More and more people come to the fact that ordering things on the Internet is much more profitable than buying them at the malls. Of course, when shopping online there are some nuances: it is impossible to assess the quality of the product, try it on, consider all the details, and many other problems, but still all these difficulties are really worth the money saved. Due to the increasing demand, there are more online stores ready to offer their services to customers from anywhere in the world. One of the long-established sites that has established itself in all countries is eBay. Should I order from this site and how to do it right?
What is eBay?
To begin with, that from some sites of this kind "eBay" is distinguished by its auction. In most cases, there is no fixed price here, like on Ali-Express: everything is decided by the desire of customers to purchase one or another product. You can order goods before the end of the auction using the appropriate button (we will talk about it a little later), but this is not always possible.
So, now it’s time to move on to how to order on eBay. A step-by-step instruction will help you avoid many of the problems and difficulties that sometimes arise with buyers. And useful information about the principles of the site will not be confused when searching for the necessary product.
Auctions and rush purchases
To begin with, what are the purchases on the "eBay". As mentioned above, all goods can be divided into “urgent” and auction. In the first case, under the price there will be a special button Buy it now. If you choose a similar product, then its price is already fixed: it does not change depending on the activity of other customers. In the case of auctioned goods, the lot will be received by the one who pays the most. Usually, the seller sets the minimum price, sometimes a certain step in the rates (for example, each buyer must exceed the previous bid by at least half a dollar) - and the game begins in "someone will surpass".
Traditionally, buyers become the most active in the last hours of the sale of the lot (the seller sets a certain time limit, after which the product will be sold to someone who is willing to pay more for it), so do not rely on the fact that if your bid is in the lead now, no one will offer more. Incidentally, the mechanisms for setting bets and the final purchase price for eBay will be discussed below.
Bidding
In auction sales, everything is not as simple as it sometimes seems at first glance. The site itself, when searching, does not give out the amount that is the maximum bid at the moment, but less than one step. For example, if one buyer bets $ 20, and the second 22, then the site displays $ 21. When the bid wins, the buyer pays exactly the amount that was displayed on the site, and not the amount that he placed (that is, in this case 21 dollars instead of 22).
If you do not want to deal with all these difficulties, then you can cheat a little: your bet should be half a dollar-dollar higher than the one displayed by the site. The site will show an alert if there is already someone who is willing to pay for the product more than the amount shown by the site. So, gradually increasing your bid, you will bypass the maximum offer at this time.
Snipers
Continuing the theme of auction products, you should still pay attention to the fact that not everyone can sit and monitor the progress of the auction in order to make a winning bid at the last moment. For such people, there are special programs, the so-called "snipers", which automatically make the maximum offers at the moment. The program records a gradual increase in the price of the lot and itself appoints an amount that will block all currently available bets.
But it’s not worth it to abuse “snipers”: there can be many tricky and active ones, and if, for example, two potential buyers use such programs, the battle for the lot between them can exceed all financial expectations. For example, a product that was sold for $ 20, the efforts of snipers can reach the price of $ 200. Therefore, it is better to at least have a little control over the battle process per lot. For now, this is all you need to know before ordering any product on eBay. Now let's move on to more thorough preparation for the order itself.
Step one. Learning Offers
Before ordering on eBay, as, in principle, on any similar resource, it is better to monitor similar sites. Sometimes goods like the ones you want to order from abroad can be easily found in domestic online stores. And if it’s not possible, then no one has canceled the competitors of eBey. Therefore, you should start by searching for the most optimal price, and not by working on a specific site.
If you still decide that this auction store offers the best conditions, then you should choose the right seller. Sometimes the price spread in the price can be two to three times, so before buying it would be nice to know what the average price of a product on "eBee" is. To do this, select the Advanced search option in the search engine (it is also “advanced search” in Russian), and then go to the Completed listings item. These manipulations will demonstrate to you already completed transactions, and you can see at what price buyers purchased goods similar to yours.
So, the first step is to determine the price of the goods.
Step two: study the description of the goods. Underwater rocks
The appearance of "eBay" in Russian has significantly increased the number of Russian-speaking customers. At the same time, a lot of people came across quite amusing names of the proposed lots (“toy, flamingo, sport” - for describing toys copying cricket flamingos mentioned in “Alice in Wonderland”), interesting formulations in the description of goods (“Pants , chupa-chups, girl, woman ”- and all this is about some pants of a color close to the famous caramel for girls) and other amusements. So, do not sin on sellers - this is all the work of auto translators.
If your own knowledge allows you to translate the product description - this is amazing. Otherwise, it is better to use more or less adequate sites with translation functions, and this translation must be consistent so that you can combine text fragments into one coherent description.
The product description is that you need to read not only carefully, but very carefully. It is in it that the seller paints all the details regarding the lot: material, dimensions, period of use (if the goods were already in use), possible defects, sometimes even the reason for the sale is indicated. That is why it is worth thoroughly double-checking everything that the seller writes, and if any details are not enough, ask questions about it. For example, if nothing is said about the condition of the goods, then the seller can send you a brand new tablet and a device with a broken screen - and you can’t show anything to him, since the seller did not make any statements regarding the condition of the goods. The same can be said about cases when the product description indicates that it is taken from the manufacturer’s website, no one can guarantee the applicability of this description to a specific product.If the seller honestly admits that he does not really understand the features of his lot, then you should be twice as careful with his purchase: “I think this is the original Apple” and the real original smartphone are two big differences.
Further study of the description. What to look for
Yes, "eBay" in Russian has greatly simplified the life of many users, but sometimes they get into trouble with the description of the goods. After reading the description, do not be lazy to find a decryption of all abbreviations that the seller uses. For example, ref. (refurbished) applies to electronics that have been restored. That is, the seller received a broken smartphone, replaced some parts there and is now selling his brainchild. In offline stores of household appliances, buyers bypass such products, you never know what else may be wrong with them. But in online shopping, very many people buy not quite high-quality goods precisely because of their carelessness.
