| 1.
Your bid is a contract. Bidding is not a game. If you do
not intend to buy, don't bid.....You want to buy a widget
and you bid on three different widget auctions hoping to
be the winning high bidder in one auction. You wind up as
the winning high bidder in all three widget auctions. Guess
what? You have a contract to purchase all three widgets.
It's not a game, it is a User Agreement Violation to bid
if you do not intend to purchase if you win. |
| 2.
If you have a question about the item, the seller, feedback,
shipping, terms or anything else, ask BEFORE you bid.
If the seller doesn't answer you, DON'T BID. |
| 3.
Do not bid on the first item you see. Do a little research.
Someone else might have it listed for less or with a lower
BIN. However, if you DO bid on the first item you see,
keep in mind that retracting a bid because you found it
cheaper elsewhere is against Ebay's rules. |
| 4.
Do not trust the picture. Read the description carefully.
Make sure it does not say "design may vary." Check for
size and color. Make sure if it's new or used. Look to
see if the description says the item will be drop shipped,
which means the seller does not have the merchandise in
stock. Look for descriptions of flaws, imperfections and/or
damage. |
| 5.
Be sure to read the description carefully, and to the
fullest, some sellers like to add "excess" information,
then hide the "fine print" amongst, knowing that the average
bidder does not fully read a long description. |
| 6.
If not sure, ask questions, be aware of "maybes", "pretty
sure", and "I believes", if the seller is not sure, THEN
DO NOT BID. |
| 7.
Avoid any auction where the seller states "the item is
not tested, will not guarantee to work" Unless you need
parts. It only means the product doesn't work, and the
seller is trying to pull something for a sale. If the
item is worth something, as a seller I would most certainly
test to see if it works to get MAX bids. |
| 8.
Read the terms. Do not assume you can combine shipping
or dictate your own shipping preferences. Find out which
forms of payment are accepted and that you qualify for
them. Many sellers do not take checks from buyers with
a low feedback rating. Make sure you are eligible to bid
on this auction. Some sellers will not take bids from
someone with no feedback or minus rating. Some sellers
will not ship Internationally. Find out how much the seller
charges for shipping and if the item will be shipped immediately.
Many sellers hold shipment until a payment by personal
check clears their bank. This may be from 7 to 10 days
or longer after they receive the payment in the mail.
Can you wait that long? If not, either pay by another
means the seller offers or DON'T BID. |
| 9.
Check the seller's feedback. Do not buy big ticket items
from sellers with excessive negatives or who have no feedback.
Check the feedback for an overall pattern. Do a lot of
the complaints say the same thing? For instance, if a
seller has a lot of complaints about the quality of his
packaging, you might want to purchase insurance. Remember,
a lot of sellers get retaliation feedback from deadbeats,
so be sure to keep that in mind and look for patterns.
|
| 10.
Don't go bananas because a seller requests your contact
info from eBay. It's one of the tools a seller has to
verify the legitimacy of a bidder. Make sure the phone
number you have registered is a number where you can be
reached. Some sellers may cancel your bids otherwise;
especially on high-value items that are nearing the end.
|
| 11.
Contact the seller within three days. Most sellers will
contact you, but if they don't, send an e-mail to them
by clicking on their eBay ID and sending a message through
eBay's mail servers. |
| 12.
Don't leave negative feedback just because a seller hasn't
replied to your email in 3 days. Internet Service Providers
go down, computers fail, people get sick, family emergencies
occur, and many other things can get in the way of a speedy
reply. You have 90 days to post feedback, so don't rush
into doing something you can't later retract. If you suspect
something is amiss, request
the seller's contact
info from eBay and call the seller over the phone. |
| 13.
Read the seller's confirmation e-mail. Even experienced
buyers are guilty of not doing this one. Do not assume
that every confirmation e-mail is alike. Sellers usually
include information that is necessary for you to complete
the transaction. A lot of times they also ask for some
information from you. Don't just send your payment with
PayPal and ignore the confirmation e-mail. That's how
a lot of problems get started. |
| 14.
Buy insurance. Too many buyers spend $160 on an item,
but won't cough up the extra $3 to insure it. Believe
me, you will kick yourself if something happens. If you're
not sure if you want insurance, ask yourself this question.
"Will I be upset if this item arrives damaged or doesn't
get here at all?" If your answer is yes, BUY insurance.
If the seller does not offer it, ask for it. |
| 15.
Be patient. The mail system has slowed down in many areas
since the terrible events of 9/11. It may take longer
than you expect for your payment to reach your seller.
If you are paying by check, that means it will take longer
for your check to be deposited before the standard ten
day clearance wait can begin. Bear in mind any Federal
Holidays that fall within the time frame your check or
item is being mailed. It's going to take your check or
merchandise longer to get where it's going. And just because
you paid what you assumed to be Priority Shipping - well,
unless the seller specified shipping via Priority Mail,
your item may not necessarily be shipped by that method.
