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Warning -- broken links
This page is always under construction
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Joining ebay
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Sending cash in the mail - it's easier than you think
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Paypal ripped me off
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Judee Sill's first CD - still looking...
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I've caught up on some old books we wanted, some of them fairly rare, for Nancy and myself. I've picked up most of the obscure music I used to listen to in my teens and twenties, from Yusef Lateef to Ten Year's After to Aphrodite's Child.
Quite by accident one time, I was looking around and stumbled on to uncleaned ancient coins. It is exactly what it sounds like, and you can get coins from people digging this stuff (usually Roman coins, sometimes Greek) up in Europe, what with all the metal detection technology now. They're not even that rare. They've been hiding in the ground for 1500 to 2000+ years.
But this is not the point. ebay empowers anyone with a computer and a mailbox to buy and sell items, often cheaply and always conveniently. Think about something you want (be sure you really want it) and start searching on ebay. The more words to describe what you want, such as "Adam-12 lunch box" will narrow down the search field. Usually punctuation is ignored.
You must be a member to participate. ebay doesn't handle your cash, you deal directly with others who have track records called "feedback". A seller's feedback can be viewed, and you can see comments by anyone who has ever had dealings with this person. The more, the better. A couple of negatives are okay, but any more than that and I start getting nervous, especially if they're recent (past 6 months).
If you've never done an ebay auction, but are eager to, well... what's stopping you? Ya gotta start somewhere. You need to establish a "presence" and a nickname with ebay. I use - TomTracks - but some folks get downright creative, like "mmmhits" or "henrymouses".
Bidding is easy. You decide on a price which is as high as you want to go (you need to factor in shipping, which is not part of the bid price), then you click the "Bid" icon and put in that number. It must be more than the current minimum bid, of course.
How did I get outbid so quickly?
ebay checks all maximum bids in effect to determine the highest bid. Another
bidder placed a maximum bid on this item that is greater than yours, so the
current bid was automatically increased.
How does this work?
Let's say the item starting price is $3 with $2 shipping indicated (pssst -- that's $5). It'd be a good deal at $8 or less, so your high bid is $6. Your bid will go in at $3, provided no one else has bid. The higher number is in case someone bids on the item in the interim. ebay will automatically up your bid, overbidding them even in your absence, until it gets over your maximum bid (sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't). Let's say someone else bids later at $4, ebay would automatically bump up their bid by the minimum 25 cents, so the current bid -- your bid -- would now be $4.25, which including shipping makes it still below your max. Get it?
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Mark Scott, All Rights Reserved.