You have to be living in a cave to not have heard of eBay. EBay calls itself the world's marketplace, but I like to think of it as the largest garage sale in the world. Let's call it a cyber garage sale. It is better than ordinary garage sales because you spend a whole lot less time and frustration looking at stuff you have no interest in. Speaking of garage sales, I have a friend who still frequents them, and she meets quite a few people at sales that mention to her that they are interested in eBay, but they still have not gotten around to buying or selling on eBay.

I understand that completely. For a long time, I browsed eBay, agog at the prices, but I just did not understand it, so I bought nothing. Then I had a friend who let me look over her shoulder as she showed me around on the eBay site and explained the basics of buying and selling. Even without the listings of things for sale, eBay is a huge website. There are pages upon pages of policies, rules, helpful resources for buyers, resources for sellers, and much more. In short it can take a long time to read and even longer to take action to buy or sell something for the very first time. That is why having a helpful friend with eBay experience is of great benefit.

What made me comfortable with buying on eBay was seeing the different screens on eBay (search, product description, seller's feedback, etc.) and having my friend point out what was important. Sometimes what was important was information that was missing, such as the words ?new? or ?smoke-free.?

Once I understood how to find what I was searching for and once I understood about auctions and fixed price listings, I still needed to understand how to assess a seller's feedback. Eighty percent may be an acceptable grade in school, but on eBay it is abysmal. As an eBay seller, my friend cared a great deal about her one-hundred percent positive feedback and keeping her customers happy, and I could see that. I gained an appreciation for what it means to be an eBay seller with several hundred feedbacks and a one-hundred percent score.

Not only did I get comfortable with eBay, I also started having fun. Recently I purchased a couple of new clothing items for less than half the price of one and that includes the shipping. What is more fun to a shopper than picking up some real bargains?