As international commerce grows, there is an amazing development which is expanding at ever-increasing rate—business on the Internet. One of the most arresting auction business called e-Bay. Down at the local auction house in the city, you would normally find excited bidders raising their hands or nodding agreement as the auctioneer rattles off the prices for a set of bookshelves, heater or second-hand television set.
Now the same cut and thrust of auction selling is drawing not the hundreds who cram into a crowded auction room, but millions of Internet suffers who visit e-Bay, the biggest online auction site, and others of similar style.
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For example, in one month when I looked at the colorful e-Bay site, these were numbers of items for sale in some of the major categories:
Collectibles 684,473;
Sports Memorabilia 269,051;
Books, Movies, Music 267,324;
Toys 242,155;
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According to the e-Bay promotion, users can find the unique and the interesting on e-Bay—everything from chintz china to chairs, teddy bears to trains, and furniture to figurines.
So why do people come to e-Bay? As the leading person-to-person trading site, buyers trade on e-Bay because of the great number of items available. If you want, somebody's probably selling it on e-Bay. Similarly, sellers are attracted to e-Bay to conduct business because e-Bay has the most buyers. There are over a million auctions happening on e-Bay every day.
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"People tell us that they come for all the cool stuff they can get, but they stay, even after they finish their collection, for the fun people they meet at e-Bay. Take your time, and get to know the e-Bay world." is their advice.
So how do you make a bid and buy something at this auction?
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First I had to register my name, email address and password with e-Bay. So they can track the sales and make sure that everybody is fair dealing.
Remembering that bidding online is the same as buying or entering a contract with the seller, I searched under guitars in the Musical Instruments section with my mouse clicking on the various pages. I had a good look at the seller's feedback record. If the person selling goods on e-Bay has tried to cheat, or back out of a deal, email users of e-Bay can leave their own feedback comments, praising or criticizing the e-Bay seller, or bidder. This is everyone can see what is going on. The e-Bay company can ban anyone who has not acted by the rules.
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The auction details were set out and the day the auction was to end (in one week's time). There was a nice picture of the guitar. I reviewed my bid of $20 to ensure that all the information was correct and clicked on the button "Place Bid".
Unfortunately I was notified that my bid was not the highest—someone else had bid more money, so I missed out.
However, If I had put in the highest bid, the e-Bay website would have notified me that I was the highest bidder for the time being. When the auction ends, the highest bidder buys the goods.
A. Among the special items for sale are an illustration of the winners from 84 Years of the USA Open Golf tournament, signed by the famous golfers, and framed. There is a Beatles Original Coin, especially minted for the first US tour in 1964 of the famous Liverpool pop music group. Furniture, new kitchen knives, guitar study programs, computers—you name it e-Bay auction site has it, as people world-wide take advantage of the chance to sell their goods to the biggest market in the world—the cyberspace community of Internet watchers.
B. This is a business that allows customers to buy and sell goods by offering them for sale, or bidding for items displayed at the e-Bay website, as if they were at an auction. Currently, e-Bay has listed at its website 2.14 million items for sale in 1,627 categories. Each month the e-Bay site has 1.5 billion visitors who view the e-Bay pages, looking for bargains or working out how much to charge for that bed or unwanted TV they want to list for auction.
C. I was looking for a guitar and this is what I did.
D. There are not many stores in the world where they praise you as a good shopper or give you minus points in public if you are a bad customer. But this is the kingdom of the Internet where the rules are being constructed as the system develops.
E. According to an e-Bay spokesperson, e-Bay is more than just a place to trade. It's also a place to meet that one other person in the world who shares your passion for your own particular interest, whether it's stamps, war memorabilia, sporting goods, furniture or computer programs, for example.
F. Then I was ready to bid. It does not cost any money to bid on items at e-Bay. Of course, if you win the auction, you must pay the seller directly, but you will not be charged anything by e-Bay.