The Ebay Survival Guide: How to Make Money and Avoid Losing Your Shirt
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
