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Should I? Are on-line auctions safe? I've been a spectator at a few, and there are some good deals available. I'm just worried about using my credit card online. How do I check out a site to make sure it's reputable? Ebay I've had good luck with ebay.com. Usually, I've been able to purchase things via check or money order. The way it works is once you've gone through the bidding process and are the highest bidder on an item, ebay sends an e-mail message to the buyer and to the seller. The buyer and the seller talk via e- mail and settle payment terms, trade addresses so that the item can be sent to the buyer, etc. They buyer sends their payment, and, after the check, money order, etc. has cleared, the seller sends the buyer the item. Ebay has an area for both buyers and sellers to compliment or complain about another buyer or seller. A buyer is able to view this before bidding on any item on ebay. Thus far, I've never had a problem with buying anything off of ebay.com. Onsale.com One service that many of my associates have had success with is onsale.com. The minimum bid for an item is $1 and the items change frequently. Bids must be entered before 3:00pm each nday and everyone is notified if their bid was successful. The purchaser does pay the shipping charges, however. One of my technical support people entered a bid for computer moniters and received it for $22! His bid was $1 and his shipping charges were $21. He has had no problems with any of the merchandise he's acquired from them and is building his computer for a fraction of the cost! Don't Forget Quality and Price It's not the safety of online auctions that you should really be concerned about, but instead it's whether or not youre getting a good deal. Stick to the largest and most reputable online auctioneers (onsale.com or surplusauction.com) if you want to try. Many times the auctions don't offer as good a price as online factory outlets and surplus dealers. Why?Because there are so many buyers chase so few items that the price gets quickly driven up to near retail. My advice is to:
BM in Stanford, CA
Read Carefully You have to read the descriptions carefully to make sure you understand what you are getting. Also, I make sure to use my Citibank credit card for all internet and phone transactions because they have been the most helpful any time I've needed to dispute something with a problem vendor. Like Holding a Garage Sale We have been involved in the EBAY on line auction for several months now and have found it to be extremely well thought out and run. We have sold & bought on line with no problems. We have been amazed at the money generated from "stuff" we no longer use - its like having a world-wide garage sale with everyone bidding on your stuff. We have sold about 3/4 of the items we put up for bid - and we can always put them up again. The cost is very reasonable and we have "met" via email many nice folks. Check it out - you may have found another fine way to be frugal - recycling for $. My Rules I too had skeptism when I first looked through online auctions. But when I realized there were millions of items being bought and sold I decided to step out on a limb and try it. I have since had several successful transactions (buying, selling and trading) through Ebay. (Ebay.com) Here are some tips I use:
I realize anyone can have a negative experience online, but so far I have had a fun time with online auctions. Proceed at your own pace! The Key Issues Online auctions are interesting things and it's understandable you'd be wary. Let's address the key issues: #1 - How do they afford it? The way the auctions work is that they will either have a surplus of goods that they need to get rid of or they will have factory refurbished goods. Surplus speaks for itself and factory refurbished means that for whatever reason the product was released in a substandard condition, it was sent back into the factory so that it could be brought back up to par and then put on the auction block to be bought. When you look at the auction sites they will mark if the goods are refurbished or not. #2 - Using your credit card online Speaking as a computer trainer who specializes in Internet and WWW classes I can vouch for the fact that when you're online with a *secure connection* your credit card information is safe. It is no more dangerous to put your information in there than it is to put it into a phone order from a catalog or to hand it to a waiter in a restaurant. You can usually tell if you have a secure connection because your browser will prompt you. The prompts differ from a dialog box that tells you that you are about to enter into a secure connection (and often later tells you when you leave it) to an icon in the status bar of the browser (Netscape, for example, has an icon in the lower-left corner. An unlocked padlock for unsecure connections, a key for secure ones). A Moneymaker for Mom I gave birth to my second child last year and wanted to be able to stay home full time (I had been working part-time) While surfing around on the net one day, I stumbled upon eBay auctions. I looked though most of their "rules" and was very impressed with the way they handled tings. Each person (buyer or seller) has a number next to their eBay user name (you can use any name you want) which stands for their feedback rating. Feedback is a comment about this person which was posted by someone who has done buisnees with them. This is important because yu know, up front, what kind of person you are dealing with. I started to "bid" on some items (mostly clothing) and even "won" a few. After winning, the seller sends you an e-mal with the total (buyers pay the shipping) and their address. As a buyer, you send your payment to the seller and they ship out the item you won. After doing tis a couple of time, I thought, I can do this. I read though ALL of the imformation eBay has on selling an item (which I highly suggest to anyone who is thinking of doing this) and place my first auction for some of my sons clothing which he had outgrown. To make a long story short, in the 5 months that I have been "selling" on eBay, I have made more money then if I were working at my part-time job. I am now a stay at home mom, full time, and work from home. We have been able to save even more money with me at home (not eating out, having time to look for sales, no "work clothing" or gas money) it has really changed our lives. Server Safety As long as a site has a secure server, it is safe to use your credit card. The server encrypts the information so that it cannot be used by unauthorized persons. I have used my credit card with several on-line auctions, including E-bay, Webauction (I got a new Canon 240C BJ printer for $89), and Ubid to name a few. To my way of thinking, I would rather use my card on-line, than have carbon copies with my number imprinted on them floating around. Do you have a time or money saving idea that wasn't included in this article? Please send it to tips @stretcher.com. We get the best ideas from our readers!
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