Things You Should Know Before Opening A New eBay Account

The world's biggest online marketplace is a great venue for finding bargains or for making some extra money selling unwanted items. Many people even go on to build up a full time eBay business, and quit their day jobs because of it.

I believe the appeal of eBay lies in its simplicity - once the basics are mastered it really is very easy to buy and sell goods online - it can even get quite addictive! But if you are a complete novice and are considering creating a new account there are a few things you should know to help get the best from the eBay phenomenon.

• Choose a good user id - eBay has millions of members worldwide, so often the ideal name will already have been taken and a bit of lateral thinking is necessary - try not to go for an easily forgettable name like john1234. If you have a website, consider using a variation of your domain name as your eBay name. You won't be able to use the exact domain name because this isn't allowed, but using an underscore or a dash in place of a dot will still get the message across and promote your website.


• Feedback - If you intend to sell items on eBay you will need to build up some feedback so that prospective buyers will have confidence in your service. Ten feedback points will get you a yellow star next to your user id and I would consider this the minimum for sellers. It is easy to achieve by buying several low cost items, but remember that a point is only generated from transactions with different eBay members, so you will need to buy from separate sellers to build up feedback points.


• Paypal - The majority of eBay transactions use Paypal as a fast and safe method of payment - in fact; some sellers will not accept any other payment method for certain items. There are many advantages using Paypal, it costs nothing to set up and there are no fees for buyers, so get an account.


• Postage And Packing - always check the cost of p&p before bidding on an item because there are some unscrupulous sellers who will bump up their profits by charging ridiculous amounts. Be aware that once you commit yourself to an item it is a legal requirement to pay for it.


• Don't Worry! - The vast majority of eBay traders are honest, reliable people just like you and the sharks really are in the minority. Simply checking out a member's feedback is often all it takes to verify their reliability. If in doubt contact the member before committing yourself, and if you are still in doubt then don't bid.

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