called the starting bid. In their
listing, the seller describes the item up for auction,
along with its history, current condition, etc, often
using photos as well. They also specify how long they
want their item up for auction, which can be anywhere
from 1 to 10 days. Once their item is listed, the
seller then waits to see if anyone takes an interest
in their item.
This is where the
buyer comes in. Anyone may browse through the many
different items for sale. There are hundreds of
thousands of sellers on Ebay, and this gives a huge
number of items for sale. The buyer can search through
these items directly from the Ebay home page, which
has a search facility. Using this, the buyer is
presented with all the listed items that match his
search. Along with the listed items description, the
search list shows the current price, and what time is
left in the auction. The buyer then reads the item
description that interests them, notes the price, and
determines how much he wants to pay. Then if there is
time left, he can place a bid for that item.
To be continued...
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