For as long as I can remember, I have used Ebay. My mom used to use it to buy and sell Longaberger baskets and I would always help her with putting her items on to sell and ship the items out that she sold. I have personally used Ebay to bid on jewelry, buy cell phones, Christmas gifts for my friends and even a basket or two to help my Mom out. I have also sold items such as old gowns and beanie babies. In order to buy things from Ebay, I have used a credit card through Paypal. However, when I was younger my mom had her own credit card terminal and used that to accept payments.
To use a Ebay account, you must be 18 years of age and agree to a terms of use policy. Paypal is where your credit card is on file and the number and information is not necessarily accessible to the person that you are buying from. This site works like an auction, sellers list their items and either choose to have a Get It Now price of what they want for the item or start the bidding at their lowest acceptable price. There is a time limit on the item and once that time is expired the highest bidder wins. Many people will wait until the very last few minutes an item is active and start bidding, this is how prices reach the maximum. Once an item is expired, the buyer pays the seller and the item is shipped to the designated address. Every member has a rating, this is for other people that are buying from them to know how reliable and dependable the person is. If a member has a bad rating, it is not likely that they are going to have good communication or actually ship the item. However, even if a person has a good rating, it is likely that they will not get back to you about the item that you wish to purchase.
I found that there are many advantages to using Ebay. One advantage is that I can find nice things for a lot cheaper than I could by buying them in a store. For instance, I once bought a Blackberry cell phone that was lightly used for $50.00 compared to the $200.00 I would have paid if I went directly to Verizon to buy it. Also, with using Paypal I don’t have to worry about identity theft.
Along with the advantages, there are a lot of disadvantages. For instance, not too long ago I was using Ebay to purchase a ring for my fiancé. I found that sometimes members aren’t as interested in selling their items as I am in buying them. I purchased this ring, however my new credit card hadn’t come in the mail yet therefore I didn’t know my number so I sent the man $12.00 as a deposit until my new credit card came in. He received the deposit (I sent it as a money order) and then never got back to me once I was ready to finish paying for the item. His rating was a 99.7% however I was one of the unlucky people to not receive my item. Also, through Ebay you are not always so sure at what you are getting. For example, the phone that I bought on Ebay. The description of the phone was that it was lightly used and still in excellent condition. However once I received the item I found out that a dog had chewed up the antenna and this phone looked like it had been used for years. Even though it still worked, the description said nothing about the condition of the phone.
