dacs.doc electric

Going Once...Going Twice...
...Sold in Seven Days

By Marc Cohen

 

eBay Home Page.As the Arlo Guthrie song goes, "You can get anything you want at Alice’s Restaurant". On eBay the anything is all laid out for you on your computer screen. No more trudging through hot and dusty aisles and aisles of stuff on a stifling July afternoon, and best of all, a cool drink is as near as your refrigerator.

The October meeting was led by our own father and son team of Bruce and Scott Preston. Starting with a carefully crafted PowerPoint slide introduction to the intricacies of eBay, they then showed us how anyone with an internet connection can participate. This is a place where buyers and sellers can meet at the world’s greatest perpetual flea market. Anything from new CDs to old LPs and 45s, (rpm records, not automatics), first editions, used paperbacks, automobiles, autoparts, house furnishings, new to antique. Almost anything that someone wants to buy or sell can be found here and the search is made easy. Typing one or two words in a search box or by browsing through thousands of categories and sub-categories will lead you to your dream. I did say almost anything can be found here, except, weapons, drugs, live animals, offensive materials, Nazi memorabilia, counterfeits, pesticides, Etc.

Links to many topics about the mechanics of working with eBay can be found at http://pages.ebay.com/sitemap.html.

Bruce and Scott then logged onto eBay and as a buyer did a word search for some obscure items starting with ‘Lincoln Welders’, an industrial tool. They then followed with ‘Lincoln Logs’, a toy, then off to a ‘log cabin quilt’, home furnishing, and then a quick look at ‘Log Cabin Maple Syrup’. (Remember the tin log cabin shaped can the syrup came in?) There were more than one item in each catagory with descriptions, photographs and the current bids price for each. At the bottom of each item is a ‘place a bid’ form. Enter your bid and your eBay user name and password.
If this is your first bid, there is a link on every listing page so you can register. You will need to pick an eBay user name and password and your name, address and e-mail address. First time sellers have to register on the appropriate seller’s form linked to the ‘sell your item’ page. If someone outbids you or if you win the bid, eBay will notify you via e-mail. Another bidding choice is to place a proxy bid, eBay will then automatically increase your bid by minimum increments over the current high bid up to your proxy limit. Most auctions last exactly 7 days.

At the end of the auction, eBay will notify both buyer and seller including their e-mail addresses. The buyer and seller must then contact each other to complete the sale.

eBay does not get involved in the payment process other than to collect their fees. eBay charges the seller a listing fee that ranges from $0.30 for items under $10.00 to $3.50 for items $200 and up. In addition, there are optional features available at nominal fees - bold or highlighted listings, the gallery, featured listings and for additional pictures after the first, when hosted by eBay’s Picture Service, ‘iPix’. You may use HTML to enhance the appearance of your listing at no charge. A seller can also elect to have the auction last 3, 5, or 10 days. again for a small additional fee. eBay also has one last seller’s fee based on the final selling price starting at 5.0% of the first $25.00 reducing in increments to 1.25% on items selling for over $1000. If you decide to sell an item you will need to provide a credit card number against which eBay will charge listing and commission fees. Photos can be stored in eBay’s picture service ‘iPix’ or any other free or fee based image hosting service.

Really expensive items like houses and automobiles have a separate fee schedule.

After Bruce took a photo of one of our mugs, Scott edited it for faster downloading, and with a few quick clicks, placed it up for auction on eBay by filling in the ‘Sell Your Item’ form, adding a brief description and photos of our wonderful mug. The seller also must list any additions, above the bid price such as: State Taxes, Shipping and Handling, and Insurance. At this time the seller may also set a ‘reserve price’ (the price below which he will not sell) and a ‘sell it now’ price (if met this will end the auction in an immediate sale). The seller’s listing also includes a method of payment, ie, personal check, money order, cashier check or credit card. Payments can be handled through eBay’s payment option (another small fee) or thru an independent payment company such as ‘PayPal’. By the way, some one bought the mug for $1.00, so I guess Bruce will have to finish the transaction.

To establish a level of trust between buyers and sellers eBay asks each participant in transactions to rate each other and there is place to add a brief comment. These ratings are permanent and available for all to see. A net of 3 negative comments will get you blackballed from future eBay transactions. This is probably better credit information than you can get from most freestanding retail establishments or customers.

Finally, you won’t have to worry about casually scratching your nose and end up buying some unwanted item. So let’s all get out there and follow the President’s advice by spending money and stirring up the economy in these trying times....


Marc Cohen is a founder of the Danbury Osborne Group in 1982 (one of the groups now incorporated into DACS) is currently the production editor of DACS.DOC and a long time board member, considers himself a perpetual computer novice, looking at the computer as a tool for simplifing business problems, not for creating new ones.

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