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Ryan Shaw, PC World Review by Bonnie Hall Targeted at both new and experienced eBay users alike, this book is the ultimate guide book on everything and anything to do with eBay. Being a novice eBay user, I was interested to see if this book would help me understand the fundamentals of online bidding and how not to get duped by some of the artificial sales that everyone hears about.The fact that there is a diverse range of things available for purchase is why eBay still remains popular to this day.

I have to admit I own no less than eight different “Bible” books so being impartial may not be relistic in describing my opinions here.

The book starts off by explaining some of the basics associated with eBay; from registering as a user, to understanding the different types of auctions available. On the buying side of things, researching, tracking auctions and bidding strategies are also discussed. For those eBay users who wish to sell instead of buy items, making a particular item attractive to the bidding masses is no easy feat. The book covers everything from creating a seller account, weeding out the non-paying bidders and placing snapshots of the product, to accepting online payments.Thinking of becoming a full- time seller and creating a business through eBay? This topic is also represented, with various sections on how to save money by taking advantage of strategic buying and selling.

Though new to the world of eBay, it gave me the confidence to buy and sell products with the best of them.

• The authoritative reference-tutorial on eBay-the world’s leading online auction service-packed with power-user tips and tricks.
• Clear explanations and illustrated step-by-step instructions take readers through the entire eBay process-from the “eBaysics”of buying and selling to running an eBay business.
• Written by an expert eBay user and veteran author, the book covers all aspects of eBay.
• Discusses eBay troubleshooting and includes useful appendices that explore hardware and software needs, eBay lingo, and basic HTML markup terms.

This comprehensive guide covers what you need to know. Learn how to bid successfully, choose items to sell that buyers want to buy, conduct safe financial transactions, take advantage of feedback, find the true bargains when buying, and get a fair price for things you sell. You’ll even find an entire section to guide you through setting up and managing a practical, profitable business on eBay.

• Understand how eBay works, what it can and cannot sell, and how to take advantage of all its services.
• Find out what makes a good User ID, why you should set up multiple inboxes, and how to protect your privacy.

The following bullets are taken from the back cover:

• Navigate the site and explore different auction types.
• Find out what makes a good User ID, why you should set up multiple inboxes, and how to protect your privacy.
• Avoid fraud and learn how to deal with questionable sellers and complicated transactions.
• Choose the right items to sell, create sales listings that attract bids, and capture images that generate buyer interest.
• Learn to pack and ship items for safe,timely delivery.
• Discover how to accept credit card and other electronic payments.
• Develop a business strategy, set up a schedule, track expenses and income, and report taxes.
• Identify good sources for building your inventory.
• Create attractive,easy-to-read auction listings using eBay’s features and HTML.

Pros: Comprehensive yet easy to understand. Well organized.
Cons: General focus; if you need more depth this is not the book for you.

5 out of 5 dog cows

Books on eBay remain popular, as readers dream of raking in Internet riches, clearing out their attics, or feeding their own collections. For beginners, Dummiescompetently covers the basics. Dummies nicely summarizes the basics of effective eBay interactions.

The book is divided into five parts. Each part has three or more chapters. Part I: Forget the Mall: Getting a Feeling for eBay

The first chapter gives you a really quick overview and history of eBay. There are several types of auctions on the site (traditional, reserve-price, restricted-access, private and Dutch), and a description of each is listed.

The last half of the first section offers step-by-step instructions for signing up on eBay, creating an eBay home page, and customizing various options on the site.

Part II: Are You Buying What They Are Selling?

This section discusses ways to get the most for your money. There is a true art to successful bidding, and the authors discuss that here. Also important is researching the history of the item(s) you want, to make sure you don’t overbid.

The 6th chapter holds your hand as you make your first bid. Also helpful,is the explanation and emphasis on members’ feedback ratings. This is an excellent gauge that can be used to see if a member is trustworthy. Members with poor feedback are usually a high risk.

When the auction is over and you’re the winner, eBay For Dummies discusses the different payment options, including escrow services.

Part III:Are You Selling What They Are Buying?

Chapter eight jogs your brain for trash and treasure that can be found around your house. The next chapters give you step-by-step instructions on preparing and listing the item for sale on eBay.

The 11thchapter offers various troubleshooting tips. Want to maximize your profits? In chapter 12, the author recommends you add a photo of your item.There are instructions for selecting the right scanner or digital camera, achieving a clear image, and storing images on your computer.

