eBay: Grassroots Capitalism
by Jake Moore
By now I'm sure most of you are in the know about the online auction house, but because of a conversation I recently had with a couple of people, I know that not everyone has been clued in about the site. If you already dig on eBay, no need to read this I suppose, but if you haven't experienced it, read on!
I've been buying and selling various personal items on eBay since about the middle of 1999. I buy brand new CDs still in the plastic shrinkwrap for no more than $3.00 (USD). That's a savings of 70-85% depending on the retail price (Many CDs seem to be between $10 and $20). I've bought books, VHS tapes, DVDs, and any other kind of entertainment media for fractions of what I'd pay for them new, and many of these items are shipped in mint condition! I've also bought almost my entire bass rig on eBay. Everything from my German-made Warwick bass guitars to my enormous Genz Benz amp and speaker setup have been purchased used on the site, and altogether for those items, I spent around $2400. New, I would have spent over $6000!
The biggest mistake people make when they think of eBay for the first time is they make one of two horribly inaccurate assumptions. First, they assume that everything on eBay is junk or that everything is used. This is simply untrue. Almost every seller provides pictures for his/her items, and is usually more than happy to answer any questions you may have before bidding. Also, many sellers on eBay are actually retail stores who make a little extra by selling items online. Many items you find are brand new, never opened merchandise that either simply haven't sold at the store or have been purchased in bulk by the seller in order that he/she can sell the items at a very low price. Also, many times sellers on eBay are every day folk who buy something and realize it's not going to work out for them, realize they can't afford to keep the item, or find something better before using the item. These sellers often have all the packaging, manuals, etc for the items they sell.
The other poor assumption is that there exists a high risk of being ripped off. This is also false, as eBay uses a system of rating buyers and sellers according to the positive (+1), neutral, and negative (-1) feedback given by the other party for a given transaction. For instance, a seller offers an item, which is bid on and won by the buyer. The buyer pays for the item very quickly and receives the item promptly from the seller. Satisfied with the quick payment, the seller leaves a positive feedback for the buyer. Satisfied by the prompt shipment and accuracy of the auction description of the item, the buyer leaves a positive feedback for the seller. Both the buyer's and seller's feedback ratings go up by (+1). On the other hand, if the buyer takes a long time to pay or does not do so at all, the seller can leave negative feedback, or if the seller takes too long to ship the item or sends an item that does not reasonably match the auction description, the buyer can leave negative feedback for the seller. eBay also has a legal team which investigates fraud.
The idea is that by looking at the feedback rating of a seller, a prospective buyer can determine whether or not the seller is a risk to do business with, or whether the transaction is likely to go smoothly. Likewise, a seller can make stipulations in his auction that no one with a negative rating be allowed to bid on his item, avoiding the risk of a deadbeat buyer. The whole system is great. Sellers know that no one will bid on their items if their feedback rating is low, so they do their best to communicate well, ship items quickly, and take care to accurately describe the items they sell in order to gain good feedback. And buyers, knowing they won't be able to bid on things if they have negative feedback, do their best to make prompt payment for auctions won and are sure to communicate well. It's a win-win situation when there is an incentive to partake in smooth transactions. This value-for-value system is the very essence of capitalism. And because most of the transactions are conducted by parties in different states, there is no sales tax, which is immoral.
Another great feature which makes eBay such a good place to shop is the "Buy It Now" function. Sellers can start an auction where a buyer can skip the bidding process and just pay the "Buy It Now" price, avoiding the sometimes lengthy process of outbidding others over the course of an auction that can last up to 10 days. Sometimes the "Buy It Now" price is a little steep, so you may just want to bid and try your luck at getting the item for a lower price than the "Buy It Now", but there were times I've used "Buy It Now" because I knew that if I didn't, the bidding would take the price a lot higher than the fixed price, so I avoided that frustration. I bought a nice bass amp this year where the bidding was to start at $0.01 and the "Buy It Now" was $570. The amp was worth well over the "Buy It Now" price, so I just bought it. It was a good deal. I used the amp for a month or so and then sold it to someone else on eBay for over $950.
Wheeling and dealing is the spice of life as far as I'm concerned, and you can't go wrong with an auction site! Overall, I don't know of a better auction site out there than eBay, and I have the utmost confidence in the buyers and sellers who use the site. I have never been ripped off, and have never ripped anyone off, and have always come out of the transactions feeling like I made a new friend and got a good deal. Whether you're looking to buy a brand new item or you're in search of that one missing piece in your collection of antiques, chances are you will find it on eBay. And with millions of users worldwide, if something you seek isn't being offered right now, it's likely that it will be tomorrow, or next week, or whenever. If you check back often (I check my favorite searches daily, or even a couple of times a day) you can be sure to find what you're looking for.
I'm very much into flea markets, yard sales, auctions, thrift stores, and any other way I can get a good deal on stuff. eBay has rolled all these into one fantastic website. There's nothing like going to a flea market in your underwear. :)
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