Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Computer Basics, Fourth Edition

immediately be notified that you’ve won the auction (and instructed to pay—typi-

cally via PayPal), and the auction will be officially closed.

CHAPTER 24 BUYING AND SELLING IN EBAY ONLINE AUCTIONS

277

FIGURE 24.3

A Buy It Now

auction.

Other eBay sellers choose to skip the auction

process entirely and sell their items at a fixed

price. These listings also display the Buy It Now

button but without a bidding option. Fixed-

priced listings are common in eBay Stores,

where larger sellers offer a constant supply of

fixed-priced merchandise for sale all year round.

More Than Auctions: eBay

Express, eBay Stores, and

Half.com

eBay offers more than just online auctions. In

addition to the traditional online auction market-

place, eBay offers three other marketplaces that

focus on selling fixed-priced items: eBay Express,

eBay Stores, and Half.com

eBay Stores

In addition to those fixed-price items offered as part of the traditional eBay auction

listings, you can also find fixed-price items for sale in eBay Stores. An eBay Store is

an online storefront where eBay merchants can sell their goods without putting

them up for auction—and keep them for sale indefinitely, without the typical auc-

tion expiration.

You can browse through thousands of different eBay merchants at the eBay Stores

page (stores.ebay.com), shown in Figure 24.4. eBay Stores merchants are organized

tip

Even if a seller offers the

Buy It Now option, you

don’t have to bid at the Buy

It Now price. You can bid at

a lower price and hope that

you win the auction, which

then proceeds normally.

(The Buy It Now option disappears

when the first bid is made—or, in

a reserve price auction, when the

reserve price is met.)

by the same categories as the eBay auction site—Antiques, Art, Books, and so on.

You can also search for a specific store or a store selling a certain type of item, or

view an alphabetical list of all stores.

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ABSOLUTE BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO COMPUTER BASICS

FIGURE 24.4

Shopping for

merchandise

from eBay Stores

merchants.

Buying an item from an eBay Store is a little like buying from any other online mer-

chant, and a little like winning an item in an eBay auction. On the one hand,

you’re buying from an actual merchant at a fixed price, and you can always pay by

credit card (typically via PayPal). On the other hand, you have all the niceties you

have on eBay, including the ability to check the merchant’s feedback rating.

After you locate an item you want, you’re taken to the “virtual storefront” of the

eBay Store selling the item. When you’re in a specific store, you can purchase the

item you were looking at or shop for additional items. Your checkout is handled

from within the store.

eBay Express

The newest part of the eBay marketplace is eBay Express (express.ebay.com). As you

can see in Figure 24.5, eBay Express offers a streamlined shopping and checkout

experience for fixed-priced items.

eBay Express consolidates nonauction listings from both the main eBay site and

eBay Stores. That is, you can use eBay Express to find all the fixed-priced items

offered by eBay sellers without having to search the site, browse the Stores, or wait

for an auction process to end.

FIGURE 24.5

Shopping for

fixed-priced

items at eBay

Express.

CHAPTER 24 BUYING AND SELLING IN EBAY ONLINE AUCTIONS

279

All items offered on eBay Express can be paid for with a credit card, typically using

PayPal. Even better, you can purchase multiple items from multiple sellers and have

all your purchases consolidated into a single shopping cart and checkout system.

Buy multiple items, make a single payment—not a bad deal.

Half.com

eBay Stores and eBay Express aren’t the only places you can find fixed-price mer-

chandise in the eBay universe. eBay also runs a site called Half.com, which offers

new and used merchandise for sale from a variety of merchants.

As you can see in Figure 24.6, the Half.com home page (half.ebay.com) looks a little

like Amazon.com’s home page. That’s by design; Half.com was originally conceived

as an Amazon competitor. Today, Half.com offers merchandise from large and small

retailers and from individuals, too. The site specializes in CDs, DVDs, video games,

books, and textbooks.

When you make a purchase at Half.com, you’re buying directly from the individual

seller, just as you do in an eBay auction. The big difference, of course, is that it’s not

an auction; you’re buying an item (new or used) at a fixed price. The other differ-

ence is that you don’t pay the seller separately; all your Half.com purchases end up

in the same shopping cart, just like at Amazon.com. You check out once for all your

purchases and make just one payment (to Half.com). Half.com then pays the indi-

vidual sellers, who ship you your merchandise separately. It’s fairly painless.