| In essence, an online auction on eBay works pretty much like an old-fashioned real-world auction ”you know, the type where a fast-talking auctioneer stands in the front of the room, trying to coax potential buyers into bidding just a little bit more for the piece of merchandise up for bid. The only difference is that there's no fast-talking auctioneer online (the bidding process is executed by special auction software on the auction site), and all the bidders aren't in the same room ”in fact, they might be located anywhere in the world, as long as they have Internet access. | | eBay is kind of like a newspaper that runs classified ads ”eBay isn't the actual seller, and isn't even really a "middleman." All eBay does is facilitate the transaction, and therefore can't be held responsible for anything that goes wrong with any particular auction or sale. When someone buys an item on eBay, they buy it directly from the seller ”they don't pay any money to eBay. | Sellers like you post a listing for each item they want to sell; they select the merchandise category, length of the auction, and the starting bid price. From there the auction process takes over, with interested buyers making increasing bids on each item. At the end of the auction, the user with the highest bid wins, and pays for the item. When payment is received, the seller ships the item to the buyer. It's not much more complicated than that ”so let's go ahead and look at the entire process in more detail, from the seller's perspective. Step 1: Register Before you can list an item for sale, you first have to register with eBay. There's no fee to register, although eBay does charge the seller a small listing fee to list an item for sale, and another small transaction fee when the item is sold. eBay doesn't charge any fees to buyers, however. For more information on creating your eBay account, see Chapter 10, "Step Eight: Establish Your eBay Presence." Step 2: Create an Item Listing Once you know what you want to sell, you have to create an "advertisement" for your auction. This item listing, like the one shown in Figure 1.1, consists of a headline, descriptive text about your item, one or more pictures (optional), payment and shipping information, and the starting bid price. Figure 1.1. A typical eBay item listing. You create item listings from eBay's Sell Your Item page. You specify both the length of the auction (3, 5, 7, or 10 days) and the minimum bid you will accept for that item. eBay will charge you anywhere from $0.30 to $3.30 to list your item. For more information on creating item listings, see Chapter 11, "Creating Item Listings." Step 3: Let the Bids Come In Once the auction starts, your work is done ”for the moment. What happens next , hopefully, is that a potential buyer searching for a particular type of item (or just browsing through all the merchandise listed in a specific category) reads your item listing and decides to make a bid. The bidder specifies the maximum amount he or she will pay; this amount has to be above the minimum bid you previously set. eBay's built-in bidding software automatically places a bid for the bidder that bests the current bid by a specified amount ”but doesn't reveal the bidder's maximum bid. For example, the current bid on an item might be $25. A bidder is willing to pay up to $40 for the item, and enters a maximum bid of $40. eBay's "proxy" software places a bid for the new bidder in the amount of $26 ”higher than the current bid, but less than the specified maximum bid. If there are no other bids, this bidder will win the auction with a $26 bid. Other potential buyers, however, can place additional bids; unless their maximum bids are more than the current bidder's $40 maximum, they are informed (via email) that they have been outbid ”and the first bidder's current bid is automatically raised to match the new bids (up to the specified maximum bid price). Step 4: The Auction Ends At the conclusion of the auction, eBay informs the highest bidder of his or her winning bid; as the seller you also receive an email informing you of the auction results. You're responsible for contacting the high bidder and requesting payment, although buyers also have the option (at your request) of using eBay's online checkout to provide shipping information and, if offered , to use the PayPal service to pay via credit card. For more information on managing end-of-auction activities, see Chapter 12, "Managing Your Auctions." Step 5: Receive Payment and Ship the Item When you receive the buyer's payment, you then ship the merchandise directly to the buyer. In most cases the buyer pays all shipping and handling costs. For more information on shipping merchandise, see Chapter 14, "Managing Packing and Shipping." Step 6: Housecleaning Concurrent with the close of the auction, eBay bills you, the seller, a small percentage (starting at 5.25%) of the final bid price. This selling fee is directly billed to your credit card or automatically debited from your checking account. You should also, at this point, leave feedback about the buyer. If it was a smooth transaction, you leave positive feedback; if the buyer stiffed you, you leave negative feedback. When he or she receives the item, the buyer should also leave feedback about you. (Learn more about feedback in Chapter 2, "Using eBay's Advanced Features.") |