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eBay is a giant auction site with local websites in many countries of the world including US, UK, India, Germany and Canada. Basically, sellers post their articles on the site and buyers bid on them. However it isn’t as simple as that.

First of all you need to sign up as an eBay member. You will be required to provide all kinds of personal details and your credit card, or bank details, if you do not have a PayPal account.

Sellers post their goods via a special form, or system of forms provided by eBay. Decide what starting price you want for your item, describe it, add a photo and wait for the bids. This costs money. You have to pay for the listing and a further fee is charged as a percentage of the selling price.

As you go through the posting process you will be asked if you want various extra features like additional photographs, bold headings, etc. These cost extra money too and you may not be aware of this until you see the final charge at the end. You can backtrack if you need to change something.

Postage/Shipping prices are entered as an additional amount and should be reasonable or you will get complaints.

You can start the bidding at a very low amount but be aware that you are committed to sell at the price the auction reaches unless you place a reserve on your item. This, of course, costs extra money.

Buying looks easy and it if you are careful. Always read the details properly. I have recently heard of a person buying perfume and finding that it was just a tiny, sample bottle although the picture was a much larger bottle. The seller had done nothing wrong (technically) because the size had been stated in very small print in the description. This has also happened in the case of a leather office chair that was sold at a few hundred dollars and turned out to be a toy one. That seller had technically committed no offense.

Check out the feedback on the sellers account but be aware that this can be false. The seller may have found a way to add feedback to their profile.

If you are spending a large amount of money try to contact other people who have bought form the seller and get their feedback directly.

There has been trouble on eBay with fake goods of all varieties and it seems that as fast as these listing are removed, more are added. The general rule is that the price seems too good to be true, it probably is.

There is also a practice called shilling that is quite prevalent on eBay. This is where there are no, or few bids, on an item and the seller, or their friends bid to artificially inflate the price when they have no intention of buying. Don’t get carried away and bid more than you intended. It is quite easy to keep increasing you bid little by little, just for the thrill of winning and to find out that you are paying too much in the end.

One important thing on eBay and other on line sites is to protect your personal details. It is wise to have a PayPal account which protects you r personal information and affords some protection if you do fall prey to someone who is less than honest.

Don’t let this put you off eBay. If it is used with caution it can be fun buying and selling things. After all, one man’s junk is another man’s treasure.