The Independent Guide to Ebay

CHAPTER
1
6
Buying
GETTING
Through
eBay
READY
Let’s take a look at eBay from the buyers’ perspective now. What
should you do if you’re looking to pick up a bargain or two?
Finding Your Dream Item
On eBay
To bag an eBay bargain, you first have to find it. The
ubiquitous eBay ‘search’ box can yield an impractically
long and unfocused list of results. Filtering out
inappropriate auctions - and sellers - is essential to
good eBaying…
Memorabilia instead of in the DVD category. Adding
extra categories to an auction listing costs the
seller more and they may not bother. The item may
also comprise part of a ‘Lot’ of diverse items, or be
miscategorised by mistake, so use this feature with
care.
S earch i n g By Title An d D escr i pti o n
By default, eBay searches only the short ‘Title’
description of auction items. If your search word only
exists within the description of an auction therefore,
that auction will not appear in your search results
- and it could be just the item you are seeking.
However, once your initial search results
are displayed, you can tick the ‘Search Title and
Description’ box and repeat the search.
With descriptions included, search results may
multiply alarmingly, frequently on account of sellers
who practice Keyword Spamming (we’ll be talking
about that a little later) in their listings.
You can narrow down your search by adding
extra keywords (such as walnut cupboard instead of
cupboard), but this may remove as many interesting
and valid auctions as ‘spam’ auctions. A better
approach is to use the Search Commands that eBay
provides within its search facility.
Us i n g Categ o r i es
One obvious way to streamline bloated search-results
is to select an appropriate category from the dropdown menu next to the search-box, at the top of your
results page.
Unfortunately many eBay listings remain
miscategorised; a very rare and sought-after
DVD may, for instance, end up in Entertainment
Lo cal Vs G lo bal
More than 150 countries participate in eBay, but
search results from ebay.co.uk will not automatically
include listings from non-UK auctions (unless the
sellers have specifically included the UK as a target
market for their item).
There are good reasons to begin your search
‘locally’ - items won may arrive quicker, affordable
courier services are available for larger items and
you may be able to pay for your win by cheque, postal
order or Nochex as well as PayPal. You can also
search for items within a certain distance from where
you live, and pick them up in person if the seller
agrees.
However the UK is a relatively small marketplace
with a price levy often reflected in eBay auctions,
and associated postal costs that can often dwarf
overseas shipping tariffs for smaller items. Even with
international shipping, your item may be available
cheaper abroad, or may never have been available
here (such as rare editions in the fields of music,
movies, books and magazines).
B i dd i n g O n Ite m s Fr o m N o n-UK S e llers
You can include world-sellers in your eBay searches
(see ‘Advanced Search’), but there are special
considerations to take into account when bidding on
Did you know
eBay sells a car every
60 seconds and a book
every 2.5 seconds.
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▲ narrowbycategory.tif Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
non-UK auctions.
Will the seller deliver to the UK? Check
the item’s Shipping And Handling section - if you can
click on ‘United Kingdom’ in the drop-down list, the
seller will ship here and has provided a price. If not,
check the listing itself - it may provide information
as to where the seller is willing to ship their item.
Otherwise you can use the ‘Ask Seller a Question’ link
to ask about the possibility and cost of shipping to the
UK.
D e livery
If the seller does not accept (or you do not
use) PayPal, how can a win be paid for? Wire transfer
services such as Western Union and Moneygram
are no longer permitted at eBay, while international
money orders can be costly and may not be acceptable
to the seller. Sending currency-exchanged cash in the
post is against eBay regulations and leaves you with
no redress in disputes over payment and delivery.
Shortly, we’ll see how to limit worldwide eBay search
results to sellers that accept PayPal.
Paym e nt
eBay will warn you if you are
sending a question to a seller from a non-Englishspeaking section of eBay. Unless you speak the
seller’s language, keep all communications brief
- the responsibility rests with you if you fall foul of
terms, conditions or information that were explained
in a listing (or correspondence) that you couldn’t
▲ internationalshipping.tif
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The Lan g uag e Barr i er
understand.
