Hello, and welcome to another edition of Mouse Not Found!
Those of you who have a computer have no doubt used it to
browse the Internet from time to time, and may well have stumbled across online
auction sites. Probably the most popular of these is a site called eBay (http://www.ebay.co.uk),
which has a worldwide user base of over 50 million people (1 million of which
live in the UK), and at any one time offers over 12 million items for sale.
Ebay
Online auctions are really nothing like the auctions we see on
TV (fans of Lovejoy, take note!), and take place over several days. Many of the
items offered are second-hand, although there are also may new items being
auctioned as well. Based on the item description and picture(s) you would choose
an amount that you’re willing to pay, and place a bid. For each item there is an
end date and time, and the highest bid at that moment wins the item. When you
place your bid you can choose to bid the minimum amount necessary to secure the
item, but its quite likely then that someone would come in with a bid higher
than yours, so its often better to make a bid at the highest price that you
would be happy to pay. This doesn’t mean you’ll have to pay that amount though,
because the bid price for each item increases in fixed increments.
So, for example, if the cat ornament that you’re interested in
currently has a bid of £6.00 on it, then the minimum bid you would be able to
make would be £6.50 since Ebay has set a fixed increment of 50p for this sort of
item. However, since you don’t want to stay online until the bidding closes on
this item (which could be several days away), and its quite likely that someone
will outbid you at this level, you could instead place a bid of £12.00 on the
ornament, this being the most you’d be willing to pay. In this case, it’s a bit
like placing a bid at £6.50, and then placing higher bids to outbid anyone else
as necessary, up to your maximum bid of £12.00. If someone else bids £12.50 then
they’ll win the item, unless you (or someone else) places another bid for
£13.00.
Quite often you’ll find that when you place a bid you get
immediately outbid. This is because the previous highest bidder has already
placed an even higher bid in the manner described above, so your bid just pushes
their bid up higher. In this situation you would keep increasing your bid until
you exceed their highest bid or until you deem it not worth continuing.
Always remember that if you win an item then you have
effectively entered into a contract with the seller. If you make a bid by
mistake then there are ways and means of retracting a bid, but only under very
special circumstances. This offers some protection against mistakes, like
bidding £1200 for the above ornament instead of £12.00, an obvious slip of the
finger that may be forgiven.
Always check the item description, including dimensions and
condition, before bidding. In some cases its cheaper to buy the item elsewhere,
so make sure you’re really getting a good deal.
Also, you need to check the means of delivery. Usually the
buyer pays for p&p, which is not included in the item price. Read the item
description for estimated costs or delivery requirements, bearing in mind that
the seller may want proof of delivery as well. If buying items from outside the
EEC then you may well have to pay tax and customs duty on it. As a rule,
anything with a value less than £18 will not be charged for, nor will items
described as gifts less than £36. Anything else will be subject to VAT and
customs duty, and also a handling charge by the Post Office. More details can be
found on HM Customs & Excise Notice 143A, available online at
http://www.hmce.gov.uk/forms/notices/143.htm.
Once you’re familiar with buying items then you can have a go
at selling an item. You can choose to put a reserve price on the item, which is
the minimum bid that will be accepted, but if this is too high then you run the
risk of not selling the item. Sellers pay a small commission to Ebay, which goes
towards their administration costs.
WARNING – beware of buying items from sellers with no
credentials. Everyone on Ebay has a rating, which gives you some idea of their
integrity, and you can read feedback on that person written by people they’ve
dealt with previously. Always check any negative feedback a person may have, and
avoid buying from people with zero or very low ratings.
In addition to buying or selling online, you can also pay
online, if you choose to do so. Of course, there’s nothing stopping you from
sending a cheque or postal order if buying within the UK, but you’ll have to
wait longer to receive the goods since the seller will want to wait for the
cheque to clear before sending the item. This may sound rather insecure to you,
but if you follow the guidelines above and check up on the seller beforehand
then it’s very unlikely that you’ll be swindled. For an extra cost you can
choose to use an escrow agent, i.e. a third party agent that you give the
payment to, and they only pass it on to the seller after you receive the goods.
It’s safer, but seldom used.
Another method of online payment that can also be used for
overseas purchases is PayPal (http://www.paypal.com).
PayPal uses your existing credit card as a means of transferring money for goods
purchased or sold, and is very fast and simple because payment is authenticated
immediately. Once you have opened a PayPal account you can debit your credit
card with an amount that is then moved into your PayPal account. Once there, you
can use this money to pay an outstanding bill to another PayPal account holder,
with PayPal making the transfer. When selling goods, you receive payment into
your PayPal account, which you can then use to buy other items, or alternatively
you can transfer it to your credit card account as a deposit.
PayPal makes its money by charging the recipient of the money
(i.e. the seller) a commission, currently set at about 3%. This is the price of
convenience, but often one that is accepted.
There are other online payment methods in addition to PayPal,
for example NoChex, and BidPay, but they all require some form of commission.
Possibly worth looking at, but don’t forget to read the small print!
I’d like to finish this article with a warning to you all. If
you do use Ebay, PayPal, NoChex, etc etc, then be on your guard for email scams.
These are emails sent to you, purportedly from Ebay etc, stating that your
account is not valid and you should re-enter your details, including credit card
number etc. NEVER SEND YOUR CREDIT CARD DETAILS BY EMAIL, and if you’re taken to
a web page to enter them, MAKE SURE THE WEB PAGE IS SECURE (see Mouse Not Found
edition 3 for details on this). Also, make sure the web site address looks
correct, and if you see an address of the form
www.ebay.co.uk@www.reallyhere.comthen note that
everything before the “@” will be discarded, and the address you’re taken to
would in this example be www.reallyhere.com.
Well that completes another edition of Mouse Not Found! So
until next time, happy surfing!