Please note if the phrase eBay will cover your purchase price plus original shipping is included in the description. If so, be sure that your packages with eBay are lost in the mail or arrive in improper condition, that is, de facto, the transaction will fail due to circumstances beyond your control, the site will return all the money to you. Separately, pay attention to the seller’s notes that he doesn’t take the goods back - even if the problems with the purchase are not on your conscience or if you ordered a frying pan and a pan arrived, you cannot return the lot to the seller.
Do not opt for products that do not have a photograph (even if the price of them is as attractive as possible for you). After the end of the auction, the seller can easily insert any photo and send you exactly the goods that are shown on it, and not what appears in the name of the lot. And arguing with him will be practically useless.
The second step and the advice arising from it: before ordering on eBay, be sure to read the product description.
Step Three: Seller Verification
But this does not end with tips on how to order on eBay. Even if you find a lot with an ideal description, it is worth checking what the seller is. In this we will be helped by the rating and reviews of customers who already had the opportunity to work with this seller. Naturally, the more positive comments, the more reliable it is. As for the rating, it is formed on the basis of human transactions on eBee: both purchases and sales. Therefore, pay attention to how many rating points a person received for purchasing goods from other sellers and how much for selling their own. It is logical that if the first deals were clearly more, then it is worth considering whether the newly-made seller will provide quality goods.
It does not matter if you came to eBay to order clothes or purchase equipment, be sure to look at the previous lots of your seller. If today a person put up for sale “original louboutins”, and yesterday he sold cheap jewelry, it is very unlikely that the new product will be of high quality. In a similar way, scammers fill their rating: first they launch a large-scale program for cheap sales, and then, having received a rating for a large number of transactions, they begin to offer expensive goods, which they most likely do not have.
It is worth paying attention to the location of the goods. If you see that a seller from Hungary sends goods from Korea, then it is unlikely that the goods will be really high-quality.
And the last thing you should pay attention to is payment. The official payment system of the site is Paypal. Therefore, most of the regular customers of the site recommends not contacting sellers who ask for other payment methods: no one is safe from cyber fraudsters who can then use your bank card or electronic wallet for their own purposes.
Purchase payment
The last paragraphs of our eBay instructions: how to order and pay for goods. If everything is more or less clear with the first paragraph, then nothing has been said about payment systems yet - eBay has attached itself to such an electronic payment system as Paypal. In order to get a wallet in it, you need to register on the website of the same name, linking the new wallet to an existing bank card. It is possible to replenish an account in this system in terminals, through Internet banking and other electronic systems - the only question is the amount of the commission for such an operation.
After the transaction is concluded, the money from your Paypal account is transferred to the seller, after which he sends the goods to you.
Delivery
So, the goods are found, the seller is checked, the description is read. And you are ready to pay for your long-awaited purchase. But how does the product get from its seller to you? "eBay" offers many delivery methods, the price of which depends on the speed and method of transporting goods from one place to another. How to order on "eBay" with free shipping to save more on this?
Save does not work: in cases with free delivery, it is already included in the price of the goods. The only question is which countries this delivery applies to. Even if the shipping and payments tab contains the item worldwide (worldwide), you should not be prematurely happy. The seller can designate an exception country where he is not going to send the lot for free. Moreover, even if no exceptions are indicated, it is worthwhile to separately clarify whether the goods will be shipped to a particular country: sometimes sellers simply do not indicate the regions where they do not send their lots in absent-mindedness.
Most often, free delivery occurs in the cheapest ways, so by choosing this method of obtaining a purchase, you don’t even have to look for how to track the package with “eBay”: often “free” items are not assigned special codes by which you can track their path from seller to you. In addition, delivery is carried out to the nearest post office, and not directly to your apartment.
Drop Shipping & Resellers
How to order goods on "eBay" in Russia? In addition to the delivery offered by the site itself, intermediaries who are not always in the final country of travel of the goods also offer to bring the goods. For example, the seller does not send the parcel directly to Russia, but will gladly forward it to Germany. Then the intermediary living in this country orders the goods for himself, and then sends it to you, of course, after receiving a certain fee for his services.
The intermediary tells you how to track the package with "eBay", providing the track number sent to him by the seller. For a fee, he can also engage in a dispute with the seller, if you allow him to open the parcel in order to check the condition of the lot. Sometimes this method of delivery is the only possible one, some prefer to order goods from different sellers to an intermediary, who then collects them in one package and sends them to the customer next, rather than paying for several different deliveries directly to their home. The choice is always yours.
Order for minors
Some users are wondering how to order with eBay if they are not 18 years old. Everything is very simple. You can pay for the goods not by the person to whose address it is ordered, that is, you can easily ask your friend with a Paypal account to pay for the lot, and then return the money in a currency convenient for you. In the delivery address you need to indicate your address and your passport data, and then with this document pick up the goods by mail - the parcels are also issued to minors.
By the way, if you are not using your own account when paying, just in case, notify the seller about it: he can send the goods to the address indicated as the registration address of the Paypal owner, and then you will not have to pick up the goods, but the one who paid for it.
Conclusion
As you can see, ordering something on such a well-known online site as eBay is not so difficult, the main thing is to have an idea of the principles of the site. Summarizing all of the above, we can conclude: before ordering on "eBay", you should:
- Compare prices on the site with what other resources offer;
- carefully read the product description;
- check seller;
- choose the most suitable delivery method;
- pay for goods using Paypal or find someone who pays for it using this system for you.
After these five steps, you can safely expect your purchase, from time to time tracking it by the track code that the seller will send you.