Online translation services such as Babelfish
(world.altavista.com) and Google Translate (www.
google.com/translate_t) can help when corresponding
with non-USA foreign sellers, but they do not cover
eBay Search Commands
Aim
Method
Example
Exclude several keywords from a search
Put a minus sign after your keyword and then
a list of comma-separated words in brackets.
There must be no space after each comma.
Genesis -(sega,bible,trek,manga,snorkel)
OR
Genesis -sega –bible –trek –manga -snorkel
OR
Add each excluded word after your search
term preceded by a dash (-).
There must be a space between each
‘excluded’ term and NO space between the
dash and the word it is excluding.
Find an exact phrase
Put the words in full quotes (“)
“New Order”
Find at least one of two (or more) words
Group the comma-separated words in
parentheses (no spaces after the comma).
(hammer,nails,screwdriver)
Will return search results containing ANY of the above words
Find auctions containing words that
begin with a certain sequence of letters
Append an asterisk (*) to the search-term
record*
Will find auctions containing record, records, recorder, recording, recorded etc
Find auctions with a specific spelling of
a search-term
Enclose the word in quotations (“).
“record”
Will exclude auctions containing ‘records’ in title or description
Find two (or more) words without ‘autoexpanding’ search results
Enclose a possible category-word in
quotations (“).
If one of your keywords is recognised by eBay as pertaining to an eBay
category, your search may be ‘automatically expanded’ to search for the
remaining words in that category.
For example, the search Bruce Willis DVD may ‘auto-include’ irrelevant results in
the DVD category that contain Bruce or Willis, i.e. Bruce Almighty.
The search Bruce Willis “DVD” will only return pertinent results that actually
contain the word DVD.
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GETTING
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eBay
READY
▲ Seek out mis-spelt bargains at fatfingers.co.uk
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▲ Saved searches remember all your custom search options
and results can be e-mailed to you daily
all possible languages and are best used for short
and simple phrases. They can also produce muddled
results.
Mindful of these caveats, foreign-language eBay
auctions can be a good opportunity to find soughtafter items with fewer competing bidders: simply run
your translated keyword through an online translation
service and do a ‘rest of the world’ search (see
‘Advanced Search’).
chapter.
‘Typ o’ bar gai n s
Sometimes sellers mistype (or don’t know how to
spell) a word when placing a listing at eBay; the
resultant ‘nonsense’ word (such as ‘cuboard’ instead
of ‘cupboard’) will never end up in a bidding war - or
even in search results. You can take advantage of the
low visibility of these auctions by hunting out typos
and mis-spelt words in your searches.
Many sites offer eBay ‘typo’ searches, where you
can search eBay directly for a wide range of possible
mis-spellings. Two of the most popular are www.
fatfingers.co.uk and www.typozay.co.uk (which even
offers search plug-ins for users of the Firefox web
browser), and there is a full listing at the end of this
Advan ced search
Power-bidders and buyers belong on the ‘Advanced
Search’ page, where you can broaden your search
results to include sellers worldwide, and specify many
other options to focus down your search and zero in
on a potential bargain.
To get started, click on the ‘advanced search’
link to the right of the search-box at the top of your
results, or go to search.ebay.co.uk and click on the
‘Advanced search’ link.
At the top of Advanced Search,
you can apply some of the Search Commands we
came across earlier without needing to use any of
the special formatting (see ‘ebay Search Commands’
table).
S earch co m man ds
The ‘completed listings’
checkbox lets you search for auctions that have
finished, a useful indicator of prices you can expect to
pay for items that you are currently seeking. It is also
a good way to locate sellers who are suitable for you
Vi ew e n ded au cti o n s
▲ AdvancedSearchLINK.tif Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
▲ Apply Search Commands naturally on eBay’s Advanced Search page
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▲ AddToFaves.tif xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
▲ (Top) AllZonmes.tif xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
▲ (Middle) Before and after clicking the deceptive ‘Show All’ link
▲ (Bottom) Find a local bargain at eBay with Advanced Search
▲ wantitnow.tif xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
but may not currently be offering any merchandise.
reputations (more about this later).
Saved searches are a useful way
of repeating an advanced search at a later date. Save
your custom search by ticking the ‘Save this search to
my eBay’ option in Advanced Search, or with the ‘Save
this search’ link near the top of your results.