Part IV: Oy Vay, More eBay!:Special Features.

The theme for the 13th chapter is protecting your privacy. eBay does collect information on its users. How secure it is on the site? eBay has a program called Safe Harbor. Safe Harbor protects the good users from the site abusers. There are instructions for reporting abuse to Safe Harbor. Other topics covered in this chapter are suspensions, insurance, mediation, appraising, ID verification, and fraud.

The 15thchapter discusses the eBay community. There is a whole other world of clubs and message boards out there. Also discussed in this section are the eBay charity auctions.

Part V:The Part of Tens

This section is a quick review. Where else can you shop in your jammies, never have to hunt for a parking space, and find someone eager to pay you for that ridiculous-looking lamp? Turn clutter into cash, find great deals,and shop safely.

• “Get in,get out”information
• Icons and other navigational aids
• Tear-out cheat sheet
• Top ten lists
• A dash of humor and fun
• Participate in different types of auctions
• Develop bidding strategies that win
• Take digital photos that sell items

Pros: Easy to navigate and find just what you need to know. Nice worksheets.
Cons: Written for the novice computer user. Too simplistic… but then again it’s a Dummies book… and I ain’t no dummy.

3 out of 5 dog cows

ELister and its predecessor, PreLister, have been my preferred auction programs for years. In my day, I was a high end eBayer and usually had about 20 auctions running at any one time. This program was essential in quickly and effectively getting items on eBay.

When I evaluated all the programs out there after deciding to put a bunch of stuff on eBay, eLister is the program I decided to use. Without a fancy interface or lots of extra features, it does one thing,and one thing very well: quickly creating auctions to be uploaded to eBay. The program loads extremely fast and is very reliable. In addition,this is the only program that works in Classic (though support is being discontinued). I use it on a beige G3 in the basement specifically dedicated to eBay auction posting, a great repurposing of an older machine.

This program is for someone who takes’ their eBay seriously, not for someone who only lists an item or two a month. You need to post an average of at least two items a week to take advantage of the key features.

Like many other programs, eLister allows you to avoid having to check the same options each time on every auction. The program lets you create defaults quickly and easy for your typical auctions such as: auction duration (number of days), minimum bid, payment types and shipping locations. In addition, eLister includes a live estimate of what my eBay fees will be as well as sounds indicating whether an option I choose will increase or decrease the listing fee. Unlike its competitors, almost every option I would care to set of ran auction fits on one screen. I can quickly and easily see what features are available and how much they cost.

The best feature by far is the ability to customize the menus. I can quickly select the eBay product categories I use most from the “favorites” menu. The “insert” menu allows you to add “clippings” that let you insert text that you specify. Personally I have ones specify what “sold as is” means or “DOA Warranty” depending on the features of the item. Again, this program is great for someone who sells the same thing over and over again and doesn’t want lots of repetitive steps. I rarely have to choose an item category that wasn’t in my menus, saving me valuable time in posting items. I simply write a sentence or two description and then everything else can be chosen from menus.

While the program excels at listing auctions, that’s pretty much all it does. You can’t track or leave feedback, take pictures of your items, nor follow the status of your auctions and bids. You can preview what your auction looks like in eBay, but that function is poorly implemented and doesn’t work well.

From a technical standpoint, this program is brilliant in its simplicity. Unlike other programs, each auction is saved as a separate file. Most other programs use a database format, which requires you to sort through all your previous auction listings. As your get more listings, the programs get slower and become harder to backup. Since eLister keeps each auction in a separate document, I can do standard Finder functions to backup, move, duplicate and rename my auctions.

When I’ve had problems in the past with the program, the developer was quick to respond, usually within hours. Also,this was the only company
to give us an extended demo of the software, and I appreciate their support of the user group movement.

My biggest, and only, concern is that this program is what I like to call “pumpkinware.” After 3 or 6 months, the program expires and you have to pay to continue using it. This is a fair business model because the developer quickly responds to changes in ebay’s system. Other eBay programs you buy once and are supposed to get updates anytime eBay changes their system. In the past, some companies have been slower to respond and instead of changing their software, force you to buy an upgrade!

ELister is for a serious, committed eBay seller that posts an average of one item a week or more. A frequent seller will appreciate the simple and straightforward options in the program. Casual users of eBay should consider another program.

