World's Garage Sale
Written: Jan 06 '01
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| Full Review |
E-Bay is the largest garage sale in the history of the world. A giant flea market so to speak.
And I love it.
From the selling side, this is simple and easy. The basic premise is that you need a login, and a credit card. The credit card allows E-Bay to charge you for the service. You are responsible for a listing fee ($.25 for an item which is listed for under $10.00). And then if it sells, you incur a cost of 5% of the price under $25.00. The service is very simple. You list it for a 3 days, 7 days or 10 days. Hopefully someone buys it - and you get a lot of bids in the process. At the end of the month E-Bay sends a bill to your credit card and they get paid.
Okay then, how about from the buyers side. This is easy as well. Login, bid and see if you win. Each item will have a current price. You enter how much you are willing to pay up to and the computer follows some simple rules from there. This is easy. There is a notification service that lets you know if you win, are winning or were winning and are now not winning. Easy.
How does the money work. Well this is simple and the best part of E-Bay. E-Bay does everything they can to make this a community approach. They have arranged the deal (matched a buyer and seller for an item that sold). They do everything to encourage the two of you to work it out. And they step out. It is really a value system of trust. A quantity that is hard to come by these days. They use a rating system and an arbitration group where needed to facilitate the transaction if required. While there is a small bit of buyer beware, most sellers are honest folks just moving some items.
For whatever it's worth it might be in your garage and worthless to you, but could be worth something to someone else. Remember, this is the whole world that is looking.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
Valpal
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Reviews written: 33
Trusted by: 5 members
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