Saved searches have their own section in ‘My
eBay’, and you can subscribe to them, receiving the
initial ten results from any saved search by daily
e-mail.
S pec i fy se llers
Save the search
In the ‘Items Priced’ boxes
you can put minimum and maximum prices for item
listings. The ‘minimum’ option is useful for excluding
the thousands of worthless ‘one cent’ auctions that
some unscrupulous sellers employ to boost their own
If you are looking for items from
a particular eBay seller, you can type in their eBay
ID here (you will need to know exactly what it is). You
can also use the ‘Exclude’ option in the drop-down
box to make sure that a particular seller’s items do
not appear in your results. Currently you can only
‘blacklist’ one seller per-search in this way.
If you have built up a list of Favourite Sellers
(see ‘Other search methods’), you can also specify to
search their auctions only.
S pec i fy a pr i ce ran g e
Here, finally, we can search
beyond the UK by selecting ‘worldwide’ from the dropdown list in the ‘Location’ section.
Be warned that results pages using this option
have a misleading ‘Show All’ link attached to them.
Press it, and the number of items actually shrinks!
The link reduces the scope of your custom search
back to UK-only.
The ‘Items located in’ section lets you specify a
geographical location for the item. You can choose
any country that eBay deals with from the drop-down
list, but this is most useful for when you are seeking
I n c lu de the wo r ld!
Did you know
At any given time, there
are around 44 million
items available on eBay
worldwide. Roughly four
million new items are
added each day.
▲ Check out the latest listings via Google Reader or
any RSS aggregator
◀ Look for this icon to add an RSS feed for a search
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READY
▲ fave_sellers_MYEBAY.tif
▲ Check out all of a seller’s negative feedback at a glance at Toolhaus
UK-based items.
If you want to include foreign listings from only
those sellers who explicitly ship to the UK, leave
the ‘Items available to’ drop-down list at ‘United
Kingdom’, but be aware that you exclude many UKfriendly foreign sellers by doing so (see ‘ Bidding on
items from non-UK sellers’).
and keep track of new listings via Google Reader,
Live Bookmarks in Firefox, the new RSS features
in Internet Explorer 7 or your own favourite RSS
aggregator. You can set a feed to be updated as often
as you like; it’s a good way to keep on top of new Buy
It Now offers, which can close within minutes of first
being listed.
Other o pti o n s i n Advan ced S earch
Other S earch Meth o ds
•Find PayPal-listed items only
•Find Buy It Now items only (no bidding necessary)
•Find items that are located near you (UK version
Want It N ow
At pages.ebay.com/wantitnow you can
let eBay sellers know about items that you are looking
for, and optionally post a picture as a guideline.
- you gave eBay your postcode when you signed up)
•Specify whether the items are new or used
•Find items that have a minimum and/or maximum
number of existing bids (you can use ‘zero’ for both
if you want)
The s i debar
eBay displays a yellow Search Options sidebar to the
left of search results; here you can toggle advanced
options and further refine your search. You can
customise the sidebar to include only the parts of
Advanced Search that you want to use regularly by
clicking the ‘customize’ link.
Add any seller or eBay shop
to your Favourite Sellers list by clicking the ‘Add To
Favourite Sellers’ link in the top-right of an item
listing. eBay can optionally send you regular e-mails
with new listings from your Favourite Sellers, who
also have their own page in ‘My eBay’ where you can
find them again easily and even add notes about them.
Favo u r ite S e llers
Whether you won or lost an
auction at eBay, why not get in touch with the seller
and let them know if you are looking for something
specific? Serious sellers will be glad to have a readymade potential buyer for new listings.
S e ller Co m m u n i cati o n
Trac k li sti n g s via R SS
Did you know
eBay no longer allows
the sale of accounts,
characters, currency and
items from massively
multiplayer online
role-playing games such
as World of Warcraft
or EverQuest. This is
because such sales are
generally illegal under
the games’ Terms of
Service.
104
You can subscribe to a ‘live’ RSS feed for any search,
Is It C heaper E lsewhere?
