Shauna Wright - Dont Get Burned on Ebay: How to Avoid Scams and Escape Bad Deals

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About the Author

Shauna Wright has been writing since she was old enough to put pencil to paper. Much to her dismay, her mother still has the mock "newscast" she wrote when she was eight (which included a reference to Walter Croncatno, that's not a typo).

She holds a bachelor's degree in criminology from the University of Memphis, where she was the president of the Pre-Law Society for two years and participated in other student government groups. She balanced this with copious social time as the "little sister" of a campus fraternity, the members of which probably still remember her as the girl who hated beer.

Shauna signed up with eBay in 1998 and has bought and sold everything from clothes to cosmetics to far less girly items like computer hardware. Her background in criminology taught her to be suspicious of everyone, so she's exerted much energy learning to protect herself and others from being ripped off. Time permitting, she shares her knowledge (and paranoia) on eBay's Answer Center boards.

Over the years she's been a speaker at many web conferences, lecturing about such topics as writing for the Web, information design, and dealing with difficult clients. She's written on sites such as Fray.com, Teen-Wire.com, and a whole bunch that aren't around anymore. She's the co-founder of WhoWouldBuyThat.com, which gives her a much-needed outlet for snark.

She's an avid fan of The Daily Show , TelevisionWithoutPity.com, Lyle Lovett, and anything Aaron Sorkin has ever done. She believes in karma and is always kind to animals and the elderly. Her boyfriend says she's "built like that girl on the mudflaps," and she loves him for it.

Entire tomes could be written about rookie mistakes on eBay, but who would read them? The newbies are too busy making the mistakes, and the veterans are too experienced to bother reading about them. Nevertheless, eBay policies can be very intricate and they manage to trip up both subsets of eBayers with alarming frequency.

Lisa, an avid Beatles fan, ran across the holy grail of Fab Four collectiblesa tin of "Margo Of Mayfair" Beatles Bath Talc from 1964 in perfectly unblemished, mint condition (). Lisa was so excited that she immediately placed several bids, even though the auction still had two days left. None of the bids were high enough to beat the current high bidder's proxy , so she dejectedly went back to browsing.

Lo and behold, someone else was selling the exact same thing and that auction had only a few minutes to go! Lisa jumped into the bidding fray and emerged triumphant.

The next day, she received a notice from eBay stating the high bidder on the first auction retracted his bid, putting Lisa in the lead, and the auction later closed with her as the winner. She was then on the hook to pay for both auctions (and contemplating a second job).

Figure 1-1. The hallowed "Margo of Mayfair" Beatles tin. Who knew 40-year-old powder could be so expensive? Buy two and they're even more expensive bookends!

Lisa's colossal error was bidding on two identical items at the same time. All bids are live until the end of an auction, so bids retracted by another bidder or canceled by the seller can put you back in the lead.

When you see something you want to buy, add it to your Watch List (found on your My eBay page ) and bid closer to the end of the auction. This gives you the chance to research it or browse for similar items without tying up your money waiting for an auction to close.

If you find yourself in Lisa's situation and the second auction hasn't closed yet, you can always email the seller, explain what happened and ask him to cancel your bid. Keep in mind he doesn't have to acquiesce and may even refuse out of spite if he sees you've already won an identical item. Sellers don't like people treating bids as though they go into a "shopping cart" from which they can be removed later.

If you're the buyer, there's only one way out of this situation: beg for the seller's mercy.

Politely explain what happened and ask if he'd be willing to cancel the deal if you pay his listing fees (which vary depending on how the item was listed and its final selling price). He certainly isn't obligated to agree but if the auction attracted a lot of bids, he may be able to quickly sell the item to an underbidder through a Second Chance Offer .

But should the seller refuse to take pity on you, be prepared to either pay for the item or accept an Unpaid Item Strike (a few of those and eBay kicks you to the curb). You may also receive negative feedback from the seller.

Bob placed a bid on a Coach wallet he knew his wife had been coveting.

The starting bid was 99 cents so he entered a proxy of $10at least, that's what he thought he entered. Later on he discovered he'd accidentally entered an extra zero, making his actual proxy $100.

A last-minute bidding war broke out between two other bidders, neither of whom outbid Bob's proxy, and the auction ended at $76. Bob's wife was thrilled at the good deal he got. He considered divorce, but quickly surmised it would be more expensive than the wallet for which he was obligated to pay.

eBay's rules allow the buyer to retract a ). Bid retractions are also permitted if the seller's contact information is invalid or the item description significantly changes.

Retractions are not permitted if you just change your mind and no longer want the item. That, however, is a valid reason for divorce in most states. In case you were wondering.