1. Buying & Selling on

2. Buying & Selling on eBay
What is eBay?
eBay is an internationally accessible electronic auction site.
It is NOT a ‘gavel’ format auction where the auction ends when biders stop raising the offered amount, such as Christie’s or Sotheby’s.
Instead the auction runs for a specific time, such as exactly 7 days to the second from when the seller submitted the listing.
Buying & Selling on eBay

3. Buying & Selling on eBay
Register
You must have an account to buy or sell. It is free.
You need an to register.
Account name may NOT be an address.
Using PayPal is highly recommended as your credit card is never exposed to the seller. PayPal has a mechanism for verifying who you are.
eBay has a ‘feedback’ mechanism that displays the reliability of an individual. But remember that everyone starts with no reputation.
Buying & Selling on eBay

4. Buying & Selling on eBay
Auction Formats
Timed Auction – Auction is active for 7 days (to the second) from the time submitted by the seller. Highest bid when the time runs out wins.
Buy-It-Now – If the seller selects Buy It Now at listing time, then he/she is willing to sell it for a predefined amount. If you click the Buy-It-Now button the auction immediately ends and it is yours at that price. But if you put a regular bid in (lower than the B-I-N amount) then B-I-N disappears and it becomes a regular auction (i.e. 7-days from the time of submission.) Someone may outbid you.
I have seen instances where subsequent bidding takes it above the B-I-N amount!
I will not address eBay Stores or the rare Live Auctions (gavel).
Buying & Selling on eBay

5. Buying & Selling on eBay

6. Buying & Selling on eBay
I do not have an image of the back of the can. But I remember that it had an image and instructions as to how to use a ‘church key’ can opener.
After the auction completed if was explained that the product was introduced in summer of 1941 and discontinued in early 1942 when steel for beer cans was unavailable. It was only distributed in recyclable ‘amber’ (brown) glass bottles.
Buying & Selling on eBay

7. Buying & Selling on eBay

8. Buying & Selling on eBay
Searching
Upper/lower case is ignored.
Normal search only looks at the TITLE of the auction.
Advanced search has option to look in both the TITLE and DESCRIPTION.
Words in search are “AND”ed. Example: Sony DVD player will find things with all three words in any order.
Parenthesis define OR list. Example: (Sony,Panasonic) DVD player
Quotes require exact match on phrase. Example: “DVD player” the two words must be adjacent.
- means exclude word. Example: -manual would exclude any item with ‘manual’ in the search results. No space after the ‘-’.
Buying & Selling on eBay

9. Bid Increments & Proxy Bidding
BID INCREMENT / MINIMUM BID
If there is a current bid, you must increase by at least the current bid increment.
PROXY BIDDING
Note that if you increase by an amount greater than the bid increment, you have entered a PROXY bid. The visible amount of your bid will be the previous bid plus the increment. eBay will remember your proxy bid amount and automatically increase your bid up to that level if someone raises the bid amount.
Current Bid Increment
$ $ $0.05
$ $ $0.25
$ $ $0.50
$ $ $1.00
$ $ $2.50
$ $ $5.00
$ $ $10.00
$ $ $25.00
$ $ $50.00
$ and up $100.00
Buying & Selling on eBay

10. Buying & Selling on eBay
Bidding Case Study
Seller lists an item with starting bid at $25. Thus until/unless the bid exceeds $99.99 the bid increment will be $1.00.
Larry bids $27. He is shown as high bidder but
a$25 (not $27!)
Moe bids $26 and is immediately outbid at $27 when eBay executes Larry’s proxy (authorization) to take it to $27.
Curley bids $28 and becomes high bidder at $28
With 2 days to go, Larry decides it is really worth $35, bids $35, becomes high bidder at $29.
At the very last second of the auction Moe bids $30.
Who won the auction, and what did it go for?
Buying & Selling on eBay

11. Buying & Selling on eBay
Who won the case study?
Larry won the auction at $31 because he had an active proxy bid of $35 in place which was activated even though Moe made a last-second bid of $30.
The winner is NOT always the chronologically last person to make a bid.
The amount is (almost) always the minimum increment over the next higher bid. That may be the result of a proxy bid placed earlier in time.
The exception: Suppose Larry’’s proxy bid was $ His proxy would have kicked in after Moe’s last minute $30 bid and would still be honored and win the auction at $30.75.
Buying & Selling on eBay

12. Buying & Selling on eBay
Bidding Strategy
Decide what the item is worth to you. Use advanced search capability to see if there have been similar sales in the previous 90 days and how much they went for.
Place a proxy bid and then let it cook. You may get the item for less.
If someone out-bids the maximum you decided upon in item 1 then accept that it went for more than you would have been willing to pay.
Buying & Selling on eBay

13. Let’s Search for Something and Buy Something
Live demo of search.
To save some time*, I have captured the screens for a purchase I made in preparation of this session. It also includes the resultant s.
* Saving 7 days to be exact.
Buying & Selling on eBay

14. Buying & Selling on eBay
Rule 1: Don’t try to compete with Wal*mart.
Rule 2: Does it make sense to sell and ship? Can you box and carry it to a Post Office? e.g. It isn’t cost-effective to ship a blacksmith’s anvil.
Rule 3: Use Advanced Search to do a little market research. This will also help you decide on which category to use for your listing, opening bid, be sure to cover your shipping cost, etc.
Rule 4: Be realistic as to expectations.
Rule 5: Describe it accurately. Point out flaws if any, they may not prevent sale if you point them out, but are sure to cause problems if you don’t mention them. Include as many photographs as necessary to accurately describe the item.
Buying & Selling on eBay

15. Buying & Selling on eBay
Selling Costs
Back when I was very active (600+ auctions) eBay had an ‘insertion fee’ – a fee for placing an auction whether it sold or not. It started at $0.10 and was tied to the starting bid.
Now you may place up to 50 auctions a month at no cost for placing the listing.
eBay previously charged for images that they hosted (actually a 3rd party service). Now you get up to 12 free. Alternatively you may link to your own image storage.
Upon making a sale, eBay charges 10% of the total sale, including shipping charges.
Buying & Selling on eBay

16. Selling Demonstration
Again, to save time, I have captured the screens used in placing a listing and the subsequent s from eBay, PayPal, and perhaps the buyer.
Because I am an experienced seller, eBay switched me to their ‘experienced seller’ forms and I can’t go back.
Beginners get a simpler form (fewer options.) So you won’t see many of the things that I just left blank.
Buying & Selling on eBay