Now I love eBay*. I love browsing to see what bizarre things people have to sell. I love buying clothes, furniture and stuff at great prices. I love selling my unwanted clothes, furniture and stuff and trying to get a little cash rather than throwing it away. I also think its a pretty green way of disposing of unwanted kit. But I am noticing more and more eBayers not playing by the rules. Not just ebay's own regulations but the rules of being, well, PLU.
Firstly don't bid if you don't intend to buy. May sound obvious but nothing is more annoying than a message from your winning bidder stating that they "didn't really want it" or "can't afford it". Now you have to go through the whole selling rigmarole again and you might not even get the same bids. Never bid more than you can afford and, a little tip for some of my chums, never EVER bid drunk. Especially not on Ugg boots. You Know Who You Are.
Conversely, don't list if you don't intend to sell. I was delighted to have won a Poirot box set (this was before they were on every 2 hours on ITV2) for the princely sum of 99p plus P&P. I paid in full and waited. And waited. And waited. Several unanswered emails later my money was refunded but I never got to have the joy of multiple Poirots sans advertisements. If you have no intention of selling your item for less than £50, then either start your listing at that price, or put a reserve on it. Yes, it might cost you a few extra pennies in listing fees, but at least you will know that your minimum price will be reached before you sell. Which bring me on to...
No shill bidding. For those of you not in the know this is when a seller asks a chum to bid on an item in order to make the price go up. Sometimes the seller creates dummy accounts to do the same. Not only is this against eBay regulations, it's also a pretty stinky thing to do. You'd be cheesed off if you thought someone had done it to you. So don't.
Leave feedback. Both buyers and sellers can be guilty of this. eBay runs on customer feedback so it's only fair that if you have had a good, or bad, experience, you rate them. As a seller, feedback is the only way I can be certain you received the item and as a buyer, it is just good manners to rate me! It takes 30 seconds of your day and can make a world of difference to the recipient.
In short, don't do anything to others that you wouldn't like to be done to you. Which is a pretty good tenet for any occasion, don't you think?
*Other online auction sites are available, but lets face it, we all use eBay, don't we?
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