You have to be living in a cave to not have heard of eBay.
EBay calls itself the world marketplace, but I like to think
of it as the largest garage sale in the world. Let call it a
cyber garage sale. It is better than ordinary garage sales
because you spend a whole lot less time and frustration
looking at stuff you have no interest in. Speaking of garage
sales, I have a friend who still frequents them, and she meets
quite a few people at sales that mention to her that they are
interested in eBay, but they still have not gotten around to
buying or selling on eBay.
I understand that completely. For a long time, I browsed eBay,
agog at the prices, but I just did not understand it, so I bought
nothing. Then I had a friend who let me look over her shoulder
as she showed me around on the eBay site and explained the
basics of buying and selling. Even without the listings of things
for sale, eBay is a huge website. There are pages upon pages
of policies, rules, helpful resources for buyers, resources for sellers,
and much more. In short it can take a long time to read and even
longer to take action to buy or sell something for the very first time.
That is why having a helpful friend with eBay experience is of great
benefit.
What made me comfortable with buying on eBay was seeing the
different screens on eBay (search, product description, seller
feedback, etc.) and having my friend point out what was important.
Sometimes what was important was information that was missing,
such as the words ewor moke-free.br>
Once I understood how to find what I was searching for and once
I understood about auctions and fixed price listings, I still needed to
understand how to assess a seller feedback. Eighty percent may be
an acceptable grade in school, but on eBay it is abysmal. As an eBay
seller, my friend cared a great deal about her one-hundred percent
positive feedback and keeping her customers happy, and I could see
that. I gained an appreciation for what it means to be an eBay seller
with several hundred feedbacks and a one-hundred percent score.
Not only did I get comfortable with eBay, I also started having fun.
Recently I purchased a couple of new clothing items for less than half
the price of one and that includes the shipping. What is more fun to a
shopper than picking up some real bargains?
Matia Bryson, the author of this article, invites the
beginning eBayer to try her online home study course:
