EBay for Dummies Read Online Free

AuctionWeb, was a broken laser pointer. Day by day, new people (including me in 1996) were drawn to the site from Internet chatter. The site eventually grew to the point where it began to strain Pierre’s ISP.
    The ISP charged him more, so he started charging a small listing fee for sellers, just so he could break even. Legend has it that the day $10,000 in fees arrived in Pierre’s mailbox, he quit his day job. (I hope that’s not apocryphal too!)
    eBay was born on Labor Day 1995. The name eBay is taken from Echo Bay, the name Pierre originally wanted for his company. Upon checking with the State of California, he found that the name was taken by another company, so he shortened the name to eBay — and the rest, as they say, is history.
    All about Auctions
    The value of an item is determined by how much someone is willing to spend to buy it. That’s what makes auctions exciting. eBay offers several kinds of auctions, but for the most part, they all work the same way. An auction is a unique sales event where the exact value of the item for sale is not known. As a result, an element of surprise is involved — not only for the bidder (who may end up with a great deal) but also for the seller (who may end up making a killing). Here’s how an auction works from a seller’s perspective and a bidder’s perspective:
    Seller: A seller pays a fee, fills out an electronic form, and sets up the auction, listing a minimum bid he or she is willing to accept for the item. Think of an auctioneer at Sotheby’s saying, “The bidding for this diamond necklace begins at $5,000.” You might want to bid $4,000, but the bid won’t be accepted. Sellers can also set a reserve price — sort of a financial safety net that protects them from losing money on the deal. I explain how this stuff works later in this section.
    Bidder: Bidders in auctions duke it out over a period of time (the minimum is one day, but most auctions last a week or even longer) until one comes out victorious. Usually, the highest bidder wins. The tricky thing about participating in an auction (and the most exciting aspect) is that no one knows the final price an item goes for until the last second of the auction.
    eBay auctions
    Unlike “traditional” live auctions that end with the familiar phrase “Going once, going twice, sold!” eBay auctions are controlled by the clock. The seller pays a fee and lists the item on the site for a predetermined period of time; the highest bidder when the clock runs out takes home the prize.
    Reserve-price auctions
    Unlike a minimum bid, which is required in any eBay auction, a reserve price protects sellers from having to sell an item for less than the minimum amount they want for it. You may be surprised to see a 1968 Jaguar XKE sports car up for auction on eBay with a minimum bid of only a dollar. It’s a fair bet that the seller has put a reserve price on this car to protect himself from losing money. The reserve price allows sellers to set lower minimum bids, and lower minimum bids attract bidders. Unfortunately, if a seller makes the reserve price too high and it isn’t met by the end of the auction, no one wins.
    eBay charges a fee for sellers to run these auctions. Nobody knows (except the seller and the eBay computer system) what the reserve price is until the auction is over (assuming that the reserve price is met and that someone wins the auction), but you can tell from the auction page whether you’re dealing with a reserve-price auction. Reserve-price auctions are in the listings alongside the other items, so you have to click to find out whether it has a reserve. If bids have been made on an item, a message also appears on the page telling you if the reserve price hasn’t been met. You can find out more about bidding on reserve-price auctions in Chapter 6 and setting up a reserve-price auction in Chapter 9.
    Restricted-access auctions
    If you’re over 18 years of age and interested in bidding on items of an