eBay explained - Part 2

Part 2: What a Transaction at eBay.com Looks Like.

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Note: this scenario is simplified for learning purposes. An fully explained exemple is the best for you to understand exactly what is happening.

Scenario: Seller Christine is a registered eBay member who has been buying and selling for eleven months. Because Christine has successfully bought and sold 14 times, she has earned an eBay “positive feedback rating” of 14. Shauna’s name will appear onscreen as follows:

ChristineMatthew (14)

She is very motivated to continue earning positive feedback and the customer trust that goes with it. Christine hopes to one day achieve a positive feedback rating of 1000.

STEP 1: The Listing Stage:

Christine decides she wants to sell her used Swiss Army Watch at eBay. Originally a $750 item, the watch is 7 years old and in good condition. She hopes to get $500USD for it, but will settle for $400.

She takes some digital photos of the watch, and she takes an hour to carefully author a web page ad that describes the watch to potential buyers. She then lists the web page advertisement and photos at eBay at 3:04pm on a Saturday afternoon. She pays a small initial listing fee of a couple dollars.

Christine ’s starting bid for the watch is $100USD, and the auction is slated to run for 7 days. Shauna has also added a “Buy It Now” option set at $450, to motivate buyers to end the auction early, and she promises to charge $15 shipping and handling for any USA customers.

STEP 2: The Selling (Auction Bidding) Stage:

By the fifth day of the auction, Christine has two bids on the Swiss Army watch: Buyer Michael (feedback rating of 42) has bid $100, and Buyer John (feedback rating of 29) has bid $101.

On the sixth day of the auction, three new eBay buyers, Katrine (rating of 3), Jack (rating of 4), and maria (rating of 1), also discover the watch, and they make “nickel-and-dime bids” of $120, $121, and $122 respectively. Although Christine would like to see higher bids, she is pleased to see a small bidding frenzy happening on her watch. The Swiss Army watch high bid is now $122.

Day 7 of the auction comes, and a small bidding frenzy ensues over the Swiss Army watch. Maria, the novice buyer, ambitiously bids $175 five hours before the auction end. Maria’s $175 is called her secret “bid ceiling”. Michael, also wanting the watch, counterbids $150 and $160, but is automatically outbid by maria’s $175 secret “bid ceiling”. The auction high bid is now $161. David jumps in 11:15am and bids $325. david does beat maria’s bid ceiling, so he is now the high bidder at $176, with a new secret bid ceiling of $325.

Buyer Jack, who is carefully watching this auction, decides to make another bid of his own at 12:30pm on Saturday: $395. Jack immediately becomes the high bidder, and the auction is now set at $326, with Jack’s new secret bid ceiling of $395.

Michael tries counterbidding with $350, which raises the auction to $351, but is insufficient to beat Jack’s $395 bid ceiling. Jack wins the Swiss Army watch for $351, 44 dollars less than his secret bid ceiling.

STEP 3: The Payment and Feedback Stage:

Christine doesn’t get the $500 price she hoped for, but she is happy to have a successful sale. She sends an email to Jack with payment and shipping expectations. Jack replies, and he promises to send Christine her $351 + $15 S & H. They agree to use the most popular form of eBay payment: Paypal.com. ( How to... use paypal ? learn here !)

Jack logs into his Paypal.com account that night, transfers $366USD from his Visa card to Christine ’s email. Christine transfers the $366 to her bank account via encrypted Internet connection, minus a small fee to Paypal. Christine then owes 1.5% of the Swiss Army Watch selling price to eBay.com, who will bill her $5.27 next month for her seller’s fee. Christine nets about $357 out of $366, after all her fees to eBay and Paypal.

Christine files “positive feedback” for Jack, documenting that he promptly paid her within 24 hours. She then ships the watch to Jack with careful packaging and short thank you note. Christine pays for the shipping out of the $15 S& H charge she billed Jackfor.

Jack , now with an increased 43 positive feedback rating, receives the Swiss Army Watch by post office mail 11 calendar days later. The watch is exactly what Christine described it to be, so Jack is pleased. Jack logs onto eBay, and files “positive feedback” for Christine , bring Christine ’s positive feedback rating up to 15.

Christine ’s onscreen now appears as :

ChristineMatthew (15)

Which indicates Christine has transacted at least 15 honest and positive sales on eBay.


..... want to know more ? I bet you do, all eBay secrets and know-how, are fully explained here :



















If still want eBay explained here, on my blog, take a look:

eBay explained - Part 1
eBay explained - Part 2
eBay explained - Part 3
eBay explained - Part 4


How to... use PayPal ? What is PayPal ? What I need to use PayPal ?