▲ feedbackprofile.tif
▲ Check out all of a seller’s negative feedback at a glance at
Toolhaus
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Check out the ‘regular’ commercial outlets for your
item before hitting the eBay listings. Are you sure that
special edition DVD isn’t available on Play or Amazon,
brand-new and cheaper than the lowest starting price
on eBay…?
C hec ki n g S e ller Feedbac k B efo re
B i dd i n g
Every time an item sells, the seller and buyer leave
mutual feedback - and a rating - about each other
regarding the transaction. Feedback can be positive,
negative or neutral, and can also be withdrawn by
mutual agreement. We’ve covered it in more depth
elsewhere in this guide. The total number of items
sold and bought by the seller is displayed in brackets
next to their name in the item’s listing - click on it to
go to their Feedback Profile.
The ‘Positive Feedback’ percentage is the seller’s
‘reputation’. Below 98%, it’s worth considering
whether you want to do business with them, but this
is modified by how many total sales and purchases
are represented. There is no way of checking only
negative feedback at eBay itself, but you can input the
user’s ID at www.toolhaus.org to see a full listing of
their negatives.
Q uality Of Feedbac k
Check one or two of the ‘View Item’ links in the
seller’s Feedback Profile. Many eBayers augment
their reputation by buying ‘one cent’ lots which
automatically grant positive feedback; such auctions
are ‘selling good reputation’ in volume. Certain sellers
manage also to maintain more than one eBay account
with the intention of ‘selling’ feedback to themselves
- this trick is easy to spot with a little investigation of a
Feedback Profile: look for numerous low-value items
from the same seller, often digital goods such as
‘guides’ in PDF and Microsoft Word format.
has done this a symbol will appear next to their name:
Feedback is carried over from the old ID, but an
auction where the seller is in the process of switching
identity could mean that they are trying to start over
at eBay. Why? Tucked away in the ‘More options’
drop-down menu in Feedback Profile is the ‘View ID
History’ option, which will quickly reveal a long history
of identity changes.
The R eal D eal
There is no pervasively useful method to identify fake
goods across all listings in eBay, since signs of bad
faith vary greatly across types of item, but here are
some considerations:
•If it’s too good to be true, it isn’t true, particularly
for Buy It Now items. Maybe a cuckolded wife really
is selling her husband’s Porsche for a dollar, but
avoid items listed at significantly below market
value.
•Does the listing have a ‘generic’ picture that you
have seen before? eBay supplies stock images
for DVD, CDs and certain other types of listing to
sellers, but a ‘domestic’ picture of the item listed is
a more encouraging sign, though not an infallible
mark of authenticity.
•Does the listing explicitly state what the item is?
You could be bidding on the very picture you are
examining, rather than the item it displays! The
devil is in the details, and nothing protects you
better than a careful reading of the listing.
eBayers can change their user ID, and if your seller
Boosting profits by overcharging for postage is known
as ‘scalping’, and the ‘Shipping and Handling’ section
in each item listing should state clearly what you will
pay to have the item sent to you. If it does not, check
the listing, and use the ‘Ask the seller a question’ link
to ascertain exact postal charges if necessary. If the
seller is vague in response, pin them down, and if they
▲ At the time of writing, Spiderman 3 was barely out of the
cinemas. This item will be sent ‘in a plastic sleeve without case’
- but your seller may give less indication than that of counterfeit
▲ Check out all of a seller’s negative feedback at a glance at
Toolhaus
C han g ed Ide ntity
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tetummod tisl dolorem zzriurerci bla feugait ad dolorti nciduisi.
Smart Bidding - And
Good Buying
So you’ve found your item; now it’s time to bid and win
it. But there are some tricks to master before the item
is in your hands and all parties are leaving positive
feedback for each other.
Waiting until the last few minutes -or seconds- of an
auction to place your bid is known as ‘sniping’ (there’s
a list of sniping websites and software towards the
end of this book). Last-minute bidding gives your
rivals no chance to bid higher, but this technique
cannot defeat a bidder whose secret top-bid is higher
than yours. The best way to ensure a win is to bid as
much as you are willing to pay for the item - if you
lose, it will usually be by a much higher margin than it
appears, as eBay augments bids in small increments,
and all top-bids are secret until outbid. The top-bid of
a winner is known only to them.
