EBay Buyer Tools

First Buy, then sell

Becoming a buyer is the first step before you start selling through eBay.

eBay Express

It is quite a democratic society, where the feedbacks from buyers and sellers are the most useful tool to protect both parties from fraudsters. Your confidence will further rise with eBay Express, where only sellers with a very high positive feedback are featured. eBay express is also the place where you can buy fixed price products relatively quickly. You also have the option to purchase items from different buyers and pay for them in a single step.

Proxy Bidding

You will often see items that capture your imagination in eBay, where prices are mostly decided on an auction system. You see the price low and you will place a bid, in the hopes of a good deal. You think you will win the bid till the last minute. It is quite an embarrassing situation to see an unsuspecting sniper successfully shooting your product in the last 3 seconds, leaving you dumb. What if you have a proxy bidding system that will bid for you while you sleep?

eBay Proxy Bidding System allows you to set the highest amount you are willing to pay for a specific item. The proxy bidding system will bid for you up to the maximum amount you are willing to pay, through gradual increment over your competitor. Auction Sniper (http://www.auctionsniper.com/) is a third party proxy-bidding tool that helps you get the product you want. You have to pay up to 1% of the bid as fees.

eBay Toolbar and my eBay page

eBay too has some buyer tools like the eBay Toolbar.

The eBay Toolbar is a free buying/bidding tool from eBay. This desktop item allows you to keep a watch list of items you are bidding for.

My eBay page is another convenient option to save your eBay favorites - searches, sellers and products or categories.

Safe eBay Transactions with PayPal

You can use eBay and Paypal account for buying and selling through eBay. The password to both sites need to be securely protected. eBay offers a guarantee for transactions up to a certain value if they are paid with PayPal.

Beware of Phishing Attacks

Have you too come across the term phishing attack before? It is the attack that some scrupulous party will send you an email in such a form that the email comes from eBay or Paypal. Don't open emails from eBay too - you can read emails addressed to you by eBay at My Messages page follow this option for safety.

Don't click in eMails - never ever! 

If you receive an email from Paypal, read the content and don't click any link on it, instead type in paypal.com in your web browser and log in using your email and password. It is also to be noted that just don't click on any links to Paypal from any website. Go to paypal.com to learn more about online security - http://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=p/gen/fraud-prevention-outside. I also mentioned the topic phishing mails in my tech blog recently and even two years ago when I received the first paypal scam mails

Commonsense rules? no way.

In most cases sellers and business people think that commonsense rules. Experiences prove it wrong. It is always safe to keep a skeptic mind, especially if you see an offer at eBay too good to be true.