Perhaps you’ve actually visited the eBay Web site once or twice with the idea that you might buy something. Did you look for something simple like a golf club? Did eBay come up with several
thousand listings? Or maybe you figured you’d get smart and narrow it down to a search for a 3 iron, and you still got over a thousand listings? Yes, I understand, dear reader. The eBay site
can be pretty daunting.
Maybe you started looking at listings and then got so scared that you’d get ripped off that you just left the site. Don’t feel alone. When you’re done reading this book, you’ll have the information
you need to be able to zip onto the site and find just what you’re
looking for, and to select the right seller to buy it from (at the best
price, of course).
I like to shop from home, and eBay works much better for me than any quasi-convenient TV shopping channel because there’s no overly-made-up huckster telling me how great I’d look in the outfit on the screen (worn by a size 4 model). On the eBay site, I have the opportunity to leisurely look the items over, read the descriptions and terms (in my own time), and click a link to ask the seller a question before I bid or buy. Using eBay is as simple as that. If I don’t like the way a seller responds to my question, I can just go on to the next one. That’s the great thing about eBay: There’s
always another seller and always another item for sale.

 Nope, eBay Isn't a Store

If you speak to any of the employees at eBay, they will clearly tell you that eBay isn’t a store; it’s a venue. In the same way your high school gym was a venue when you went to dances, eBay is a venue
for buyers and sellers. You had to follow the rules of the gym (and the school) or you were booted out without ceremony. It’s the same way at eBay. Everyone has to follow the rules, or you can
become a NARU (Not A Registered User) and banned from the site.
(Yes, eBay really does ban users — for life.) In reality, eBay is the world’s largest online marketplace of goods and services, used by the world’s largest community of individuals and businesses.
In the beginning days of eBay, people used to refer to the site as a giant online flea market or garage sale. But you can’t call it that anymore. When you have mom-and-pop home operations (like
mine) successfully doing business head to head with Martha Stewart, Sharper Image, and Ritz Camera (just to name a few), you’ve got something really unique. The coolest part for buyers is
that anyone — from Martha Stewart to your next-door neighbor — has an equal chance to buy the same quality goods at a bargain price. It doesn’t matter who you are when you shop at eBay —
what matters is how you bid.
The eBay site really just gives sellers a great online home, a community, to sell their goods, and supplies them necessary tools for online trading in the auction-style and fixed-price selling formats. These sellers can reach all over the world and offer buyers things that they may never have been able to buy in their part of the country.
Community Values When eBay originally came on to the Internet as Auction Web on Labor Day 1995, its founder, Pierre Omidyar, set up ethical guidelines for users of the system to follow. To this day, eBay follows an important credo of community values. Community values are so important to the company that every eBay employee is issued a copy of the values with his or her company ID security badge.
The eBay community is guided by these five fundamental values, which are posted on the Web site:
* We believe people are basically good.
* We believe everyone has something to contribute.
* We believe that an honest, open environment can bring out the best in people.
* We recognize and respect everyone as a unique individual.
* We encourage you to treat others the way you want to be treated.
When you register to bid or buy at eBay, you become a member of the eBay community and agree to follow these rules. 
Okay, I can see you scoffers out there in the back row. We all know there are bad apples in every basket, and Part II of this book tells you how to steer clear of them and what to do if you ever cross
paths with any of them. These are still good tenets to follow.

Find Just about Anything to Buy


Most of the first items sold at eBay were collectibles. Word of the early Web site spread like wildfire through Internet chat rooms and newsgroups. To be perfectly honest, many people really weren’t
quite convinced that selling online would become anything more than a hobby.

During the early days, I was selling Star Trek memorabilia at Auction Web, and doing quite well. I remember running into William Shatner (Captain Kirk of Star Trek fame) at a marketing meeting in mid-1997.

Anxious to let him know how well I was doing with my merchandise online, I tried to explain Auction Web. Shatner scoffed, “No one will ever make any money on the Internet.” (Really, I have witnesses — remember this is the future Mr. Priceline.com.) Ah, well.

Today, you can buy everything at eBay — and I mean almost anything you can imagine. eBay has over 18,000 categories and subcategories of items. (When I wrote the first edition of eBay For
Dummies in 1999, there were only 4,000 categories — and that seemed like a lot of categories back then!) You can buy brand new items, direct from a manufacturer or one of eBay’s stores or you
can buy slightly used goods. (Ever buy something at a sale, try it on once, and decide it didn’t work for you?) And there are always antiques, wholesale items, and unclaimed freight! Many stores sell their returns at eBay, perfectly good items in brand new condition that can’t legally be sold again as new.

 Everything is here from fine art (Sotheby’s is currently auctioning an original Rubens oil lamp with a starting bid of $1,000,000), a Gulfstream jet (sold for $4.9 million), land (your own private island
in the Caribbean), to authentic antique furnishings, and more.