Welcome To eBay.

At first, the home page for eBay may seem a little overwhelming. This colorful page, however, is actually a great on-ramp to many areas of interest for veteran and new users alike.

Under the eBay logo is a listing of some of the more popular categories in which auctioneers sell items. Dive into Antiques, Collectibles, and Sports Memorabilia or click the Categories header to view a fuller listing of some of the categories. If you’re just looking to browse, this is a good place to start.

If you are looking for something specific, such as a Scary Spice hand puppet, enter the item in the Search text box and click Search. Under the Search field you will see the registration icon, basic information for new users, access to the sell form, and a link to the news and chat areas. This is followed by the most prized piece of real estate on eBay, the Featured section, and a link to the Gallery (more on these in a bit).

On the right side of the page, there are links to general information on bidding and selling, system statistics, and access to other areas/promotions eBay is emphasizing. At the bottom of the page, you can link to additional areas, such as the regional eBays, the eBay store, and Help.



  The Navigation Bar.

Your real navigation tool, however, is on top, in the multibox navigation bar. The navigation bar is at the heart of the information architecture at eBay. It’s an omnipresent feature, and once you get the hang of it, you’ll be a quick couple of clicks away from every area of the site.

Above the navigation bar are three links: Home, which brings you back to the home page; My eBay, an area where you can organize all your eBay activities and update your personal information; and Site Map, which takes you to an index page that lists just about every area on eBay.

The bar itself is in six sections. When you access a section, the menu drops down to reveal the subsections for that area.

1. Browse. If you’re itching to bid on something, this is the place to start. The browse section breaks down into six more sections: Categories, Featured, Hot, Grab Bag, Great Gifts, and Big Ticket.
   
   
2. Sell. Click this link to place your items up for auction. This link immediately takes you to the Sell form.
   
   
3. Services. In addition to the registration and My eBay areas, this section also offers a services overview, buying and selling tools, a place to create your own personal page on eBay, the feedback forum, and the Safe Harbor section on online safety.
   
   
4. Search. Use this area to do extensive searches for items and members. You will also find a link to the Personal Shopper.
   
   
5. Help. This link will take you to collected tutorials on buying and selling, basic usage, and a host of official policies.
   
   
6. Community. This is a hodgepodge of assorted areas that really don’t fit in anywhere else. You will find news and chat rooms (bulletin boards), eBay Life (light pieces on the eBay community), a library with category research, and the eBay Store (selling eBay-brand items).
   
   

  Feedback.

Before you begin placing bids, make sure you understand how the Feedback portion of eBay works. Your feedback rating is your official eBay reputation, a log of your past interactions with other eBay users. After each eBay transaction, both winning bidder and seller can review their dealings with the other. Each user can only effect another user’s rating by one point. For example, you can give a person one point if your interaction with them was positive, take away a point if it was negative, or give the person no points for a neutral interaction.

You can also leave comments about a person so other users can get more information about that person. Be aware, however, that you are responsible for anything you say, which means any libelous and/or slanderous comments can come back to haunt you.

There are some important points about the feedback system that you need to remember. Here are a few of them.

• You can only rate a given user once; no one user can single-handedly destroy another user’s rating.
  
  
• The feedback rating is the number in parentheses after a user’s name whenever he or she bids on or tries to sell an item. You access the profile/comments section by clicking the number.
  
  
• Whenever a person leaves eBay, his or her feedback ratings all go neutral, but all comments remain.
  
  
• If a person’s feedback rating goes to negative four (-4), the system automatically disables that person’s ability to sell, bid, or leave feedback.
  
  
• At certain numeric levels, users can earn colored stars next to their numbers so other users can tell their rankings at a glance. For example, when your number reaches 10, you get a yellow star; at 1,000, you receive a red star.
  
  
• You can make your profile private, but then why should anyone trust you?
  
  

The feedback rating should be one of your best tools in evaluating a user you’re getting ready to buy from or sell to. Carefully browse through his or her profile. If a person has lukewarm or critical comments, you may want to pass on doing business with that individual.



  Buying.

Ready to start bidding? First, you have to find an item to bid on, either by browsing through areas such as Categories and the Gallery, or by searching. The search area gives you many ways to locate items, including by item title, price range, and the location (country) of the item. You can also use the search form to see what other items a user is bidding on or selling.

Once you find an item that interests you, click its link to bring up the view page for that item. The view page is a place where you can keep track of the current high bid and the time left in the auction (based on Pacific Standard Time), get the description of the item, get shipping and payment information, and place a bid.

