-Two Important Sites-
For people buying and selling on eBay.

United States
Postal Service
www.usps.com

United Parcel Service
www.ups.com/index.html

Buying On eBay

Buying an item on eBay requires four basic steps: finding the item, evaluating whether to buy the item, bidding on the item and paying for the item. Finding the item was discussed in Part 1 and evaluating whether or not to buy was covered in Part 2. Now you are ready to bid, but before you can buy on eBay, you need to register.

Registering on eBay

You can browse on eBay from dusk 'til dawn, but if you want to buy or sell on eBay, you must be registered. The eBay software program does the work of coordinating the transactions between buyers and sellers, but it is necessary for buyers and sellers to give eBay the information needed to facilitate these transactions. The information that you need to provide is only slightly personal, and not overly intrusive; it is just the basics needed to give some stability to an on line sells transaction. Note the word "some" stability; since there is no face to face identification, the people who buy and sell on eBay must simply accept people at information value, there is no face to attach to anyone. From the best that I can tell, eBay does not sell our misuse personal information in any way; I have never known of anyone to have a problem with giving eBay personal information. The registration link is at the top of most eBay pages, next to the eBay logo it says, in tiny letters, "Sign In or Register".

Bidding on an item is very straight forward at eBay. At the top and bottom of each listing are "Place Bid" buttons (blue at this writing). The "Place Bid" button at the top is next to "Current bid". Towards the bottom of the listing (after the seller has described the product, payment methods, and maybe shown you a picture) there is an area with bidding information titled, "Take action on this item"; it shows the current bid and has a box for you to place a bid. Bids are in set increments (there is a chart at the bottom of this page) and it says what the next bid should be beside the bid box; then, there is a "Place Bid" button. Remember what I said about you could not accidentally bid, read the note under the button, it says "You will confirm in the next step". Just clicking this first blue button doesn't place the bid, you still have to type your user ID and password and confirm your bid before it is registered. If you have any questions, there is a help link in this same area.

If you want to join in the bidding, you can place one of two bids, you can overbid the current high bid by a small amount, or you can place a proxy bid. A proxy bid is a great feature, it allows you to place a high "secret" bid that no one can see, unless the bidding gets that high. The seller and other bidders can only see a bid that just beats the current high bid. Say you would gladly pay fifty dollars for a special video set, but when you go to bid, the current auction price is only twenty-five dollars - why pay more - so you put in a proxy bid of fifty dollars in case the auction price goes that high. The auction will now show your high bid of twenty-six dollars. To all the world it looks like you only bid twenty-six dollars. Now, let's say you go to bed and later that night someone comes along and overbids that twenty-six dollar bid, maybe they jump right up and bid forty dollars. Surprise, you have already told eBay's system that you are willing to pay up to fifty dollars so it quickly pops in a forty-one dollar bid for you, while you are sleeping. The system will keep challenging other bids for you unless or until your fifty dollar maximum is reached or the auction ends. If your maximum proxy bid is overbid by someone else then you are out of the game, unless you go back on line and place another bid, in which case you can just place a higher bid or you can place another proxy bid.

So, you have won an auction, now what do you do? Now that the auction is over, it is up to you and the seller to contact each other and conclude the transaction. eBay does not get involved in sells, eBay is simply a program that allows buyers and sellers to communicate. There is a checkout option offered by the eBay program or you can wait for the seller to contact you. The seller may contact you in several possible ways. Some sellers have their own invoicing system and prefer that you only respond to their invoice (they will tell you in their listing if they do not want you to check out, but wait for their invoice). There are several automatic invoicing systems that sellers can use. There is, of course, eBay's invoicing option, Pay Pal has one available for sellers to use and there are some companies that offer auction handling services. Personally, as a buyer, I like using the checkout option offered by eBay, this puts me in touch with the seller right away, but some sellers won't use it, so read the listing before checking out.

While eBay offers guidelines for buyers and sellers to communicate, I feel that buyers and sellers should contact each other within 24 hours unless the seller has already stated in the listing that there will be a delay (vacation and such). Many sellers will spell out their conditions and time limits for contact and payment in their listings, they do so because many buyers do not complete transactions. It is possible that a buyer might place a proxy bid then forget or go out of town, but generally there should be no reason not to contact each other quickly. If something comes up and, if as a buyer, you can not complete the transaction or there will be a delay, you really need to contact the seller. Many sellers will understand, others will be mad, after all, if a buyer does not complete a transaction the seller is still out eBay listing and selling fees (a seller can request a refund from eBay, but the process can be more trouble than the lost fees are worth). Still, if the lost transaction is the fault of the buyer, then the buyer should have the courtesy to let the seller know there is a problem so the seller can at least re-list the item quickly and recover some of their lost revenue. Additionally, parents should be responsible for their minor children's actions out on the internet.

