One win and you’re hooked
The on-line community that makes up e-Bay is one of the largest in the world but what makes it so popular?
Win one auction and it is very easy to get sucked into the addictive world of e-Bay, the online trading place where you can sell, and buy, almost anything you can imagine. Some people buy stuff on e-Bay and sell it at a profit, others buy things from elsewhere and sell it on e-Bay at a higher price. Of course, there are crooks and some items will disappoint for which there is no comeback but the fact that e-Bay is part of the vernacular and that other websites have been created to allow you to grab the item of your choice at the eleventh hour is testament to its growing reach.
“Once you do it once, you get really excited and do it again,” said Daphne Ieridou who has bought around 40 things off e-Bay in the last year. “After I’d bought a couple of things, I thought ‘great, I don’t have to go into town for shopping any more and worry about parking.” Daphne shops mostly for clothes, jewellery and presents, with bargain buys including a Laura Ahsley crochet top for £3 and a Victorian tile for £10. “The maximum I have spent on an item is £50,” she added.
However, all this trawling through the website can prove to be as tiring as plodding round the shops. “After a while, I realised what a lot of time I spent browsing, and the thought of strolling round and touching things didn’t seem so bad.” There is also the issue of not getting quite what you think you paid for, “especially with clothes, you do get deceived.”
“One of the deadliest features of e-Bay is the fact that it can be too easy to find far too many things,” another addict said.
Just talking to these enthusiasts and browsing the site for the sake of journalism was enough to get me reeled in. I happened across the Friends DVD box set, collector’s edition and decided to give it a go. A couple of days later and I had ‘won’ the DVD Box set. I wanted more. The sheer thrill and adrenaline of the bidding process and the final ‘you’ve won’ notice is indescribable.
“e-Bay, for me, is the adult’s equivalent of the classic child’s game of swap,” added another addict, Louisa Hamilton, “I have found that I can get massive discounts on everyday goods when using eBay, from toothbrush heads to normally expensive skincare at a reasonable price. I began using eBay to find things I could never find, then to sell things I would never use.”
So, e-Bay is not just about buying, but also about selling, selling your stuff online, or selling your e-Bay purchases in another arena. “Just look around your house, there’s bound to be something you don’t need and someone in the world who is willing to pay a lot of money to have it and visa versa,” explains Kizzi Nkwocha, another e-Bay addict, “that’s the way e-Bay works and survives.”
“It’s a cheap way to find useful things,” trader Jack Theodoulou said. “The problem is bringing the stuff from England, but for some things you can put a 200 per cent mark up,” he added. “If you know German, you can also being stuff from Germany, it’s a very large website, whereas from the States it’s ridiculously expensive and you have to pay VAT.”
But is it safe? This is where opinions differ.
“I would say it is actually safer to buy something off e-Bay than at your local supermarket,” said Kizzi. “I feel safe using paypal (e-Bay’s payment system), you only give your card number once and I use a card that is only for internet purchases,” Jack added. “It was difficult to get on to Paypal but now they include Cyprus it’s great and I feel very secure using it,” Daphne said. However, not everyone shares that opinion. “I would say it’s fairly safe,” said fellow bidder Andy Kyriacou, “and the only reason I say ‘fairly’ is because people have been conned in the past and I have had a few unpleasant experiences with damaged goods.”
He also feels that e-Bay is beginning to lose its edge. “You think you’re getting a mega deal,” he said, “and of course sometimes they are, sometimes. Three or four years ago it was fun and you could get a great deal but now millions of people know about it, so everytime you bid, thousands of other people are too. After a while the bidding is so high it ceases to be a mega deal. Might as well go and buy it brand new from a shop.”
Some are not so easily put off. Kizzi moved to Cyprus a few years ago from London. As a self-confessed e-Bay addict, he couldn’t bear to imagine his life without bidding, so he set up a website. 15minutesauction.com is the Cyprus equivalent to e-Bay. “E-Bay is a lifestyle and I can only hope that Cyprus will continue this cosmopolitan image it has, so we will eventually be on the list along with the many other countries. Until then I have set up this website in order to fill that gap.”
e-Bay was founded in September 1995. “It is the world’s online marketplace for the sale of goods and services by a diverse community of individuals and small businesses,” says the website.
PayPal is an e-Bay company, which allows you to send money via e-mail to 55 different countries.
e-Bay was initially set up as a place to buy and sell PEZ sweet dispensers.
The site’s name was planned to be EchoBay, but this was already taken so it was changed to e-Bay.
In terms of revenue growth, eBay is the fastest-growing company of all time
People spend more time on eBay than any other online site, making it the most popular shopping destination on the Internet.
Last year postings jumped from 8.2 million to 14.2 million on December 27th. That’s six million ads posted in one day, so you know what to do with those unwanted Christmas gifts…
