Most people are delighted to find a bargain
anywhere. Some bargain hunters can't pass a car boot sale without
stopping, and read the classifieds section in the local paper before the
news. However, you don't have to be as serious as that to find online
auctions irresistible. Such auctions provide tens of thousands of
bargains that are only a mouse-click away.
All you have to do is register with your chosen auction sites and you
can start selling and bidding. For a tiny outlay of time and cash you
can put your own bric-a-brac - rare collector's items, that is - up for
sale in front of a huge and enthusiastic audience. Providing you follow
our advice, you shouldn't get ripped off.
at Bay
The well-known auction site eBay has aimed to create an online
community rather than a simple marketplace, in order to build the trust
required to run successful auctions. Sellers build up a reputation based
on the votes and comments of their customers. This is your best guide to
how trustworthy a stranger is likely to be. For extra protection you
should pay by credit card whenever you can.
For more valuable transactions, consider using escrow. The concept of
escrow is simple. A third party gets involved in the transaction between
buyer and seller and, for a fee, oversees the transaction. It's up to
the buyer and seller to decide who pays for the escrow service. Such
services usually charge a percentage of the transaction value, subject
to a minimum.
escrow flies
The buyer sends money to the escrow service which validates the
payment and holds the buyer's funds on trust for the seller. The escrow
service then contacts the seller, who is prompted to send goods to the
buyer, usually by a courier service that tracks despatch and delivery
and informs the escrow service of safe arrival. Once the goods have
arrived with the buyer, the buyer has to make any complaints and either
negotiate a new price or return the goods within a specified period of
time, otherwise the escrow service releases the funds to the seller.
EBay in the UK is expected to appoint an 'official' escrow service
soon. In the meantime check out www.auctionpix.co.uk and the American
site www.escrow.com. Setting an escrow service up as a scam is easy to
do, so check credentials very carefully. A free downloadable
escrow-scam-checking tool is available at www.e-vigilante.com.
closing time
Most auction deals are done by last-minute or even last-second
bidding. The practice of waiting until the last moment to bid even has a
name: sniping. Most online auctions offer basic tools to help you track
your bids and alert you when you have been outbid or when an auction in
which you have expressed an interest is about to close. AuctionStealer (www.auctionstealer.com)
offers a free service that lets you track individual lots on online
auctions and automatically place bids 10 seconds before the auction
closes. If you pay a fee you can bid within three seconds of close. It's
all driven by AuctionStealer's servers, so you don't have to be online
to place bids.
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