If you are unclear about the shipping method being used..ask
BEFORE you bid. |
| 16.
Don't assume you can pick an item up in person just because
you live in the same city. |
| 17.
If you asked for surface mail delivery, don't email the
seller a week after it was shipped, and every 3 days thereafter,
complaining that the item hasn't arrived. If you chose
to pay lower rates for a slower shipping option, you will
need to be more patient for your package. |
| 18.
Don't email the seller at 7:00 p.m. to say that the UPS
tracking number --for an item shipped that SAME day--
is invalid. IT HASN'T HAD A SCAN YET! |
| 19.
Ask, do not threaten. If you want to check on the status
of your order, send a polite e-mail to your seller asking
for the information you need. Do not send ten e-mails
over a weekend and then get angry when you get no reply.
Many people do not work on weekends, so your mail will
not be read until Monday. Do not threaten your seller
with negative feedback if they do not respond as quickly
as you would like them to. |
| 20.
If there is a problem, stay calm and friendly. Most sellers
are not brick and mortar stores, but individual people
working from home. They have not been trained to deal
with angry customers and will likely become angry themselves
and unwilling to work with you. Again, do not threaten
negative feedback if things are not worked out to your
satisfaction. No one likes to be threatened. Give your
seller a chance to make you happy. You have 90 days after
the end of the auction to leave justified negative feedback
if you feel it is necessary. |
| 21.
Leave appropriate feedback. Do not blame the seller for
something that was outside of his control. It's unfair
to give him a negative, because he would not combine shipping
when his listing says he won't combine shipping. Don't
leave feedback asking them to contact you...once feedback
is left, it takes all but an act of Congress to get feedback
removed..and then only for very limited and specific reasons.
Use your feedback to evaluate the transaction when every
thing has concluded, not as a bulletin board to leave
messages. |
| 22.
Avoid misleading feedback. A positive that states something
took a long time to get to you (when the postmark clearly
proves the item was shipped immediately) is misleading,
and therefore not really a positive. It's not the seller's
fault it took a long time to get to you. |
| 23.
If you have a problem with your seller or buyer and you
think you want to leave neutral or negative feedback,
make sure you have corresponded with the other party about
your concern and exhausted all efforts to resolve it before
you get to feedback. |
| 24.
Do not use feedback to warn customers about mistakes that
were your fault. For instance, do not leave a neutral
telling people to get insurance even on low cost or supposedly
unbreakable items. Yes, people should buy insurance, but
if they don't, that's not the seller's fault and his feedback
should not reflect your personal regrets at your own short
sightedness. |
| 25.
Do not harass a seller for feedback. Many sellers are
busy and leave feedback in batches. Don't ask for feedback
as soon as you make payment - the transaction is far from
finished. |
| 26.
Do not be afraid of retaliation feedback. Experienced
eBayers investigate feedback. They know when someone has
left you a negative out of revenge, and they will not
hold it against you. Feedback is the primary means of
protecting buyers from fraudulent (or just bad) sellers.
If you withhold a neg out of fear, you've allowed that
seller to get away with it, not just to you, but to the
next guy that wasn't warned off by your feedback. |
| 27.
Remember - the win isn't yours until the auction is officially
over! You can always be beaten by last second bidders
(aka snipers). So bet your max, add a few cents for a
pain cushion and if a sniper beats you in those last seconds,
don't have any regrets. He was just willing to pay more
for that item than you were. If he wasn't, his bid would
not have outbid yours. |
| 28.
If you receive an unsolicitated email from someone offering
to sell you an item "off-eBay" (outside the bounds of
a normal auction), hit your delete key. No matter how
tempting, you will not have any of the protections that
eBay offers their official auction winners in the case
that the deal goes bad. If you are really interested,
offer the seller the option of setting up an auction using
Buy It Now, with the BIN price being your agreed upon
sale price. Have him email you with the auction number
as soon as he posts the auction and win the auction under
Buy It Now. This way you both have eBay's protections
in place for you. |
| 29.
Remember, eBay will NEVER ask for you credit card info
in an email! There have been numerous recent hoax emails
leading buyers to believe that an item is being billed
to them in error and to go to an a linked page to dispute
this. At that linked page (which looks very official),
you are asked to type in your credit card number. SCAM!!!
This is NOT from eBay. If you have any doubts regarding
any email appearing to originate from eBay,Contact
Customer Support.
Don't just blindly give that kind of information out on
the Internet! |
| 30.
Have Fun and Trade Safely! Enjoy your finds with fewer
regrets by doing your homework first! |
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