PayPal
Before one can start buying items they will have to create a PayPal account. PayPal is an online bank that almost all sellers use. If one does not use PayPal then you really cannot buy off of eBay. Signing up to PayPal is free and quick. All you have to do is provide your name, email, address, phone, and make up a password. Now to use your PayPal to buy items on eBay, one will have to register their credit card or bank account info. Don’t worry PayPal is secure like you online bank accounts.
You're a member
With your PayPal set up you can now start buying on eBay. Keep reading below for buying strategies and terms.
The Search
To search for items just type in whatever your looking for in the search bar. Try to spell it correctly because eBay does not have good spell guessers. Also the longer the item name the less results that come up.
Buying
There are three ways to buy items off of eBay; auction, best offer, or buy it now.
Auction- can last 1-10 days and buyers place bids for the itmes. Buy it Now- is usually more expensive but one can purchase an item right away. Best offer- you put the amount that you’re willing to pay and the buyer can choose to accept it.
Bidding
When looking at items one can see how many bids are on an item. Some items have what is called reserved prices on them. This will show up if bids have not surpassed the price of what the serller wants. Reserved prices usually deter potential buyers because they get frustrated when they keep making bids and the price still says reserved price has not been met.
Automatic Bids are those made by the computer and not by a person. For example a Sega Dreamcast is going for $5. You decide to raise the bids to $20. On eBay it will only show that the current bid is $6.50. When someone else puts in $7 the computer will say that they have been out bid and the bid price will go up. This will continue until someone bids more than the $20 and the computer will stop placing bids for you.
The last seconds
eBay can be frustrating on how many items one loses at the last minute. If you really want to win items on eBay you’ll have to wait to put in your bids in the last minute.
Buying Do’s and Don’ts
Do read everything about items. One can sell almost anything and because of that the buyer has to be careful. Yes you can get an iPod super cheap, but make sure it says working and not broken.
Don’t place a bid until you check out the shipping. Many sellers from foreign nations sells their items for cheap prices, but charge high shipping fees.
Watch List
One can put an item on their watch list to keep an eye on how much time until the auction ends and how much it the price is currently at.
Ebay Bucks
eBay Bucks is a rewards program that gives you money every time you make a purchase. After a couple of months eBay sends you an eBay Bucks code worth how much you earned to spend on items.
Purcha$ing
When one wins an item on eBay they have to check out by going through eBay which then takes them to their PayPal account to pay.