I'm looking for great Xmas gifts and up until now I hadn't even considered looking on eBay. But now that I have looked I'm very impressed and will likely use this year. I guess a lot of you have used it at one point or another so I thought it may be useful if we share tips or links to interesting stores there.
I have been looking on e-bay for an karaoke system for my daughter. It seemed a good place to start. I'm finding that alot of the department stores are already sold out. Some other suggestions that I've also used are: overstock.com, Amazon.com.
I use e-bay all the time. I would recommend you use paypal. I love it. It's where the "weird" go to shop. 8)
I bought from e-bay for a hard to find part for our 4 wheeler. I got the part I never would have found here fairly cheap. I would definitely shop e-bay again.
Amanda and I have been selling some things this month on ebay. She has certainly made more money than I have too. In fact I have had two top bidders back out of the deal this week. I made second chance offers and one lady hasn't gotten back to me yet and wouldn't you know it was the one selling for the most money. We do not use Paypal, just don't want them having access to our bank account. We only buy from sellers who will accept Money Orders and we only accept Money orders when we sell.
Before you buy check the sellers rating. Look for good ones. They're shown in %. As a seller I accept all forms of payment and will ship worldwide. I feel that gives opportunity to more buyers. Postal money orders are good, no fees attatched like when you get paid on paypal. Ask questions before you bid. You don't want to get any bad suprises. When you do a search, search in all cattegories. Then if theres way too much to look at you can narrow it down by sub categories. Example I just sold a rock & roll book from the 60's. Lots of pics, quotes etc from Dylan, Hendrix etc. I listed it under books. Now if you went looking and just looked under collectibles for rock paraphenalia you would have missed my book. By searching all categories you'd have found it.
I love EBAY!! I'm almost an addict!! I ALWAYS look at and read the feedback. I love PayPal too. It is so easy, safe and convenient for buyers. I've been buying off of ebay for about 4 years and almost got stung twice. That is when I learned to read the feedback and pay attention to the % Thankfully PayPal helped with their dispute feature and got my money back. I've met some really neat sellers on "the bay" Deanna :-D
I've had very little trouble on eBay and none on large purchases. Read the reviews of the seller and use PayPal. If anyone says bad things about the seller move on to the next one.
I never deal with anyone who doesn't have a 99% positive feedback or better. My paypal goes through One creditcard and is fully protected. I also would never give them my bankaccount number.I just couldn't send a money order, it's too much like sending cash.
We tried to set up paypal using a reloadable Visa card just to keep tight reigns on the account, but they won't do that now, they require your bank routing number and account number even with the card. We alway use Money Orders and the only problem we have had was with one from Canada a few years ago that the bank refused to accept.
When looking at the percentage also remember to look at what people write in their feedback. My % is 98.6% So bethie wouldn't buy from me. But I don't have thousands of sales. That % is from only 1 negative feedback that I got from a rude spiteful person a few years ago. And some of my sales, I've never gotten feedback for. I consider those positive sales because if it was a negative experience I'm sure there would be a negative feedback.
Heres something for the europeans, its a norwegian site but i guess anyone can order. http://www.qxl.no/ QXL Auksjon kjøp og salg av brukt og nytt I go here alot an find new an used products that so far i haven't had any problems at all when ordering an recieving,, just like ebay, read the sellers % an their reviews.. for everyone else its just a cool place to browse. but i guess you can try if you see something. if you look there are some english things sold, just look for the word, Utenlandske,,,,means out landish or basically not norwegian,,lol.
I used to sell my handspinning there, back in the days when a seller and buyer had to actually email each other to finalize a sale- I guess it's much easier now but really impersonal, too. It's gotten so complicated I just don't sell there anymore. Some credit card companies will agree to give you a low-maximum-balance card (I think they are typically for parents to give kids to learn about credit with), which is great to use with paypal. But, as far as buying, I love that you can clearly see what they are going to charge for shipping- alot of sellers make up for a low item price by charging alot of shipping fees. I never buy from sellers without really good feedback, but I do check out the negatives on a seller I'm interested in, to check for spite-comments. I absolutely agree with checking outside the expected catagory, too. And using paypal for safety's sake. Amazon is a great place to go too, and I think they have a site for your part of the world. They keep a close eye on standards for their seller. If you live a long way from stores, like I do, these sites are awfully handy. If you are careful, the cost of shipping can be less than the cost of gas & such for an all day, high stress shopping trip.
I love eBay, am a seller both there and at Amazon. 8) Forgot to add my tip! Want to check prices for an item on eBay? Check out http://get4it.com/, it's a very useful tool.
