Ebay: how does it work and would you recommend it?

[Jzee]

I've seen something on Ebay that I'd like, but not sure how it works?

It depends on whether it's an auction or Buy It Now. The easiest way to explain would be for you to put a link to the page. If it's an auction then you can get eBay to bid for you by putting in a high proxy bid; eBay will up it to your limit if there's a bid against you. The main thing is to remember to bid late in the auction if you want a bargain.

First of all you have to register, if you haven't already.

You decide how much you think it is worth, and how much you are prepared to pay for it (DON'T get carried away - I have sold things on ebay for more than they cost new in the shops - good for a seller, not good for a buyer) Also check what the seller wants for P&P - some are exorbitant - and have a look at their feedback, some sellers are best avoided.

You can put your top bid in straight away if you like - ebay will bid on your behalf so it won't go up to your top limit unless someone outbids you (ebay will send an email if this happens and you can decide whether to bid more).

If you win the bidding, the seller will tell you how they want you to pay and will not usually send the goods til your payment has cleared.

The "help" sections on ebay will talk you through the whole process in more detail.

So long as you are careful, and don't get carried away with your bidding, you'll be fine.

Good luck

I have just lost a bid on a pushchair, right at the last minute
Dp is rather pleased though as we don't actually need a pushchair.

I forgot "Buy It Now"

Not another pushchair, nutty

I can't help it MM i'm a pushchair addict.

for what it's worth Jzee, we've just sold 2 sofas on Ebay and it all went okay. I think as a buyer you can check the Ebay history of your seller to make sure no-one has had any bad dealings with him. Dont think I'd use it for something that was mega buckls but I've bought toys on it and had no problems at all.

Hi, I love e-bay, infact it was following advice on a similar thread here, that encouraged me to start. I buy and sell now and its great if you:
Check the seller's feedback results;
Decide on your limit for each item you wish to buy and don't pay more than it's worth;
If selling, be clear about your terms etc.
I am always amazed at the items up for grabs and spend many hours e-baying and mumsnetting!! Good luck.

Do ask questions if you have any doubts. For example, I've received a couple of children's clothes that stank of smoke although they were clean and in very good condition. I always ask now if the items are from a non-smoking household.

Main thing though is not to get carrried away!

Sofas - they must have been tricky to get in the post box

Oh yeah, forgot to add that it is addictive. I've never really enjoyed shopping but sitting down with a cup of tea and browsing through eBay can take up a lot of (happy) time. Not great when there are other things to be getting on with...

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What happens if I send payment for an item in the form of a cheque which is then cashed, but I don't receive the item?

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Never happened to me either (paying, but not receiving) although I did have one that took over a month to send the item after payment cleared! As others have said, before you bid/use buy it now, check their feedback. If the seller has a lot of negative f/b I wouldn't personally buy from them, although I do look through the negative feedback to see why they got it.

Also as MM said, look at postage costs before bidding (if postage isn't specified use "ask seller a question" and ask them how much postage is).

Recently I had won 3 t-shirts from a woman that lives in Plymouth too. I asked her if I could collect these as we live not far from each other, but she ignored my email. So I thought, ok she don't want me to pick them up and so I emailed her again to ask for the combined postage cost (the t-shirts were 3 seperate auctions and had 3 seperate postage costs). Her reply was, "I'll take 50p postage off each t-shirt. This made postage £4.50 for the 3 t-shirts. When they arrived, I saw she sent them 2nd class in a plain white envelope (which was ripped) and postage cost £1.10. Needless to say I was not happy and have left her neutral feedback as she never responded to my email's about what happened to the other £3.00 postage (I allowed 40p for the "packaging". Now I know why she didn't want me to collect them, she would have lost her postage profit!

hmmm ignore that wink, it isn't supposed to be there lol

Ha Ha JZee ... I have just put a few items on eBay ... ( feeling very brave ) and hoping that I might get a bit of payback from all that I have spent !

I was an eBay "virgin" up until about a fortnight ago ..... DONT DO IT .... IT'LL COST YOU A FORTUNE
Great fun though!

One bit of advice ... never bid if you have had a glass of wine ... very dangerous ( unless you are bidding on my items )