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For those who don''t know, Ebay is an auction site that sells just about anything you can think of.
HOW TO REGISTER
Your
usual information is needed - name, address etc, you also need credit/debit card details - they do not take money from this unless you want to use it for transactions. You also need a nickname to either buy or sell goods and of course a password.
This process takes only a few minutes and is free, as soon as you have recieved your activation email you can start buying or selling.
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GETTING AROUND & BUYING
The site is very consumer friendly, at the top of the page there are options to BUY/SELL/MY EBAY/COMMUNITY/HELP, just click on BUY. There is a search box that will bring up all those products, then you can use a filter to narrow down the amount of pages eg., if you want womens shoes it will come up with thousands of pairs so you just use the filter - size, colour, make, heels or no heels, material, style etc, this could narrow your search to just 20 pairs!
There are lots of catergories from clothing to cars to household and even ''weird stuff'', you can also buy a house or apartment. I have found that some stuff is what I regard as tat but each to thier own.
If you do find something you like then the listing will state whether it''s a Buy It Now or Bid item - if it''s Buy It Now then you pay the price plus the postage in most cases - if it''s Bid, then you offer a bid up to the price you are prepared to pay (don''t forget the price of the postage) you could be outbid at any time, even up to the last minute.
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PAYING & RECEIVING
The usual ways to pay are Cheque, Postal Order, Bankers Draft, Escrow or Paypal but some sellers may only want to use a couple of these options - I find it is a good idea to register with Paypal, it''s very secure and the payment goes through immediately as long as your account has funds.
Sellers are usually good about sending your goods straight away but you must check this because some sellers cannot despatch until a certain day, also check for a returns policy, this is usually serious sellers who accept returns.
Once you receive your goods and you are satisfied it is customary for you to leave Feedback for the seller, you will then get the same, the more feedback you gain the more you are a trusted member.
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SELLING
If you want to sell goods you just go to the top of the page and click on SELL, from here it is very straightforward, Ebay has thought of everything - first find the correct catergory, after this there will be quite a few options (this makes it better for people to find what they want) then you decide on a title which Ebay will help you with then you can upload pictures, the first one is free which is all you mostly need, after that it is 12p a picture. You can choose other options for your listing, Bold, Highlight, Gallery and more.
You can then use Buy It Now or Bid, Ebay will help you with this, you have an option of 1, 7 or 10 days for your listing to be present on the site, you can then use the description editor in either Standard or HTML format to try and sell your goods, Ebay will also help with this.
When you have finished you can preview your listing and decide whether to list it or edit it, once you have decided your listing will upload onto the site.
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What I have described here is just a small part of what you can do on Ebay, you can open a shop of your own or sell on behalf of others. If you want to open a shop the price starts from £6 per month upwards but you have to have Feedback of 50 or more to do so.
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All in all the site is a great way to shop and has some very good bargains (new and old). There is help there when needed and the community is a very friendly place. I have sold a couple of things on Ebay, I haven''t made my fortune but I''ve made some friends. I also find Ebay useful because I live in a small town and can''t always get to the bigger shops to buy clothes, shoes etc and new items are usually cheaper, even with postage, than the shops.
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This review is also posted on ciao.co.uk under the name of ''moogi48''
Published: April 02, 2007