Well, it finally seems that I have picked up most of the interresting consoles and games, that can be found in little Denmark. So now I want to have a go at ebay.. That's what this topic is about. I was wondering if some of you could give me a few hints and pointers on starting ebay, and ebay in general. So far I have made a new bank-acount and Visacard for it. This I have done for my Paypal account. This new account is the only account I will use on the net. So if it ever got ripped, it would not be a catastrophe. As the only money in the account, would be money I have placed their to by something.. Anyway. Like i said above, any hints and pointers would be greatly appreciated. Maybe you can stop me making mistakes you yourself have made in the past :smt040 Thanks in advance
Umm, well..... search for something you want. find it. bid on it. win it. pay for it. that's usually how it goes
One thing you need to remember is to be very careful when shopping ebay. There are all kinds of dumb ass bitches on there that will try to scam you. Also, watch out for the seller Brinn1, he is a real bitch when it comes to FB.
Make sure a seller has a good raitng for one, and be very polite and on time with payments, negative feedback does not go well in a persons favor, only give the seller negative feedback if its absoloutly nessecarry(ie they are ignoring you) since they can give you negative feedback, which can not be tooken away. Other then that, search bid and good luck, ive got some real good deals on that site.
Hehe only joking! OK, just go with your instinct. Check the seller's feedback. 0 feedback can be a bit dodgy, especially with rare stuff. Auctions with pictures are better, and you should be able to tell if its real or lifted off a website. If you want to know anything about the auction, ask questions... a genuine seller will reply and should be helpful. Oh, always check the seller will ship abroad, if you use a foreign eBay. Also, always check BEFORE bidding that they accept PayPal, and what their postal charges are. If you want several items, ask the seller FIRST if they'll quote a combined shipping charge... I once bid on several CDs in sleeves, not cases... they cost nothing to ship. The seller wanted £3 each shipping, the CDs I won at £0.50 each!!! His "special" price was 50p off each game for shipping, I won 20 games. I told him he was ripping me off and to forget it. He said well, I live out in the country, the post office is a 30 min drive which I don't usually make. Hmm.
First off, check the feedback of the seller, if they have a lot of, or very recent bad feedback, think carefully! Always pay with paypal where possible, it covers you in the event of any problems. Well... proof of sending the money anyway... Check postage, if its not listed, get a quote from the seller before you bid. You don't want to be stung by stupid overcharged postage on something small. This is a common "trick" at the moment. Don't bid too early, you may draw attention to the item and start a bidding war. Decide on a price, and stick to it. It's very easy to add "just one more £" to your bid. Avoid cart only GBA games sent from Asia, they are almost certainly fakes (unless of course you are interested in pirate and clone games/systems) Don't accept "paypal fee's" as they have been banned by paypal. If they still want to charge you, take your business elsewhere. There are plenty of sellers out there who will comprimise. Obviously take this up with the seller before you bid. Most important one: Have fun! Bid on something stupid at least once, do you really need an N64 eraser? probably not, but its only £0.50!
Oh yes, pay swiftly. Always read ALL of the auction. Then, when paying, tell the seller you will leave feedback when you get the items, and hope they will too. Sometimes the seller will leave feedback first, sometimes not. OOh, and as a new member, as a courtesy measure, before bidding (or even once you have bid if it doesn't specify), e-mail the seller (click "ask seller a question") and say you are a new member but you are interested in this item.... basically just to show them you're serious.
As Tach says, its often more fun to watch the item, then near the end place a bid. This gives others less chance to outbid you, but of course they may be doing the same!!!
here's my personal bid bible, its a bit long , but well explained (well, i think :-D ) -------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. check what you whant. (duh..) -------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. check what the seller exigences ------------------- 2.1. check if the seller whant to ship where you live. (some auctions , by exemple , are made for the us only..) if they don't ship to where you live then restart at the first stage . ------------------ 2.1.2. if the item is really rare or have something execptional for you then can try to convince the seller to make an execption, to do this first, be very polite, say that you whant the item and would whant to pay the extra shipping charge with pleasure , say that if there's any problems questions or naything else he could contact you . be gentle and polite , that's how they could make an exception only for you . if its the case , be sure to bid on it , and don't try be an exception if you're not sure you can't bid on it , seller dislike this. -------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Read the shipping and payments methods. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. then, if everything is favorable to you, pass to the other stages :smt023 l :-D ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 5. pay attentinon to the feedback of the seller , if the seller have no feedback , then try to comunicate more with the seller , when communicate , be always polite . be always on guard , we never know, trust your instincts too. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 6. Read all the description of the item you think you whant to bid on. this is the bad part , becuase if the text is 1000 word long , you should read it all carefully , sometimes auctions try to trick you with only one word lik an x-box box of a limited edition x-box , someone buyed it for alot of cash, i think he was surprised when he opened the shiping box to discover a x-box box only. :smt043 , but again, that was legal, the seller really selled a x-box box , not the x-box itself , he isn't criminal. So read the description , and all the title too, it maybe seem a little bit weird , but you need to carefully read. again, be always on guard , we never know, trust your instincts too. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 7. post your questions if you need to , introduce yourself and be polite ( everything to have a good future-feedback !) talk about the shipping cost if you whant , say your adress and he could estimate the cost of the shipping. demand to have a shipping protection (or whatever its called depending of the compagny that will ship your future package.) insist on the shipping protection, it will cost you a bit more but it will destroy the chances of alot of problems. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8. Bid! always say you that the world is wide , so the price of what you whant will certainly grow. add the item on your watch list and wait near the end of the auction to bid , don't try to bid at the last second , it's not alot of time succesfull. trust your instinct on the good time , never at the beginning . you can try to bid at the last minute but its at you risk. don't bid if the other stages wasn't succesfully finished. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9. if you win , email the seller and make the adition of all cost , post im your total and be sure he agree. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10. pay your due and wait, that's the long part , its always too long! :smt040 remember to email the seller when you receive the package and don't forget to write a feedback negative , neutral or good , depanding on your experience. don't forget to say why. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- and the last one..... ------------------------- 11. HAVE FUN!! :smt040 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- good luck! :smt023
One thing you should look out for is for people who want to use payment methods other than check, M.O., or paypal, like say western union money transfer, or anything involving your bank account. Never give your bank account number to anyone, or use any method that involves it (say like a transfer where your account number is on the slip, etc.) Unless you'e buying a house or a car, never go for an escrow service. It's a rip-off, it counts your paypal payment as recived so you can't cancel it and get your money back. Phoney escrow services are all over the place (as all you need is a website and an e-mail address to pass yourself off as one as far as ebay is concerned.) Keep in mind shipping charges, especially when buying from overseas. For instance shipping from Japan is fucking atrocious, while from HK it seems a bit more reasonable (for some reason.) Also read the fine print on the acution- a lot of times people will sell something really cheap, (like a game console for $5) and then at the bottom it says "Shipping charge: $50." And since by bidding you agree to thier terms there's nothing you can do excpet leave negative feedback, then he leaves it for you and screws up your record, etc. Also, check the country of origin the seller is from. If you see somthing incredibly rare and valuble (say like an Adventure Vision or something,) then you see the guy selling it is from Nigeria and all his feedback comes from the same two sellers, chances are it's a scam. Northen African countries are notorious for this (the same places where those "Nigerian letter" scams originate from.) Keep your B.S. detector on high when dealing with people in other countries, becasue they know that if they rip you off the worst you can do to them is leave negative feedback, in which case they just create a new Ebay account and start over clean.