Watching’ page in My eBay.
The hit-counter is usually visible to all, but only
the seller knows how many people are ‘watching’ the
item; if sufficient ‘watchers’ gather, the seller may
be encouraged to augment the listing and attempt
to attract further buyers. The only safe way to track
a listing without hiking up the hit-counter or adding
to the number of ‘watchers’, is to chase it through
the ever-shifting pages of the search results through
which you found the item in the first place. If you
bookmark the listing and check it regularly your own
‘hit’ is counted once a day.
However, nothing can turn an unregarded listing
into a frantic bidding war more effectively than when it
is bid on very early in its run. Many eBayers search for
items based on the existing number of bids, so even if
you’re not planning to ‘snipe’, don’t bid on an item too
early.
Odd b i ds
e Bay fever
Most eBayers place bids in rounded-off amounts, but
sometimes you really can win an auction by a margin
of a few pennies, so make your bids in odd amounts
such as £11.67 or £7.89.
When an item you’ve been seeking for years suddenly
shows up at eBay, it’s surprisingly easy to ignore all
preceding advice and get caught up in the excitement.
If you bid (or buy) recklessly, you can end up with an
overseas item that you are unable to pay for due to
the seller’s payment methods or for other practical
reasons; the only recourse then is to contact the seller
via the ‘Ask the seller a question’ link, explain what
happened, and offer to pay the cost of a relisting.
The seller remains entitled to wait 30 days and open
a dispute for non-payment, so examine alternative
payment methods if possible and keep it courteous,
since the fault is with you.
Retracting a bid is rarely permitted, and only
usually allowed to withdraw substantially mis-typed
amounts bid (i.e. entering £1010 instead of $10.10).
A bid on eBay is a binding contract. For an overview
of eBay’s policy, see: pages.ebay.com/help/policies/
invalid-bid-retraction.html
S n i pi n g
S i le nt r u n n i n g
The more attention an auction receives, the more
likely a costly bidding war is - great for the seller,
not so great for you. A listing has three possible
‘attracting forces’ - a bidder, a hit-counter (if the
seller has put one in the listing) and the number of
people who add the listing to their ‘watch’ list in order
to monitor the auction’s progress from the ‘Items I’m
Did you know
A human kidney was put
up for auction in August
1999. The bids went up
to $5 million before eBay
spotted it and pulled the
listing.
Co rresp o n d i n g via e Bay
▲ Choose the right option when corresponding with sellers
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Corresponding with sellers outside of the eBay
messaging system is ill-advised; if all your
correspondence remains within eBay, you have a clear
history to present in the event of dispute arbitration.
Take it to e-mail, and you’re on your own. The ‘Ask the
seller a question’ message form has a tick-box which
▲ PayNow.tif xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
lets you choose to hide your e-mail address from the
recipient, and this is the easiest way to keep your
messages in eBay itself.
The form also has four options in a drop-down list
to indicate whether your enquiry concerns payment,
combined-shipping for multiple items, shipping or is
a general enquiry. Since you have to choose one of
these options in order to send a message, choose the
right one - a busy seller may respond more quickly if
you do.
S i de-steppi n g e Bay
Do not approach sellers with offers outside of
the eBay listings system. It is against the rules,
and auctions can only be ended early in unusual
circumstances. If you are interested in buying similar
items ‘off-site’ from the seller in future, they may be
interested in dealing with you, but the seller cannot
cancel an auction in progress, cannot privately offer
you the safeguards eBay does and would probably
prefer to see someone as enthusiastic as you bidding
hard against others in a regular eBay auction!
D u pli cate b i dd i n g
Do not place bids on multiple listings of the same item
in the hope of winning one of them. If you win them
all, you will have to pay for them all.
U nwe lco m e b i ds
Do you qualify to bid for an item? If you can’t meet
the seller’s terms for a listing, they have the power
to cancel your bid and bring down penalties upon you
from eBay administration. These can include account
suspension and loss of ‘Power Seller’ status.
