Wednesday, October 18, 2006
The workings of EBay
If you want to see the fruits of today's labours you will have to wait until tomorrow.
I have been working very hard today preparing items to list on EBay.
If EBay is a closed book for you then I will explain it a little more.
EBay is an international auction site. People from all over the world list items they wish to sell and others bid. At any given moment there are thousands or millions of EBay activities going on.
For us it is a great hobby that gives a great deal of satisfaction. We love to hunt for things to sell - sometimes going no further than our own shelves. I love to know that on the whole I have got things right and people want to buy what we have on offer.
It is my policy to have things for sale at all times - mainly because I feel a bit lost when there is nothing to check. I describe everything carefully and put a photograph with each item. I choose that my things stay listed for 10 days and then the auction ends and the highest bidder has won the item. I send them an invoice and they pay and then I post off the book or whatever it is.
When I have been paid I write a brief feedback on the deal so that everybody else can see that the buyer was reliable. The buyer should then leave a feedback for us when they have received their item so that people all round the world can see that we are people to trust.
Occasionally things go wrong of course and people are deserving of a negative feedback; too many negatives and EBay ban people from trading.
But on the whole the people I have been in communication are friendly and helpful and I enjoy contact with them and occasionally a sort of friendship develops.
I think you can find almost anything to buy on EBay. My own purchases tend to be limited to things connected with the family history - postcards and souvenirs of the places frequented by both Bill and me and our ancestors. Its easy - just type in the name of the place you are interested in where it says search, and off you go. You will find a list of all the items for sale at that particular moment connected with that place. People buy books, clothes, household goods, cameras, CDs, even cars and houses.
There are charges to sell on EBay, but not to buy. We pay for everything we list. This is mostly very little - 20p for things which have an opening bid of less than £5. There is also a charge based on the price that something sells at, which is also quite a low charge.
Sometimes EBay offer a day when you can list anything for 10p. There is such a day tomorrow. So we have been working hard to take advantage of the chance to save some money. It makes good sense to list things with higher opening bids which might cost perhaps 70p normally.
I shall list all these things tomorrow afternoon and you might like to see the range of things we offer.
I am sure I need not give advice on how to navigate round websites but I will give just a few brief instructions for anybody who is less familiar with things.
After your first visit you could save my page in your favourites and then it would be very easy to find.
But for a first time I suggest you use your normal search engine (we use Google) and search for EBay UK.
Then you will see across the top Welcome to EBay.
Under that are various bits and on the right hand side you will see Advanced Search.
Go into that and on the left hand side you are given some options.
Choose By Seller.
Then you you will be given a space in which to type a sellers username.
Our username is monkland119
I suggest you do not have the box ticked for completed listings, although you might start to get interested in the final selling prices of things.
When you search you will find the username and on the right hand side is a box View seller's Items.
Click this and there will be my list of items for sale.
There are things for sale right now of course. the auctions for them finish in the morning.
This is the page you could put in your favourites.
I have lots of people's lists in my favourites - a combination of being nosey, I guess, and it always gives me a chance to be friendly and make comments about their good deals.
Maybe you will start buying and selling too. And if not, you may understand better just why this hobby is so time consuming and such fun.....did I mention profitable too!
I have been working very hard today preparing items to list on EBay.
If EBay is a closed book for you then I will explain it a little more.
EBay is an international auction site. People from all over the world list items they wish to sell and others bid. At any given moment there are thousands or millions of EBay activities going on.
For us it is a great hobby that gives a great deal of satisfaction. We love to hunt for things to sell - sometimes going no further than our own shelves. I love to know that on the whole I have got things right and people want to buy what we have on offer.
It is my policy to have things for sale at all times - mainly because I feel a bit lost when there is nothing to check. I describe everything carefully and put a photograph with each item. I choose that my things stay listed for 10 days and then the auction ends and the highest bidder has won the item. I send them an invoice and they pay and then I post off the book or whatever it is.
When I have been paid I write a brief feedback on the deal so that everybody else can see that the buyer was reliable. The buyer should then leave a feedback for us when they have received their item so that people all round the world can see that we are people to trust.
Occasionally things go wrong of course and people are deserving of a negative feedback; too many negatives and EBay ban people from trading.
But on the whole the people I have been in communication are friendly and helpful and I enjoy contact with them and occasionally a sort of friendship develops.
I think you can find almost anything to buy on EBay. My own purchases tend to be limited to things connected with the family history - postcards and souvenirs of the places frequented by both Bill and me and our ancestors. Its easy - just type in the name of the place you are interested in where it says search, and off you go. You will find a list of all the items for sale at that particular moment connected with that place. People buy books, clothes, household goods, cameras, CDs, even cars and houses.
There are charges to sell on EBay, but not to buy. We pay for everything we list. This is mostly very little - 20p for things which have an opening bid of less than £5. There is also a charge based on the price that something sells at, which is also quite a low charge.
Sometimes EBay offer a day when you can list anything for 10p. There is such a day tomorrow. So we have been working hard to take advantage of the chance to save some money. It makes good sense to list things with higher opening bids which might cost perhaps 70p normally.
I shall list all these things tomorrow afternoon and you might like to see the range of things we offer.
I am sure I need not give advice on how to navigate round websites but I will give just a few brief instructions for anybody who is less familiar with things.
After your first visit you could save my page in your favourites and then it would be very easy to find.
But for a first time I suggest you use your normal search engine (we use Google) and search for EBay UK.
Then you will see across the top Welcome to EBay.
Under that are various bits and on the right hand side you will see Advanced Search.
Go into that and on the left hand side you are given some options.
Choose By Seller.
Then you you will be given a space in which to type a sellers username.
Our username is monkland119
I suggest you do not have the box ticked for completed listings, although you might start to get interested in the final selling prices of things.
When you search you will find the username and on the right hand side is a box View seller's Items.
Click this and there will be my list of items for sale.
There are things for sale right now of course. the auctions for them finish in the morning.
This is the page you could put in your favourites.
I have lots of people's lists in my favourites - a combination of being nosey, I guess, and it always gives me a chance to be friendly and make comments about their good deals.
Maybe you will start buying and selling too. And if not, you may understand better just why this hobby is so time consuming and such fun.....did I mention profitable too!
