eBay Overview

Your first look at eBay.com will probably be disappointing. At first glance, it's just another *web site. Happily for you and about a hundred million others, there's a lot more, here, than meets the eye.

What's There

• Standard online auctions
  • When you go to the eBay home page, they assume you're there for the standard online auctions, so that's where most of the links and search results will take you. Pick a category and click to see what's available. Since there are somewhere around a million items for sale on eBay each day, you might have to click through several sub-categories to get to the actual listings.
  • If you aren't a member, you must register before you can bid, but that only takes a minute--all you need is an e-mail address.
  • If you're serious about buying or selling on eBay, you should open a PayPal account. Many sellers and bidders will only do business through PayPal, so you'll be very limited in what you can do without it. For more info on PayPal, read Do You Need PayPal?
• Buy It Now
  • If you don't want to wait for an auction to end, you can find thousands of items with BIN (Buy It Now) tags. These items have fixed prices. You pay the asking price and the sellers usually ship the items, immediately.
• Want It Now
  • This feature is relatively new. If you're looking for something special, you can post your wish-list on eBay, free, and have the sellers contact you.

More than just an auction house.

• eBay Foundation
  • Started by a donation of pre-IPO stock, the award-winning eBay Foundation has contributed more than $8-million to nonprofit groups, working to make local communities better places to live and work.
• Job Search
  • eBay employs people in several states and countries, in several job categories. You can browse job listings and submit your resume/CV online.
• Community
  • eBay has a very active community--not just forums. They have regional groups for sharing info with other eBayers in your geographic area, an Answer Center for quick responses to your questions from other eBayers, and chat rooms, for informal discussions.

New eBayers Start Here

• Learning Center
  • If this is your very first look at eBay, and you'd like a guided tour, from the eBay home page, click on Help, then Learning Center (under Related Links). Here you'll find audio and video tours.
• Workshops
  • When you're ready to learn more, you can sign up for free workshops, and read archives from past workshops. Workshops are part of the eBay message boards. From the home page, click on Community, Discussion Boards, then find the Workshops link. From there, you can view the schedule of new workshops and read archives from the ones you missed.
• When you're ready to start selling on eBay, read Step Into eBay, Slowly. If you're in a hurry, and just want a quick peek at the whole process, please read Fast Track To Selling on eBay. If you'd love to have an eBay business, but you have no money, please read No Money Needed To Start Your Online Business.

*eBay is the most-viewed web site on the Internet.

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