▲ eBayPayPalPayment1_selectMethod.tif xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
not oblige the seller to use PayPal as the payment
method for their listing/s).
‘Malicious buying’ is deemed by eBay to occur when a
buyer:
•bids far beyond an item’s value to ‘prevent’ serious
bids and block the sale
•bids on multiple items from one seller with no real
intent to buy
•bids on a seller’s item after being placed on their
‘blocked bidder’ list
Payi n g fo r yo u r wi n
When you finally win an auction-listing, you will
receive two notification e-mails from eBay: one to
confirm your win, and one soliciting payment on
behalf of the seller. Both will contain a big ‘Pay Now’
button, as will the item listing and the ‘Items I’ve Won’
page in My eBay.
Press it, and you will be asked to select a
method of payment (the methods available will be in
accordance with those of the original listing).
You will be asked to confirm shipping details
and to add postage to the invoice if this has not
automatically been done. Take care to input the
correct postage. Postage is usually charged in the
seller’s native currency, but you may need to translate
the agreed postage amount in order to input it (try the
Universal Currency Converter at www.xe.com/ucc).
You can also add an optional note to the seller at this
point, and change the shipping address by selecting
another from your eBay Saved Addresses or adding a
new one.
Sellers can refuse bids from buyers on their ‘blocked
bidder’ list, and for many other reasons. So long as
these are clearly stated within the listing itself, you
will have to respect them. Sellers may choose to ‘ban’
bidders who:
•Have negative feedback comments.
•Have a ‘non-domestic’ shipping address.
•Have received Unpaid Item Strikes in an after-sales
dispute.
•Do not have a PayPal account (though this does
▲ Add the correct postage - if it is not already included in the
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Payi n g D i rect Fr o m PayPal
In certain circumstances - usually when you have
arranged unusual terms with a foreign seller - you
may find that your only options for inputting postage
are inappropriate drop-down lists of ‘domestic’
packing rates. In this case you will need to contact
the seller and ask them to change the automated
payment procedure from their end. If this proves
problematic, and PayPal is acceptable to your seller,
you can still use PayPal’s Send Money feature to
conclude the auction, without losing the security of
an eBay acknowledgement that you have paid for
your win. However, you will need the seller’s e-mail
address:
1)Log in to your PayPal account and click the ‘Send
Money’ tab
2)Click on ‘eBay item’ in the ‘For…?’ section and type
your eBay user ID and the auction number
3)Enter the seller’s e-mail address in the ‘To’ field or
(if you previously transacted with the seller) select it
from the drop-down list underneath.
4)Enter the winning amount including postage and
click ‘Continue’ - then confirm on the next page.
The item will be acknowledged as ‘paid’ in My eBay.
Payi n g With o ut PayPal
▲ Pay for your win directly from the PayPal site
PayPal is an eBay subsidiary company, and using it
to pay for an eBay win means that you are covered
for up to £500 through the PayPal Buyer Protection
Program (see ‘Damage Limitation’). Since no other
eBay payment method can guarantee this, PayPal is
arguably the best choice to complete auctions.
However PayPal has many detractors, and if
you need to complete by other means, the options
permitted (though not necessarily endorsed) by eBay
are:
•Pers o nal C heq u e Convenient and can be stopped
if necessary (for varying fees); traceable;
•C red it/ D eb it Card The seller may have their
own checkout system, integrated (often poorly)
into eBay’s own payment procedures. Credit card
payments additionally have varying -and limitedliability insurance for physical items. Be sure that
your auction payment is acknowledged by eBay
afterwards, as this fails to happen more often
through bad coding than ill-intent.
•P ostal Orders Convenient, but almost as
transparent as cash.
•Ban k Tran sfer A favourite in European
transactions, but involves sharing banking
information with a third party. Refunds can be very
problematic.
Did you know
A Seattle man tried to
sell his soul on eBay
in February 2001. The
bidding reached $400
before the auction was
pulled.
▲ Pay for your win directly from the PayPal site
issue may exceed the item’s value.
•E-cheq u e Slightly faster clearing than physical
cheques, but if you are able to send one, you might
as well use PayPal.
