by Ellen Page

Created on: April 27, 2009   Last Updated: July 18, 2010

-What is eBay?-

eBay is an international on-line auction house, or a market place as it's better known. It is free to join, you can buy or sell items, or even start your own business on eBay. There are over a million items up for sale every day, with a mixture of used or new items on sale, and you can find a lot of items priced a lot cheaper than in most retail outlets. You can buy pretty much anything on eBay, from toys, clothes, baby equipment, antiques, cars, and you can even find items that you wouldn't expect to be for sale. eBay really has it all!

-Buyers-

Making a bid or selling on eBay is easy; firstly, you will need to register an account with them, secondly if you wish to use a PayPal account to purchase items or fund the insertion fees for selling items, then you will need to link this to your eBay account. Once you have done all this you are ready to go.

You can browse through the categories, or use the search box to find items you are looking for; there is always plenty of choice, and all at different prices. Items can be part of an on-line auction, where you can place a bid on the item and bid against others; if you win there will also be a postage charge which will be stated in the listing. Some heavier items may require the buyer to collect them from the seller, or in some cases arrange their own courier collection service at their own expense. You can get some great bargains this way, if you can wait.

Some items that members of eBay have for sale may have a buy-it-now option, which is a fixed price to enable you to buy the item immediately. Some sellers have a best offer option on items, where you can offer how much you are willing to pay for the item; the seller can then either accept or reject the offer. Some listings on eBay have a reservation price, the minimum price that the seller wants will be hidden, If you don't meet the reservation then you won't win the item. However, if you are close to the reservation the seller may offer it to you for that price.

-Payment-

Once you have won an item there are several methods of payment, depending on the options the seller offers. Such as: Pay Pal, Personal Cheque, Bankers draft, or Postal Order. However, eBay now prefer for all their users to use PayPal for any transactions they perform, as this is proven to be the safest and least fraudulent method of payment.

-Feedback-

After buying or selling an item to another user of eBay, you are required to leave feedback

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