Before bidding on an item, be sure to read the payment and shipping information the seller has provided. Just about every auction listing will tell all buyers right up front what forms of payment the seller will accept. The payment options may be very restrictive, but that is part of the auction agreement. For instance, many sellers will only accept a postal money order, not just any money order, but a postal money order because they are very easy to cash when the seller goes to ship the item at the post office. Some sellers will only accept credit card payments. Most sellers, who are not credit card merchants, are using Pay Pal to accept credit card payments. People who are not credit card merchants can sign up with credit card companies like Pay Pal who will process the credit card transaction (for a fee to the seller). These companies use secure systems and appear to be as safe as any other banking or credit card companies. There are many companies outside eBay that will accept payments through a company like Pay Pal , if you are planning to buy very many items on line, you should consider joining one of these organizations. You will hear an occasional bad story where one of these companies messed up someone's account, these things do happen, but considering the huge volume of transactions they handle each and every day, I believe it is a small risk.

Shipping methods and costs are a most important aspect of an auction and you should consider them carefully; all listing ads should state these things clearly. If shipping costs and information are not clear you would be well advised to e-mail the seller for this information before bidding. The biggest trivial complaint I hear from most sellers about payment questions is that buyers ask silly questions like "where do I send the money" or "do you accept Pay Pal" and so on. Buyers should read the listing, all that information should be there on the listing page, and when eBay sends an end of auction notice, it will also have the payment information.

There are many sellers will not ship outside their own country and their listing ad should state this. Note, some sellers will actually ship to another country if you ask, but each country's rules are so different they can not specify all the exceptions in a listing so it is easier just to say no foreign countries. If you ask, sometimes the seller will check with their Post Office or with UPS to see if they can ship to a specific country without too much hassle. If you are a new buyer with little or no feedback the seller will probably say no. When a foreign buyer has been around awhile and has numerous feedbacks they can sometimes get a seller to ship to another country. As a U.S. seller, one of the problems with shipping to a foreign country is that once it leaves the postal service there is no way to verify if something was delivered and some bad buyers claim just that. Another problem is that some foreign countries require complicated customs forms or that forms be in their language.

How items will be shipped can be important if you have a Post Office Box and the seller only ships UPS or you want the item quickly and the seller ships media rate (similar to the old book rate) then you could have a problem. Check the ad and if it doesn't work for you, ask the seller, sometimes they will make an exception.

Most importantly, what is the seller charging for shipping and handling. There is a cost to a seller to package and actually ship an item that is over and above the actual shipping costs which are pretty high nowadays. On an expensive item the seller may absorb some or all of the shipping in order to get the item sold, but if the shipping is too cheap on an inexpensive item you might want to beware; it could simply be that the seller is just not the sharpest tack in the box and is loosing money, but it could be that you might get stung.

I feel strongly that when you buy an item on eBay you should know the shipping charges up front unless there is something unusual circumstance. If a seller says the buyer is to pay "actual" shipping, I get concerned. Most of the complaints that I have heard about eBay transactions have to do "actual" shipping charges and the big surprise a buyer gets when the seller sends the invoice. A seller might need a little money over the actual shipping costs to cover handling, but a little in my book is not seventy-five dollars for a twenty dollar shipping expense. Both USPS and UPS offer on line shipping cost calculators and sellers, on smaller items, should be able to pick a shipping rate that will cover most destinations, except maybe Alaska and Hawaii for the US. If the item is heavy then the seller should consider allowing buyers to e-mail them with their zip code and then calculate the shipping individually per request.

A final note about shipping. When a seller insures a shipment they are not insuring it just for you, but also for themselves. If the item is lost or damaged in transit, it is the seller that receives the insurance money, not the buyer. As a buyer, your hope is that the seller will share the insurance money with you should anything happen to the shipment, but there is no way to enforce that. I have heard of one such complaint that was never resolved to the buyers satisfaction. In this case the seller received double payment, the original payment from the seller and the insurance money because the item arrived damaged, the buyer, however, only ended up with damaged merchandise. This particular buyer has bought and sold over a hundred items on eBay with no other such problem, but remember, eBay is not a law enforcement agency, they have no real power, so have fun on eBay, but buy carefully and consider getting your own insurance; companies, such as Pay Pal, offer insurance for a small fee when you pay using their service.

Bidding Increments
$0.00 - $0.99 BI = $0.05 Minimum Bid
$1.00 - $4.99 BI = $0.25 Minimum Bid
$5.00 - $24.99 BI = $0.50 Minimum Bid
$25.00 - $99.99 BI = $1.00 Minimum Bid
$100.00 - $249.99 BI = $2.50 Minimum Bid
$250.00 - $499.99 BI = $5.00 Minimum Bid
$500.00 - $999.99 BI = $10.00 Minimum Bid
$1,000.00 - $2,499.99 BI = $25.00 Minimum Bid
$2,500.00 - $4,999.99 BI = $50.00 Minimum Bid
$5,000.00 - and Up BI = $100.00 Minimum Bid