•Escr ow Only practical for higher amounts. Both
▲ Pay for your win directly from the PayPal site
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•Ban ker’s D raft For higher-value items; fees for
TH E U LTI MATE G U I DE TO DIGITAL PHOTOG R APHY
parties have to be happy with the transaction before
money is released - www.escrow.com.
The P o liti cs Of Feedbac k
•Cash Caveat Emptor - but if you must use it, send
the package well wrapped (with opaque lining)and
by a method whereby the receiver must sign for it.
I nter nati o nal M o n ey Orders
Citibank and certain other trans-national banks used
to make International Money Orders a relatively easy
option. These days the term has little meaning, and
generally sellers are actually talking about cheques
from international banks that are to be specified in
the seller’s native currency (usually dollars). Such
services are impractically expensive for small wins.
Leavi n g Feedbac k
Many sections of My eBay will ask you to leave
feedback on transacted auctions - and the seller will
remind you if no-one else does!
Sellers may leave positive feedback on you as
soon as you pay for your item, but wait until you have
the item in your grasp and are happy with it - feedback
and ratings given cannot be amended later (see ‘The
Politics Of Feedback ‘).
There is nothing to stop your seller from reciprocating
any negative feedback you leave them; the rights and
wrongs of the case are not apparent when a potential
buyer or seller notices that your Reputation is below
100%. There is no arbitration for ‘unfair’ negative
feedback, though both parties can mutually withdraw
their feedback at: pages.ebay.co.uk/help/account/
withdraw-feedback.html (this does not erase any
comments either party has left).
You can report negative feedback that
violates eBay policy at: pages.ebay.co.uk/help/
policies/feedback-abuse-withdrawal.html, but the
requirements are rigid and do not cover post-auction
disputes.
You can also answer negative feedback directly via
Damag e Li m itati o n
If you do not receive your item, or the item is
significantly different from its listing description,
contact the seller about the matter in the first
instance - an amicable solution is often possible,
retaining good-will and avoiding bad feedback for
either party.
One of the top causes of disputes is non-delivery
- usually due to items being lost or stolen in the
post. The only way to avoid this is to have them sent
insured at greater expense, thus protecting both
buyer and seller. Unfortunately this can obviate the
‘bargain’ value of eBay and, in practice, an enormous
number of eBay items are consigned to the basic
postal system (often of more than one country) every
day. Nonetheless verify the address used and date
of actual posting from the seller, and ensure that
adequate time has been allowed for the item to arrive.
For items covered by PayPal’s Buyer Protection
Program, advantage is with the buyer if an uninsured
item does not arrive or does not match its listing
description; you can open a dispute from My eBay
within 10-60 days of payment.
As ever, maintain any correspondence via eBay,
not e-mail. The seller has ten days to respond, but if
no satisfactory agreement is reached, you can elevate
your dispute to a claim. The seller’s account may
be limited or even suspended if a claim is granted,
and funds are usually recovered and credited back
to your PayPal account. If your dispute concerned
fraud and the purchase was covered by eBay Standard
Purchase Protection, you can then apply for additional
compensation up to £120, though a £15 administration
fee applies. See: pages.ebay.co.uk/help/community/
fpp.html for more details.
▲ summaryFEEDBACK.tif
▲ FeedbackGIVING.tif
▲ If the seller will not help, you can open a dispute about your
missing or misdescribed item
TH E U LTI MATE G U I DE TO DIGITAL PHOTOG R APHY
109
CHAPTER
1
6
Buying
GETTING
Through
eBay
READY
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tetummod tisl dolorem zzriurerci bla feugait ad dolorti nciduisi.
Combining Multiple
Purchases From The
From March of 2007 eBay allowed its (initially USbased) sellers to offer ‘Combined Shipping Discounts’,
a versatile but very confusing grab-bag of possible
shipping discounts that can be applied to multiple
purchases. The announcement and reactions to
it can be seen at: forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.
jspa?threadID=1000462607
By the 30th post, one begins to get an idea of the
almost unlimited variables involved in automating
Combined Shipping. In all likelihood, eBay auctions
that offer discounts on shipping for multiple items
will continue to require a measure of personal
correspondence between buyer and seller, and this
is easy enough with the ‘Ask Seller A Question’ link:
simply select ‘Question about Combined Shipping for
multiple items’ from the drop-down list and make
your enquiry.
