BOOMER ENTREPRENEUR

INTRODUCTION TO eBAY

eBay is probably the best known Internet business. It bills itself as “The World's Online Marketplace"®. I am certain that most of you have heard of eBay and some of you are already members. If you are not a member, go to eBay now and register as a member so we can get on with your entrepreneurial career. eBay will be the first place where we start.

When you arrive on the Register: Information Page, you will be asked the usual info about name, phone number and email address. Since we are on the Internet, your email address is very important so be careful when you enter it. You will be asked to create a user name which may be your most difficult task, since many names are already taken. Keep trying until you get the name you want. You will be asked a secret question to answer in case you forget your password. (See below for a method of keeping your passwords organized). You must then enter your birthday (It's OK ladies, this will be kept a top secret!). You must be 18 to join eBay, but since we are all Boomers, being carded is not a problem.

With that preparation, click the following link to and register yourself as a buyer on eBay.

If you are not registered on eBay. Do not go past this point till you do this! Don’t worry about registering as a seller. That will come later.

OK – Are you now officially a member of eBay?

Now that you have your user name and password, you will be able to move forward with your eBay education.

Speaking of user names and passwords, as you work on the Internet, you will need many user names and passwords. I have tried to find the universal user name and a password that has a combination of upper and lower case letters, numbers, and special characters. Some websites will not allow special characters, some require a password over four characters, some require six or more and some require eight or more. I have given up on a universal password and here is how I organize my passwords. I have an Excel spreadsheet that has the following columns – Website, User Name, Password, Account, Secondary Account (not used much) and Comments. I have a link in my system tray at the bottom of the screen (near the start button on the left side) so I can click on it and quickly look up any password that I need. I just counted the entries and there are 152. (They are sorted in alpha order). I am sure that many of you have more. The message here – organize early so you do not have to come back and do “damage control” later.

Many people buy “how to” books about eBay before they really spend time on the eBay website. This is a total waste of time and money since eBay has a great learning center. Go there by going to www.ebay.com. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click find the Learning Center link. It is on the very bottom row of links. Click it and spend a few hours reading the various topics, viewing the videos, and taking the courses that are offered. I have included a screenshot of the page. Notice all the help that you can get. There is no reason to spend money for eBay education at this stage. Get quality education from the source – eBay.

Did you spend time in each area of this page? If you did not spend a couple of hours, go back and spend more time. You are cheating yourself if you do not.

Another good link to eBay is http://pages.ebay.com/imexplained.html. I recommend that you take a look at this page to see if you missed anything in the Learning Center .

The first action that you should take on eBay is to buy something that you need. Instead of going to Wal-Mart or Target, look for the item on eBay. If you are going to make a living on the Internet, you should use the Internet as part of your daily life. On a recent business trip, I dropped my laptop (clumsy me!) and broke the display. A new display is worth more than the laptop (I used eBay to find the current market price for the laptop). I kept shopping on eBay and found a used display that was reasonable. I already disassembled the laptop to find the part number to order so I know that I will be able to reassemble it when the replacement display arrives. Just another example of how to use eBay! I have bought a lawn edger (still using it), a floor buffer, Southwest Airlines drink tickets, obscure Cisco cables for the company network, electrical connectors, Christmas gifts, great kitchen knife for Linda, etc. Look for anything on eBay before you look in the brick and mortar world unless you need it right now.

This ends your introduction to eBay. Please take notice that if I were strictly profit motivated, I would have tried to sell you the beginners “how to” eBay books. In the future, I will recommend a couple of advanced books to you. First, you need to learn the basics to fully utilize the really good books.