Saleem

I cant claim to be either a professional eBay user, or even a semi-professional eBay user, but I have used it quite a lot, both as a buyer, and to a lesser extent as a seller, but maybe, just maybe theres some advice in here that novices might find useful.

Ill also touch upon Paypal, which, although it is another organisation, being a payment processor not an auction site, just so happens to be part of the same parent company as eBay, and so the two are inexorably linked, seemingly.

WHAT IS eBAY?

Well, its nowt but a damned-great car-boot sale on the internet with all that this implies. You can buy things there or sell things. Some sellers are traders, others are private. Id imagine that a larger proportion of buyers are private, unless a crafty trader sees a bargain they can sell for more later!

It carries with it, just like a car boot sale, one huge caveat

KNOW YOUR PRICES.....AND KEEP YOUR HANDS IN YOUR POCKETS

...err, that's TWO HUGE caveats, sorry, I didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition.

Its very easy to assume that an open air market is cheaper than conventional retail, and the same applies here. Time and time again, people buy at markets, only to find theyve paid the bog-standard High Street price.

So many times Ive checked the Amazon price for something on eBay to find that its only a little higher than buying a possibly second-hand version of it, say a camera, on eBay.

I put this down to the fact that amateurs selling used electronics sometimes have an inflated view of the items current worth; lets say half of what they paid for it.

To be fair, this rule-of-thumb works fine for most inanimate objects with the notable exception of modern technology.

For example, the Casio 3.4 mega-pixel camera I paid 700 for, 5 years ago, is now virtually worthless, having been surpassed by even the most entry level digital cameras, some with 5 mega-pixels and price tags of 70. You need to be realistic about these things, and agree never to be an early-adopter again if you dont want to get caught like this.

Then again, if an electronic item works and you have no use for it, dont wait for it to go faulty, sell it; just dont expect to get a lot for it!

In the same way as its possible to get carried away on the spur of the moment (heh, its a market, it has to be cheaper, hasnt it?), dont get caught up in the thrill of the chase and bid more than you intended just to get one up on the second highest bidder, who may, very sensibly have stuck at a level theyve researched as being worth paying.

Quite often, you, as the second highest bidder will be offered the goods at your price just because youve met some invisible ceiling price that the seller had in mind, and theyve got more than one of whatever it was you were bidding for. Anyway, it saves them the expense of re-advertising Ill come to fees later.

This happened to me a while back. I was prepared to pay 150 and no more for a Canon Ixus 750 from the official Canon Refurbished site where shop-returns are repacked as new and guaranteed by Canon for a full year. I was outbid at the last moment by someone prepared to pay 165 but I still got the camera, warranty and all for my price because they had nine of them for sale. In this case, I was also aware that I was buying a superseded model (now the Ixus 900 Titanium), but someone buying on a whim could feel cheated when they find its not the latest item.

Dont just know your prices; know your product variants too!

I have left some auction prices below for Boss Audio 506CA IN DASH CD RECEIVER and other items you may be interested in.

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