2. I don't think it matters where you are these days, if you
mention the name ' eBay ', there is someone there who
has either bought an item on it, or who has sold
something on it, eBay has become a household name
around the world. I started buying and selling on ebay
around 7 years ago. There are thousands of people living
in the U.S. that make full time living's selling item's on
eBay, and thousands more that buy items on it daily.
3. eBay was started by one man named ' Pierre Omidyar '.
When Pierre was 28 years old he started writing the
programming code that was to become the internet site
eBay. The site was launched online on Sep 4, 1995, ' Labor
Day ' here in the U.S. At first it wasn't called eBay, but was
named ' Auction Web '. Later it was changed to ' ebay ' ,
which was a short version of a consulting firm Pierre
owned named ' Echo Bay '. eBay was free at the start, then
it started charging fees to help cover it's internet costs for
hosting and other charges. At the time, Pierre was dating a
woman that collected PEZ toys, she used the new eBay
site in its earliest incarnation to buy and sell rare
dispensers. In 1996 Jeffrey Skoll, a Stanford MBA, joined
the company and by 1998 eBay had gone public in the
stock market, making Omidyar a billionaire. In 2005,
4. Let's start by going to the eBay site and joining. Just visit:
www.ebay.com and you will be taken to the main page of
the website. Once there look towards the top area of the
screen and you will see text that says: ' Hello! Sign in or
register. ', using the mouse button, click on ' register '.
After clicking on ' register ' you will be taken to a screen
with a form on it, enter the information about yourself,
such as your name, address, telephone number and email
address. Next you will be taken to another screen where
you must choose a password and ebay user name, the
eBay user-name is the ID or Name you will be known by to
other ebay bidders and shoppers.
5. The password should be something that is not common,
for instance do not use your first or last name, or some
common word such as ' pencil ', or ' computer ', take your
time and choose something difficult and a little long, make
sure you write this password down and keep it near your
computer in case you forget it. I recommend writing your
ebay password on a yellow post-it note and hanging it
someplace near your computer.
6. When your done with the username and password screen,
you just have to check your email for the confirmation link
that eBay sends you, just click on the link as shown in the
email to activate your eBay account, now you have joined
eBay, and you can start bidding and buying right away, but
before you do let me tell you about the different features
of eBay and how some things work.
7. eBay is not just an auction site, I mean you do not have to
bid and wait for an auction to end, in order to purchase
every item on eBay. In fact many items can be purchased
for a set fee, and bought instantly, these are called ' Buy
Now ' listings. For an example of how listings differ from
each other, let's look at some ebay items. Let's say you
and I are looking for a ' singing fish ', the fish that look like
their mounted and displayed on a piece of wood, when
someone gets near it, it will start singing and move it's
mouth and tail, they are often called ' big mouth billy bass
'.
8. To see if eBay has any of the ' singing fish ', we just go to
the main ebay page (www.ebay.com) and in the 'SEARCH'
area, type in: singing fish, and the screen shows there are
currently 60 different items or listings found. I scroll down
and select one of the listings, it currently shows the
current bid price is $7.00 and it has had 4 bids, with 1 day
and 13 hours remaining before the listing or auction ends.
If I really wanted this item, and was willing to pay up to
$15.00 for it, I would just click on ' Place Bid ', and enter
my ebay username and password, if requested to