Pros: Simply the best listing program for power eBay sellers
Cons: Casual users won’t benefit from the program, has no other features besides listing.

5 out of 5 dog cows

David Pogue many years ago noticed that programs were no longer including manuals and started his series called the “the Missing Manual.” These books are designed to be both reference guides and how-to’s on the subject covered. The author of this entry in the collection, Nancy Connor, focuses more on the manual portion to the point of information overload. The book is not designed to be sit and read cover to cover, but it’s also not well organized to find specific information. However, there is a great table of contents and index which helped me find the answers to some of the questions I tested it with. Unlike other quality manuals, her sections lacked a clear conclusion and summary. This omission made it difficult to sit and read the book, because one easily gets lost in the details and how they relate to the subject at hand.

This book is not the best book for beginners. The average person starting on eBay would have trouble finding the simple basics of buying and selling on eBay and could be intimidated by the overwhelming information. To her credit, Connors covers every aspect of eBay giving each area fair and equal attention. For example, I never understood how people can buy cars or real estate via eBay. She does a great job of explaining it. If I ever decide I want to sell my car or house on eBay, this will be a good reference to use.

Some other areas she covered that I find intriguing, though not applicable to me, includes how to make a living off of eBay and how to use the eBay forums to enhance your buying and selling experience. After reading the book, I feel like there isn’t an aspect of eBay I don’t have at least a passing familiarity with at this point. Connors covers the proper paperwork and even the details of hiring employees in your eBay business.

Like the average manual that once came with software programs, I’d recommend this book to someone how needs a reference guide to cover specific information. eBay, the Missing Manual, is an ideal supplemental book for someone who wants to move from the basics of buying and selling and make it into a hobby or a lifetime profession. If you’ve never bought and sold on eBay and simply want to get your feet wet, I’d suggest starting somewhere else.

Pros:Covers every aspect of eBay and the eBay experience.
Cons: Some aspects need more attention, and some need less.

5 out of 5 dog cows

Ever notice when you are looking for computer oriented books, you tend to gravitate towards the biggest one. Bigger is better for books, right? I mean a $20 book that has 250 pages is a better value than one that has 75. I’m guilty of this sometimes and that’s a shame, because you’d miss out on “The eBay Survival Guide” and waste time reading those extra pages.

In preparing for this month’s reviews, I looked at a lot of different books. I’ve always been fond of “No Starch Press” books because they are straightforward and to the point without all the fluff and needless information. There’s an eBay for Dummies and this book could be called “eBay for Smarties.” I don’t need my hand held on how to point and click (some people do and this is NOT the book for them). Tell me how to do something and I’ll figure it out, and avoid giving me a side bar about the history of double-clicking.

This book is a comprehensive guide to everything the average person would want to know about buying and selling on eBay. For example, it doesn’t include details on how to make a living on eBay nor does it go into great details on advanced topics such as power sellers or posting real estate. However,this book is an expert guide on how to quickly get up to speed on eBay. The author’s real world eBay experience comes greatly into play. He not only tells you the basics of buying and selling but really excels at the nuances of the experience. Of all the books I looked it, this one had the best section on how to write your search terms to hone in the item you are looking for. I’ve now got a sticky in the computer that covers all his tips. He tells you how to find stuff to buy and sell on eBay, how to make sure it sells, what to do when it doesn’t sell, and of course what do to when there are problems.

Dealing with eBay problems is a topic Banks covers well. In particular, Banks’ realizes that the basics buying and selling on eBay is easy, it’s when problems develop that you need a book to help you through it. Approximately 25% of the book covers how to avoid the typical eBay problems, both from buyers and sellers. If I had purchased this book when I first started, I could have avoided many sleepless nights. I was confident in my ability to avoid buying into scams, but as a seller I’ve been scammed many times by buyers trying to hustle me.

While the book extensively covers buying and selling, it comes up short on the nuisances of Paypal. Paypal is the most popular method of paying on ebay and is in fact owned by eBay. Problems with Paypal however could take up a book in and of itself. Maybe Bank’s next book will be the Paypal survival guide.

Overall,the “eBay Survival Guide “is the perfect book for someone who wants the basics of how to buy and sell on eBay, without having to read a treatise on the subject. It would be the first book I’d recommend to the average eBay newbie.