Before placing a bid, you should be aware of what type of auction you’re engaging in. A Reserve Price auction is where the seller sets a price (unknown to bidders) that he won’t sell below. A Private auction is an auction where only the seller knows the name and E-mail address of the buyer. When bidding on adult items, the auction is called a Restricted auction. (For age verification, you need a credit card to participate in this form of auction.) The last type is a Dutch auction, one of the most popular auction types. This is primarily used by sellers who are offering multiples of an item. Bidders not only bid on a price but also the number of items they want to buy.

When it comes to actually bidding on an item, proxy bidding is an excellent way to take some of the stress out of the experience. You tell the system how much you’re willing to spend on an item, and the system will automatically nudge your bid up to keep you the high bidder until you either win, or your bid ceiling is met. Proxy bidding isn’t allowed for Dutch auctions.



  Selling.

Selling an item on eBay is different from bidding on an item. For one thing, it is the seller who bares the brunt of eBay fees. Sellers also have the responsibility of putting their item in the best possible light so it will appeal to bidders.

To list an item, click Sell on the navigation bar. This brings you to the Sell Your Item form. Here, you’ll fill in the title, category, and description of your item, as well as acceptable payment methods, shipping arrangements, the kind of auction, and the minimum (opening) bid.

At this point, the fees begin with a series of optional features you can employ to make your item stand out. For example, if you want your title in boldface, you will pay $2. To get your auction in the Featured section, you’ll pay a hefty $99.95 to place it in the general area, but only $14.95 if you opt to have it featured just in its particular category. To add it to the Gallery, it costs 25 cents, or you can add a gift icon for $1.

The mandatory fees to sellers include an insertion fee and a final value fee, both of which are based on the value of the item. Generally, insertion fees run from 25 cents for an item costing less than $10 to $2 for an item worth more than $50.

The final value fee works on a sliding scale and is based on the closing bid. Here is how it works.

1. For the first $25, take 5%.
   
   
2. For $25.01 to $1,000, take 2.5% and add it to #1.
   
   
3. For items more than $1,000, take 1.25% of that additional amount and add it to #1 and #2.
   
   

How do you pay these fees? When you first register, eBay extends you a $10 line of credit. Once you hit the $10 mark, you have to make a payment arrangement by either giving them a credit card number or sending a check/money order.

Here are a few selling tips:

• When writing your description, try to anticipate bidder questions.
  
  
• Be sure to specify who pays shipping and what forms of payment you’ll accept.
  
  
• Nothing helps a sale better than a picture. You’ll have to have your own space to store the picture, or eBay can suggest several sites that will do it cheaply.
  
  
• Add a picture to the Gallery. For 25 cents, this section is a great way to get your item seen. You’ll need to supply a picture in Joint Photographic Experts Group ( JPEG) format.
  
  
• Keep your auction going until the end. You can end your auction or even cancel it any time prior to its official end, but be aware that most auctions see their highest activity level in the last couple of hours. You’ll also miss out on having your item listed in special sections such as Ending Today (final 24 hours) and Going, Going, Gone (final three hours).
  
  
• Make sure your item is not on the prohibited list, which includes items such as firearms; pirated software, music, and movies; skulls; and live animals.
  
  
• If your item doesn’t sell, rework your listing by adding a picture, lowering the opening bid, or changing its description and relist it. If you do this within 30 days and the item sells, the relisting is free.
  
  

  Going Once, Twice . . . Sold!.

Once you’ve successfully bought or sold an item, eBay will send you an E-mail. Then, both parties have three days to contact each other. Both agree on the payment and shipping terms, the exchange goes through, and each leaves feedback for the other. If the seller can’t get in touch with the highest bidder within three days, he or she can go to the next highest bidder.

Sometimes a bidder will back out or refuse to pay. The first couple of times this happens, it will probably only result in negative feedback. If the bidder tries it a third time, however, it’s a 30-day suspension from eBay. On the fourth offense, the bidder faces an indefinite suspension. A bid is a legal binding offer, and eBay takes very seriously the good-faith behind it.

The one area that does not reach the level of legally binding is that of real estate. Due to the wide range of laws covering this area, neither party is legally obligated to complete real estate transactions. In this case, eBay is more an introduction service, putting seller and potential buyer together so they can hash out a deal.



  Ready For Prime Time?

Even though thousands of people are using eBay to sell the occasional item or to find a bargain, more and more people are turning it into a significant money maker. The eBay auction service offers a wide range of power-user features to help such people. As your interest in this area grows, services such as Mister Lister (bulk listing tool) and the Power Sellers Program (offering several top-benefit levels) are there to meet your needs. Or, you can just settle for a Pez dispenser or two . . . or the 2,226 we counted.  

by Rich Gray