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Having been a member of ebay for about a year now, I thought it would be good to write about the site and the advantages of having an account on there.
Ebay.co.uk is an auction site where anyone who has a credit or debit card can join, you put in your name and address, email address and then add a username and password to your account, so that you can then get your own ebay page.
You can also join if you don't have a credit or debit card but you can only bid for things and not sell.
Once you have registered with these details your ready to browse around the site.
I think it's always best to have a good look around a site which your not familiar with instead of jumping in straight away and making mistakes, ebay is easy to navigate around so it doesn't take long to get used to.
Each member has their own page and when you log on you can choose whether you want to browse, or go to your ebay, or look at the last item you were looking at when you last logged in.
You can write a little about yourself in your profile page, so that other members can get to know you a bit.
You can even look at the announcement board which tells you about all the recent updated messages about the site.
At the top of your page there is also a menu for:-
Browse
Where you can find the items you want to moniter prices of or check if they are selling at a certain price, incase you have a similar item to sell, or if you just want to find a catergory. There are lots of catagories to choose from as this site is huge and if your looking for something I'm sure you'll find it on here at a reasonable price.
The catagories are,
Antiques and Art, Consumer electronics, Automotive, Books ,comics and magazines, Coins, Collectables, Computing, Dolls and dolls houses, Dvd's Tv and films, Home, garden and family, Jewellery and watches, Mobile and house phones, Music, Pc and video games, Photography, Pottery and glassware, Sports, Stamps, Toys and games, Tickets and travel, Wholesale and job lots, Everthing else.
As you can see there are lots of catagories to choose from and each of these catagories has sub-catagories to look at but for me to list them all would take a while and I can't copy them all out as it's not allowed but go and have a look for yourself and I'm sure you'll be surprised at the huge choice.
Search
This is just like any other search engine, here you can find anything that your interested in, say your looking for a book to buy then here you can type in the name of the book, or the name of the author, hardback or softback book, you can even type in the printers name, i.e Penguin or Pan and this will bring up a list of all the books by that author, title, or printer.
If you looking for an item say an electric iron, you can type in the maker or the item and up will come the list of everything on ebay. I think this is great as it's easy to use and quickly finds what your looking for.
Once you have found what you are looking for you can click on the item and it will take you to the discription page where there is usually a picture for you to look at.
Further down the page is a section where you can enter your bid, as well as seeing how many other bids if any there has been, you usually have to up the bid by about twenty pence if you want to win the item.
Selling
This is the exciting part and if you have something to sell get yourself an ebay account. To sell an item you first choose the catagory you want to enter it into, then you choose the sub-catagory, click a button to enter it and you will be given an enter number, the next part is the discription of the item your selling, here you can add a picture and discribe your item, whether it's an unwanted new item or a secondhand item, you can add more than one picture at a cost of 12p or more depending on how many pictures you want to add, your first picture is free.
You can choose if you want your item in the auction for 7 days or more. to sell more than one item you need a high feedback rate.
You can pay extra for a bold add and have a free page counter on your item page to see how many people have looked at your item.At the bottom of the page there will be the price you have to pay for putting the sale item on ebay.
Once you have added all the details of your item you can preview your sale or click to confirm it to be added to the auction catagory of your choice, ebay will then email you to confirm your item has been put on the site.
All you have to do then is wait to see if it sells. Ebay will email you when or if it has sold and tell you your item has ended in the sale. You can then send an invoice which has all your details including price to the highest bidder, they usually return an email to you so that you can send them the item you have sold.
Ebay do charge commission on each sale, this depends on what the final bidding price has been.
Buying is also easy, just search for something you are interested in and then add your bid, ebay will tell you what amount to add in the bidding box of the item discription page, usually about twenty pence more than the last bidder.
Ebay will email you to let you know if you've been out bidded or if you have won the bid. You will then recieve an invoice from the seller and can contact them to make the arrangements for the sale.
You can also track an item which you are interested in, this is great for something you have spotted and want to snap it up at the last minute before the end of the sale time.
My thoughts on Ebay.co.uk
I love it, as a person who likes to work from home I think this is the way to go for a lot of people who don't want to work for an employer.
I have been a member of ebay for about a year and have only just realized it's full potential. I didn't use it to the best of it's ability but am rapidly catching up.
As a self employed book seller it is ideal for me to work at home, I just put on the books I have to sell and people bid. I have just sent books to Austria and sold in the UK.
I sell Mysteries, Thrillers, Humour like Terry Pratchett and Sci-fi.
If you are an avid reader like me, I add books every day on ebay and you can view them in my Marketplace on here.
It costs me 15p to put one book on the site as long as I put the starting price under a pound and I add £1.50p for postage which the buyer pays, this is for the postage and a bubble wrapped envelope, so that the book doesn't get damaged in the post. Oversea's postage is around three pounds, but you can email the buyer if it's any more.
It might not be pounds but it adds up over the week.
Once you have sold or bought something from another member you can leave feedback, which can be positive or negative depending on how you think your deal has gone. I only have now got a feedback rate of 40 at the moment, as I have only just started up again on ebay, due to working somewhere else and just having left work to start again as self-employed.
You can get emails on the items your interested in , if your a collecter, or just want to get a set of certain books, plates, ornaments, glasses, ect.
This is a secure site too so putting your details on here is safe.
So far I have been very surprised at how well things are going, I have received a lot of cheques through the post, none have bounced so far. I have been let down on one sale, when the bidder never paid, but I don't send the goods untill payment is received, so this wasn't a big deal.
On the whole it's great to make a little extra each week.
All the best x
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