How to use ebay auctions

It was just a few short years ago, that this little dot-com auction site with the funny little name suddenly took the world by storm, and turned the online retailing experience on its head.  Ebay is, according to their own site's description: 'The World's Online Marketplace for the sale of goods and services by a diverse community of individuals and businesses'.

Simply put, ebay is a place where individual buyers and sellers can meet on the web, to buy and sell goods & services directly with other individuals.  Transactions occur through online auctions where the high bidder at the end of a set time period wins. 

Bidders place a bid through proxy bidding, which is an incremental bidding system on ebay which will automatically bid up to the person's maximum in steps, or until the highest bid amount for the auction has been achieved.  The maximum bid is only known to the bidder, and a bidder wins if they have the high bid at the auction end.  If a bidder's high bid does not beat all other bids, they don't win the item.

The buyer is responsible for meeting the terms of the auction (shipping and payment method) and paying for the item in a timely fashion, as per the auction description.  The seller is responsible for 'order fulfillment', or getting the product shipped to the buyer.  Auctions are held in the traditional, English style; there are also 'reserve price', Buy It Now, Dutch and Fixed-price formats available.

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Read more:

Page 1: ebay auctions: An Introduction

Page 2:  How do I use ebay?

Page 3:  What kind of stuff can I find on ebay?

Page 4:  Auction Feedback: Earning Trust Online

Page 5:  ebay Beginners Guide to Avoiding Auction Fraud

Page 6:  Why are ebay online auctions so popular?

Page 7:  Intro to Ebay stores

Page 8: The Power of Ebay Search