Part Two; A Practical Guide For Newbie’s Buying On eBay

This question is important to me and this item has days to finish. OK you asked your question, now it is a waiting game. Go to the top of the item page, on the right hand side you will see a button to Watch This Item.

If this Experienced Seller has provided an email address, use it! Email this Seller! They would not have added this email address if this Seller did not want you to use it. Just remember this is a less SECURE way of contacting this Seller!  If there is a phone number and you feel comfortable on the phone, call them. I have done this before, sometimes you actually get someone too!

I give 24 hours for my questions to be answered. If my question can not be answered in 24 hours I do not expect it to be answered and I will not buy from this seller if this question is important to me. If my question is answered, but the Seller only rights “Yes” or “NO” I will move on from there!  I have had this happen to me before! A Experienced Seller understand that if a Buyer has taken the time to write a question, then at least the Seller can do is write a Response! You get a “feel” for your Seller when a question is asked and the Seller will get back to you quickly! If this Seller contact you in a nice respectful way, this Seller is a keeper! This means this Experienced Seller cares about his or her customers. This says “If I have a problem, or other questions I can just email this Seller”.

Your question has been answered to your satisfaction. Now what?

It is time to Buy Your Item!!

Go back to your fantastic Item you found to buy!  Make sure everything is as you left it. This Experienced Seller had not updated anything. Go to the bottom of the item page. You will see a button that will either say Bid Now, or Buy It Now (BIN). There may even be both of these Buttons if on Auction. The Buy It Now Button here will be usually within Ten Dollars more then the Bid Now option. Usually sometimes quit a bit more money! This is because this item is on Auction. The Bid Now Button you have to remember other Buyers can Bid against you! The Buy It Now Button this item is yours! You have bought this item. No other Buyers can Bid against you. This has confused some of our Newbie Buyers.

So your item is on Auction. Your item has a couple days to go before the end of auction. Now you wait. Checking back when you have time. Mark this on your calendar, or if you have one of those memories (which mine had been misplaced some time ago!) you should be able to remember when your auction is over. Remember to check back! Others can and sometimes do bid against you!

If someone bids against you; here you are going to have to do some thinking! How much do I have to spend (again), How much do I have in my Bank account (again). If you have enough money (remember there is shipping and handling (S/H). Then make another bid. Place your bid to what you want to spend. Keep doing this if others are bidding against you. This is where Luck and Attention to the Auction comes into play! You get better at this the more you buy on eBay.

Lets look at the Buy It Now Option.

You press on this Buy Item Now Button. You will be directed to a Confirmation Page. This Confirmation Page is a Legal and Binding Document. You are now saying I Promise to pay for this item.

No problem I am an honest person and will pay for this item. You hit the Confirm Your Bid Button. Walla you have bought your first item, CONGRATULATIONS!

Now that I have confirmed I will Buy This Item now what? Now is the time to check your email. You should receive an Invoice very soon. Different Sellers have different invoices. Experienced Sellers not only have there address on this, but some add a telephone number. Phone the seller if you would like. As I stated above some Sellers actually answer! I have noticed Power Sellers having 1-800 numbers; this is GREAT however most not all but most of these 1-800 numbers are nothing but answering machines.

If you have a PayPal Account and the Seller accepts PayPal you may be directed to sign into your PayPal account. Here is where you can pay for your item.

If you do not want to use your PayPal account, or do not have a PayPal account and the Seller accepts other payment options you want to use. Email your Seller telling them how you are going to pay. If you have seen others ways in eBay to let the Seller know how you are going to pay still email the Seller.  This takes the guess work out of the Seller, plus it is courtesy.  Just reassures the Seller they will be paid.

DO NOT GIVE FEEDBACK YET!  Do not expect feedback yet! This transaction is not complete! There are many discussions on eBay about this! Some feel the buyer is done with the transaction. While other more Experienced Sellers feel that Feedback should not be given until the item is in the Buyers hands and that it arrived safely, and the Buyer is happy with the item bought, this is where MCDANNELLS.COM stands on feedback!

If you are paying with a Money Order, go get this right way. Get it in the mail. Other forms Experienced Sellers might take are Personal Checks. Most experienced Sellers will hold your Personal Check until it clears there bank. Also most Experienced Sellers do not run to there Bank everyday either. Keep an eye on your Bank Account to see when the money came out of your Account.  An Experienced Seller who is also a real Business (*) have a Credit Card Terminal where you can call them and give them your Credit Card information. MCDANNELLS.COM has one of these ourselves. The Business has to be approved as a real legitimate Business to except these kinds of payments! Sometimes an Experienced Seller will redirect you to a page where you can make payment with a Credit Card.

(*) A Real Business refers to those Business’s who pay Tax’s on income from there eBay Business’s. 

At this time your item will be shipped to you. If you have not herd from your Seller by usually an email, or by looking in you’re My eBay Page to see that your Item has been shipped. Contact the Seller. Most Experienced Sellers do not mind this! In fact we appreciate when our Buyers Contact us!

My item has been shipped, how long is it going to take?
This depends on how it has been shipped. In the description of your item it should have told to you how this item you bought will be shipped. Just expect Books, Music, DVD’s to be shipped Media Mail (unless otherwise stated in the description of your item). Media Mail has been improved by the Us Postal Service. It now takes up to 9 days. If you chose to go with a Seller that is a new Seller they may have tried to sneak other items into Media Mail. The USPS has the right to open ALL Media Mail! One reason to go with an Experienced Seller!

Otherwise expect your item to be shipped the way it says in the Description! If you paid for insurance expect your package to be insured. Some Sellers charge for this. We do not charge, but some do. If your package is supposed to be Shipped say Priority Mail then you do have a right to say something to eBay if you’re Seller Ships another way, say Media Mail. Of course this could be a mistake by even the most Experienced Sellers, email your Seller about this. In this instance you should receive a refund for this cheaper way of shipping.

My items arrived and it is exactly what I expected! Fantastic! Now is the time you go to My eBay Page and leave the appropriate Feedback! Another Tip to the Newbie Buyer is it doesn’t matter how experienced your Seller is, an email to the Seller is always cool to get! We love it when our Buyers not only leave positive Feedback but email us too! This is when you the Buyer should get the Appropriate Feedback as well. Please give a Seller some time for this. I would think a week is long enough, no longer then this! Emailing a Seller, Experienced or not about Feedback is always frowned upon!

Feedback does not have to be given! Feedback is a Choice not a requirement!  It is recommended to do this to be an active part of the eBay community. Feedback helps Buyers and Sellers to no what kind of Seller or Buyer they are doing Business with. Reputations or Feedback is very important so take care when leaving Feedback! Once Feedback is left it is a process to get what is said removed!

Being a Newbie Buyer in eBay it is always good to buy from an Experienced Seller! We all were Newbie Buyers at one time in our eBay lives! All of us Experienced Sellers were Newbie Sellers at one point in our Careers as well! Experienced Sellers, Power Sellers or not do not no everything, but as I stated above, we have been through more transactions then say a Newbie Seller has!

Thank you for reading MCDANNELLS.COM Newbie Buyers Guide!