eBay for Dummies, Fourth Edition

Rating:
Summary: Strictly for beginners
Review: A good starter for newbies, and hopefully one that will help fill the gap between the baffled new user and the huge, daunting and badly-indexed eBay Help section. Half the problems on eBay happen because of lack of understanding of the basic system, and this book will be a useful tool if you're learning. It also covers a few helpful areas such as simple HTML for auction listings in addition to being a primer for eBay's system. There is nothing much here for the more advanced eBayer; still, this book is "for Dummies" so that's to be expected. It will help you learn the basics and elevate you from "dummy" to at least "advanced beginner", though there is no substitute for experience - don't forget those message boards.

Rating:
Summary: Try Overstock.com Auctions!
Review: Anyone with the least bit of PC knowledge and customer service skills can sell on any on-line venue. Most have it set up to walk you through step by step. Besides, eBay raised their fees so high as of 2/18/05 that many sellers are flocking to other venues like www.overstock.com/auctions!

Rating:
Summary: Not just for Dummies - a fun reference
Review: Ebay is great for buying things and I have been selling a few items. This book covers all the little details that are easy to forget. I find myself jumping around from chapter to chapter, looking up things I need to clarify. The answers are all there, and I keep the book next to my computer. I'm selling more on ebay now, and the tips I got from the book are helping me get higher prices for my items then I did before. Even though ebay is constantly changing - this edition is updated with all the new features.

Rating:
Summary: I loved it!
Review: I have been selling and buying on eBay for a little while now and wanted to expand myself. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I covers practically everything. From starting up, to buying, to selling, to shipping, to feedback and more. It is eBay made simple! Very informative. There is so much useful (and also very basic) information in here. If you are wanting to start using eBay (or are not very experienced with it), I definately recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: Very Helpful But Could Have Been More Visual
Review: I will admit that anytime I have to learn anything new with computers, I just cringe, since my talents are not in that direction. But setting up auctions for the sale of items on ebay mandated that I plunge into yet another round of reference books allied to computer use. The "Dummies" books seemed well titled for me and this was the first of them I've tried. I did glean a lot of information from reading this book. I ended up improving my listings on ebay so that they look better, for one. I'm still not as far along as I'd like though because I do even better with computer and allied computer books which are very heavily illustrated. So I still want to buy an ebay book which has profuse illustrations on every page, many in color, to further my ability with the ebay auctions. For example, showing a sample of a gallery page, alongside a page that is items with gallery previews, would have told me instantly what ebay was trying to accomplish with that distinction. Without seeing that illustrated, however, I just had to stumble around ebay and figure it out for myself. Reading about something that visual in this book didn't bring the concept home to me. Now I want to learn FrontPage 2000 for computers. This time, however, I ordered one of those visual books instead to see if I can learn how-to-do FP 2000 in one go.

Rating:
Summary: A classic that gets better and better!
Review: I'm not a big fan of the dummies books but I thought I would give this book a try. Although I did find some useful tidbits I prefer the Greg Holden book on eBay. His book was more informative and the writing style is much better. If your a fan of the dummy books you will probably like this book but if you prefer a more professional writing style look elsewhere.

Rating:
Summary: Truly a beginner's book
Review: I've been selling on Ebay for a while and I picked up this book hoping to find some help with making my selling work better. That is really not the focus of this book so I can't fault it for not finding what I wanted. However, if you're a newbie to Ebay and want to find out what's going on without actually logging on and clicking all of the buttons, then this is a good starting place. Like all "Dummies" books it covers the basics but doesn't go very deeply into anything. And truthfully, you can learn 98% of what's in this book just by logging onto Ebay and clicking around. Ebay really is pretty easy to use. Oh yes, like most Dummies books they load it down with lame jokes. I just wish they'd leave that ... out. In summary, not an outstanding book but good at what it's designed to do.

Rating:
Summary: A great place to start . . .
Review: My friend who uses eBay a lot recommended this book to get me started. It worked wonderfully. I made a few buys and sold a lot of junk that was cluttering my house. Now my feedback is over 100 with a 100% rating.

Rating:
Summary: Great book - Missed one critical tool
Review: This book is very well written and will give you a lot of instruction on how to use eBay that will save you lots of time. To find out how to sell products on eBay I would recommend Marsha's other book Starting an eBay business for Dummies in addition to this one. I recently became a millionaire buying and selling on eBay in my spare time in addition to my academic work and I can tell you its not that hard. You do have to know the secrets though and this book includes a lot but left out the biggest one. There is a software tool called www.powersnipe.com. eBay auctions are often lost in the last few seconds of the auction because the majority of people wait until the last seconds to place their bids. This tool bids for you at the last second and ensures you win, a big time saver and the biggest key to success.

Rating:
Summary: Great eBay book...but quite opinionated....
Review: This is one of the GREAT eBay books--covering about everything--but is quite opinionated. For example the author has the strange notion that money orders are the perfect way for paying at eBay. (Possibly because she is a sucessful seller, and I guess the little amount PayPal charges to receive money adds up if you receive a lot.) The reader, if a newbie to eBay, needs to keep in mind that the author's prejudice against PayPal is not shared by everyone. For many, PayPal is the absolute best way to go for both buying and selling...no running down to the 7-11 or post office to get a money order...no having to listen to a buyer lying about how the money order must have gotten lost in the mail, when they never sent one. At one point, the author even strangely advises the reader to lie if they need to about forgetting to send money! She also makes it sound like those selling illegal items are quickly booted out of eBay, when it's no such thing. eBay is easily one of the biggest pirate's den in the whole wide world for people infringing on the copyrights of others.Gee, and then there was her remark about how the bidder should never bid in an auction until the very end--doing so marks the bidder as an inexperienced newbie. That's one of the stupidest practices at eBay...unless the seller is a cheat who's into getting his friends or relatives to bid...and takes so much out of the fun of an auction...no activity to the very end...BLAH!The humor in the book is also extremely forced and unfunny. Or maybe after you've read so many Dummies books, none of the humor is amusing any longer...unless the topic has you totally scared out of your mind...and you are desperate for a laugh...any laugh.Ah, but it's still a great eBay book, with loads of useful information! And it resells VERY WELL at eBay...so feel free to buy it new here at Amazon.com...get free postage...and then resell it at eBay and get most of your money back! Just don't spill anything on it, or write in it, or let your pet rabbit chew on it! :)