Pros: Straightforward, direct advice on how to buy and sell on eBay. Assumes you don’t need lots of hand holding. The Anti-Dummies book.

Cons: Doesn’t cover Paypal very well.

5 out of 5 dog cows

Dave Greenbaum opened our November meeting with introductions around the room. In keeping with this month’s theme,the meeting participants were asked to relate their experiences with eBay.

The next order of business was Apple product news. Once again, a large portion of the apple product line has gone through some changes since our last meeting. New iMacs were introduced.The new models are thinner in size and the Apple iSight camera now comes built in to the unit. Two new applications were added exclusively to the new Macs; Photo Booth and Front Row. Photo Booth is a fun application that lets you take photos with the new built-in camera as you would in a traditional, drug store photo booth.

Front Row is Apple’s foray into the “ten foot interface” market. The program allows the user to use the iMac from across the room using the new integrated remote control and large-scale icons. The four main parts on the interface are Music, Photos, Video and DVD. Apples intention is that you would use your iMac as an media hub connected to your entertainment system. Apple’s iTunes music store now offers individual episodes of popular television series such as Lost and Desperate Housewives as well as music videos for $1.99 a pop. These videos can be transferred to your new video iPod. The new iPod has a larger screen than the previous Photo iPod and , physically thinner. The new iPod can be purchased in black or white colored cases and include and cable that allows you to connect it to a traditional television so you can view your videos and photos on a large screen. New PowerBooks were released in the previous month. The new laptops feature higher resolution screens, longer battery life and reduced pricing. All PowerBooks now ship with standard SuperDrives. The Power Macintosh line was updated with the introduction of a G5 “Quad”. This is a double dual-core machine stuffs four 2.5GHz processors in a single Mac. Dual-layer DVD burning capability and PCIX bus architecture was also added to the new machines. A new photo workflow application called Aperture is now available for high-end Macs. This program allows photographers to manipulate uncompressed “raw” images. An incremental update to OSX was put out. The current version is 10.4.3.

The evening’s main topic was eBay. Dave started the discussion by talking about how one must register with eBay before buying or selling. A credit card is needed for verification purposes however sellers are only charged for their activities. Dave examined a couple of the common myths about buying on eBay. A buyer is never, 100% committed to a purchase after they’ve won an auction. If you make a mistake, you do have the right to cancel and/or retract your bid. Scott demonstrated the bidding process by placing a bid on a media card for his digital camera.One of the main skills is being able to search for the item you want from a seller you can trust. The value of feedback ratings was discussed. Be sure to consult the Help section of eBay for information on the definition of common terms. Another issue is shipping costs. Many sellers add large shipping charges to small items to make extra money. Sellers are charged for a percentage of the sales price but not for shipping costs. One cannot talk about eBay without including a discussion of Paypal. One of the objections are that Paypal charges a percentage for the transaction. Paypal does allow for refunds for non delivery of items. Other things to look out for include “Shill Bidding” which is when a seller will bid on their own auction in an attempt to drive up the high bid. Ebay does have rules against this practice.

Another thing to consider is “proxy bidding” vs. “sniping.” Proxy bidding is when you bid the full amount you want to pay from the start. Sniping is when bidding takes place in the final moments in order to attempt to win the auction against others who are also bidding in the same auction. Scott demonstrated auctionsniper.com, a web-based service that helps you to place a bid at the last moment.

Several tips and tricks for eBay sellers were offered by Dave and Scott. Again, issues of packing and shipping need to be considered when posting an auction. Be familiar with the item and type of item you are selling. A good practice is to research how an item you would like to sell is listed (category,terms,conditions,etc…) by others selling the same thing and how well it sold.

Photos make a big difference in the success of an auction. It is advised that you take your own picture to show the actual item you are selling. Pictures should show the features and package contents of an item. A photo can either be uploaded directly to the eBay site or posted on your own Web account. Other selling strategies include choosing a starting bid, duration, and auction closing time. Ebay bills your credit card or PayPal account when an auction is posted. Auction listings can be revised before any bids are placed and can be added to after a bid has been placed. Then Alan Cowles was the winner of this month’s door prize book about eBay.

A podcast from the November meeting of the Lawrence Apple Users Group. This month’s topic is buying and selling on Ebay. Check us out on the web at http://www.laugks.org. Subscribe to the podcast RSS Feed.

 

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