N o ‘S h o ppi n g Bas ket’
The problems begin when the seller attempts to
automate the process or let eBay do it on their behalf,
and this is particularly so with North American
sellers, who have the widest range of postagecalculating tools built into their listing templates.
Many of these tools can auto-calculate combined
shipping to the UK, usually via the UPS shipping
service, but all of them require deviations from
standard eBay practice regarding paying for items:
as yet eBay has no ubiquitous ‘shopping basket’ a la
Amazon, and when you win an item or ‘Commit To
Buy’ it, there is no consideration for other items you
may have bought or wish to buy from the same seller.
You still receive an automated e-mail from eBay (and
possibly the seller) adjuring you to pay for the item
immediately, even though doing so makes combined
shipping virtually impossible.
C u sto m s o luti o n s
Many eBay power-sellers have invested in software
solutions that provide a ‘shopping basket’ for you
behind the scenes - when eBay informs them of a new
sale of one of their items, they will invite you to pay for
the item, but inform you that you may take advantage
of shipping discounts for multiple items purchased.
Committing to further items from that seller will
add your deliveries to the seller’s own Amazon-style
list, with combined shipping calculated, and the final
payment procedure may take place via eBay checkout
(if the seller has integrated their system directly into
it) or at the seller’s site (if the seller has their own
checkout software).
Sellers who offer such services will usually
also mention them in their listings, along with (often
tedious) instructions as to how to proceed in order to
not lose the combined shipping. Read and follow these
carefully, as they vary widely from seller to seller.
Any custom-checkout should send eBay an
acknowledgement of payment for all your items
automatically, but make sure that this is done shortly
after payment for your multiple items, and contact the
seller otherwise.
Co m b i n ed S h i ppi n g - G u i de li n es
Did you know
The oft-repeated factoid
that eBay was launched
to help its founder’s
fiancée trade PEZ Candy
dispensers is an urban
myth. The story was
made up by a publicity
company to generate
media interest.
110
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TH E U LTI MATE G U I DE TO DIGITAL PHOTOG R APHY
If you intend to take advantage of any combined
shipping deals a seller is offering, do not pay for any
single item from them until you have ‘claimed’ all
the items from their listings or store that you intend
to buy (‘claim’ meaning securing an item by either
winning it in an auction or pressing ‘Commit To Buy’
on a Buy It Now listing).
1)Read, carefully, what terms the seller is offering on
combined postage for an item you mean to buy - if
any automatic postage calculations should fall short
after you have won or committed to buy the item,
the seller will have to honour the postage that they
offered - by other means if necessary- and you are
likely to win any eventual dispute on the matter.
2)Ensure that shipping terms are consistent across all
the same-seller listings that you intend to bid on or
buy. Calculate the combined postage based on the
listing’s stated rates and ‘claim’ your items.
If you are bidding on multiple or sequential auctions
and hoping to combine postage on successive wins,
be aware that the first item won is payable within 30
days of a winning bid or commitment to buy.
3)You are likely to receive more than one (usually
automated) e-mail from eBay requesting payment
for each item as you win (or Commit To Buy) it. If
you do so before all the items are ‘in the basket’,
you risk to lose some or all of your combined
shipping discount.
4)When all your items are claimed, check out the
most recent automated e-mail from the seller for
details of how to combine shipping. If the calculation
is to be done via eBay checkout itself, check that
eBay’s combined estimate corresponds with the
seller’s advertised deal. Check also that the rates
are appropriately UK or international, depending on
seller location.
Payi n g fo r PayPal ite m s fr o m d i ffere nt
se llers
Do not confuse combined shipping with combined
payment. If you have won several eBay items from
different sellers, but not paid for them yet, you can
click the ‘Pay For All PayPal Items’ link in My eBay.
Any items not listed with PayPal will not be
included in the combined payment. If there are
multiple items in the list from one seller from whom
you wish to obtain a shipping discount, remove them
from the list before making your combined payment
- they will need to be dealt with separately.
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111