The world's online garage sale
Written: Dec 18, 2002 (Updated Dec 20, 2002)
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| Full Review |
Could Ebay possibly be one of the best internet site in the history of the Earth? You'll be surprised how you can find almost anything imaginable on Ebay - the toys you lost, the baseball cards your mom threw away, rare parts for repairs, old TV guides, tapes, records, even cars and houses. Throughout your years of Ebay experience, it's inevitable that you'll encounter bogus bidders or sellers - but the fact that this is the only site on the internet where you can find the rarest of pop-cultural, out of print, or used items is an understatement!
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Ebay, a site that's been around since the mid-90s, still has that archaic 90's web design - but don't let looks fool you - Ebay is all about the content. The front page breaks items down into many, many categories according to their type (including Jewlery, video games, electronics, cars, etc), which will bring you a broad range of results. This is nowhere near as helpful as simply searching for the exact item you're looking for. A problem I have with Ebay is that you have to be very simple in your search keywords - the more keywords you input, the more your chances are of getting a blank results page, which can be annoying. Be as simple as possible - try to use only one word if you can.
Upon getting your search results, you can arrange items by date of auction, price, and other methods. Ebay does an excellent job of displaying your results by adding a little camera icon next to the items that contain product shots in their description (I myself NEVER buy something that doesn't have a picture with it).
If a simple search method isn't enough, there is a very intricate, advanced search that is available on the top of the screen, where you can search by any variable imagined - by seller, by bidder, by time, by price, even by Ebay product ID #.
All Ebay users get their own "file" for the site, containing the information that other Ebay users see (such as their screenname, location, star rating (the more you buy/sell, the higher your "rank" gets), and their feedback, the most important feature of Ebay. Users can write positive and negative feedback for buyers and sellers of whom they've had experiences with. Only one feedback line can be left for each item, as well as one reply line to feedback in case additional comments have to be made. Users with negative feedback will lose 1 point for each negative entry in their total rank, while positive feedback adds one point.
It would be wrong to blame Ebay for malicious bidders or undesirable auctions - because this is due to the Ebay USERS themselves. Ebay does everything it can to ban such users, and their negative feedback should be enough of a warning to let you know that you should not trust them. Most Ebay users neglect to do business with "zero bidders", or Ebay users who have no rank - which could mean that they have created a temporary screenname just to put up a bogus item to steal a payment, however, they could just be an Ebay newbie who hasn't completed an Ebay transaction yet.
I never had to use Ebay customer service in all of the years I've used Ebay. Read Ebay's policies before you complain to them about a fraudulent seller or buyer. Most likely, problem users can be found before you ever do business with them, if not, you will have to solve the problem on your own. Just remember my rule of thumb above: avoid people with a high percentage of negative feedback. Read the comments that past users have left about them - if the comments are all similar, it will tell you something about that Ebay user.
A major problem I have with Ebay is "shilling", or when a seller creates multiple accounts to bid on his/her OWN auction to illegally jack the price up. Usually, you can tell this is happening when a simple item has a huge number of bids during its first day of a 5 day auction. Check the current bid list - if the bidders all have a (0) or (1) transaction number, most likely, this is the seller's copycat accounts, jacking his own price up for his personal profit. This is a very common problem in Ebay, it's more of a nuscience since you will have to pay much more than intended for a product.
Overall, Ebay is an invaluable site - a place where you can find so many items from a span of decades of products. In my opinion, it is the most populated internet auction site, and I don't even bother with other competing online sites because of this.
Recommended:
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About the Author
Location: NJ, USA
Reviews written: 34
Trusted by: 1 member
About Me: Mid-level graphics designer, Marketing graduate
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