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COPYRIGHT 2005 Australian Consumers' Association
When you think of internet auctions, one name dominates--eBay. One in seven adult Australians are eBay members and the site's used to sell everything from vinyl records, CDs and DVDs to cars and houses. Worldwide, eBay users sell more than $1344 worth of goods on the site every second and there are about 50 million items available for sale at any given time.
On the surface eBay is as simple as burning a piece of toast and carving the shape of Rove McManus's head on it, taking a photo, filling out the forms that go with selling something on the megasite and then sitting back and, hopefully, watching the bids roll in. Of course, nothing in the world is ever that easy--particularly when it comes to making money--and eBay can be far more complicated than it appears on the surface. In fact it's so complicated books have been written about it. So let's start at the beginning.
WHAT IS EBAY?
eBay is a marketplace that lets you buy or sell in online auctions. And like all marketplaces it has its own set of rules and regulations that govern how you sell, what you can and can't do and what you have to do to be a seller or a buyer in the first place.
The company was founded 10 years ago and is now the biggest online auction house in the world, with more than 147 million registered users worldwide. Many countries have their own local eBay marketplaces--Australia's site can be found at www.ebay.com.au.
Price structures and listing categories can vary from country to country. An item that's listed for auction will appear on every eBay site worldwide, but most people only search for items in their own country (the postage is cheaper, for one thing, and you can use your own currency).
As in a regular auction, you bid for items in...
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