Ebay Online Shopping

eBay Deals

What is eBay Online Shopping?

eBay is a popular online shopping platform that has become a household name today worldwide. Even if you are new to eBay Online Shopping, chances are you might be already familiar with its name on national news, TV shows, and even movies.

With lower taxes and a brighter job picture in America, Americans should be doing a lot more business with eBay this year and in the years ahead.

If you are wondering how this unique online marketplace became such as a phenomenon, and why it is so integral to the global e-commerce culture, here is everything you need to know about eBay online shopping.

eBay Shopping: A Trusted Online Marketplace to Buy and Sell

eBay store is an online marketplace with millions of sellers and buyers trading daily. However, this is nothing like you have ever experienced before. eBay is a powerful tool for traders as the selling price is based on demand and supply. This means that highly sought after products like collectibles, unusual items, discontinued items and even vintage items can go for a very high price.

eBay Store: A Platform for Collectors to Trade

eBay was launched by Pierre Omidyar as Auction Web in 1995 as a virtual place for collectors from all around the world to meet and trade. However, little did anyone know that Auction Web would soon evolve into a household name called eBay that would be used by millions of people across the world.

Today, eBay shopping is enjoyed by collectors from all over the world. It has become the go-to place for collectors from over 190 countries to trade in millions of items every day. And these items are not limited to baseball cards, stamps or coins. Some of the regularly traded eBay stock collectors’ items include:

Vintage advertising signs
Disneyana
Old magazines and newspapers
Pocket knives
Postcards and ephemera
Old license plates
World War II memorabilia
Barbies and dolls
Salt and pepper shakers

eBay shopping has become a popular platform today because of its cutting edge technology in terms of search and notification systems, easy availability of products and user friendliness. Many collectors also prefer eBay online shopping over other platform because eBay with PayPal provide recourse if a transaction does not go right. eBay makes it very simple to browse items, add them to a watch list, bid, and make offers.

eBay Shopping in USA: Supporting the Environment

eBay has emerged as an environment-friendly e-commerce option in the US and other countries as millions of used products that might have been in landfills or other resource intensive recycling programs find their way into new homes every year.

Thanks to eBay, goods like consumer electronics are often not discarded and exposed to the environment where they might pollute by releasing toxic substances. Additionally, many other items such as toys, home décor, clothing, textiles etc. are kept in circulation and out of dump sites for a longer time period.

Social Responsibility of eBay

eBay shopping in USA also helps in developing areas and bringing new economic opportunities by eliminating the middleman and reducing buying barriers. Now, potters in Mexico and bead weavers in central Asia find it possible to sell their products and increase a cultural understanding between people of different nations. This has turned eBay into one of the most interesting transnational ambassadors in the word.

eBay is dedicated to providing a global trading platform where anyone can trade anything as per a mission statement released by eBay

eBay Deals: How eBay Online Shopping Works?

eBay listings are of two kinds: fixed price listings and auction-format listings. If you are new to eBay, you might initial find the auction-format listings to be slightly complicated. However, fixed price listings are like your regular purchases where you pay the listed amount and receive the product.

Auction format listings can appear to be confusing with the process of pricing and bidding systems. Here is an uncomplicated approach to finding the items you need on eBay and making a bid on them.

Two Types of Products: Fixed Price and Auction

There are two basic ways that items are sold:

Fixed Price Products: These products have a big ‘Buy It Now’ button and are available for purchase at the price listed next to them. You simply click the button and make a payment.

Auction Products: These are a little different as they have a ‘Place Bid’ button that lets you enter a bid and a ‘Current Bid’ button that show the current price. Bids can only be made for a predetermined amount of time when the auction item is sold to the highest bidder.

There are a few products that are available both ways as fixed as well as auction. If the ‘Buy It Now’ product stock is not exhausted then the item is sold to the highest bidder after predetermined time.

How do you Bid on eBay?

To bid on an item you are interested in you have to click on ‘Place Bid’ button and enter a dollar value. There are a few important things that you should know before you bid:

eBay auctions bids are only for a limited amount of time.
In order to win you must have the highest bid.
It is possible to pay less after you win a bid.
After winning a bid you are legally bound to buy.

eBay Coupons and eBay App: How to Navigate the eBay Store?

One of the best ways for a newcomer to get rolling on the eBay site and eBay app is simply to follow the footsteps of eBay veterans.

The quickest way to find an item is by using keywords related to item names for searching. For example you can type the brand name Adidas in the search field and then type the shoe category “campus,” if you are looking for old school Adidas sneakers.

The Category System of eBay

eBay has a sophisticated category system in place where you can search for sale items categorically. Use the following steps to browse a list of eBay deals and items on sale.

Start by clicking on the buy link button towards the bottom that is found on almost every page of eBay. In boldface text you shall see the major item categories in a page listing.

The navigation system of eBay is very simple and you shall be able to find most of your product categories listed as a sub-category. If you want you can also click on a major category listing to view sub-categories within that group in a new page.

For example, if you are interested in clothing you need to click on the major category Clothing, Shoes, & Accessories. Here you shall see sub categories by way of men’s clothing, women’s clothing, accessories, jewelry, shoes, and watches among others. You can click on any of the sub-categories to browse all items listed under it.

So, if you are looking for Adidas Campus then you can click on the minor category collectible sneakers. Also, make use of eBay coupons wherever possible to get a price advantage.

eBay Stock: How to Identify Authentic eBay Shopping Products?

Review Images Carefully

If you come across a product with poor pictures then do not buy it. Can you imagine listing a fabulous product with pictures that are listless or of sub-par quality? It is a given that good products will be accompanied by good pictures as a seller will take out time to show their product in the best light.

Furthermore, do not fall for sellers who use too many embellishments and props in their pictures. They might be trying to hide a defect. The best pictures are those that are simple, clear, and show the features of the products in the truest light.

Read the Product Descriptions

This might be the most important deciding factor to whether you should purchase a particular product or not when you ready for eBay online shopping. Some sellers neglect the aspect of product descriptions and clutter the space with ugly fonts and irrelevant information.

The professional standards and aesthetics of a seller page and fonts used can speak volumes about the quality a seller might offer.

You can peg a seller to be trustworthy if their product pages are unique and fabulous on both eBay and their own business websites. You should only trust those online sellers that come across as truly professional and honest with genuine products.

It is vital that you choose wisely while shopping from both big and small sellers on eBay and pay attention to descriptions and presentation. A trustworthy seller page should be neat with appropriate and clear font size. Also, descriptions should be concise, clear and be able to explain a product in detail.

Check Out Product Reviews

There is a reason why product reviews are provided on eBay. It helps you to evaluate whether a product is as good as it claims in the listing. It also lets you be aware of unreliable sellers.

By reading reviews and star ratings given by previous buyers, you can get a good indication of product quality. However, there are a few reviews that might be false, and could lead you away from the truth. The best way to judge a product by its reviews is to give equal weightage to both bad and good reviews.