Good news for eBay UK private sellers

EBay UK has just announced some great news for private sellers using their services. From the 13th of May onwards, the sellers will be allowed upto get 20 free listings a month in any category except for Motors. This will apply to both fixed price and auction formats.

That's not all, the sellers will be allowed to schedule 20 of their listings (meaning you can choose how long the auction runs and the end date and time as well) for free.

Some common ways eBay sellers are committing fraud

I was recently bidding on a kids bike on eBay. I was the only bidder and winning at 0.99p. However, with only a few hours to go before the end of the auction, the bid was suddenly cancelled. The reason - "This listing was ended by the seller because the item is no longer available."

I did not think much about it until the next day when I happened to drop by the old link and noticed some suggestions below. One of them was the exact item with nothing changed. The starting bid was 0.99p again.

Apparently some unscrupulous sellers on eBay are using this technique to avoid selling their items at a low price. The starting bid is 0.99p in order to avoid having to pay charges to eBay, which you have to if you put the starting bid higher or put in a 'buy-it-now' price.

One way some sellers try to avoid paying fees to eBay is to end the bidding and contact the highest bidder directly and arrange the transactions outside of eBay.

Another way some eBay sellers are committing fraud is by opening up multiple accounts and starting bidding wars to boost the price of the products they are selling. I think eBay is aware of this and I read in the newspapers sometime back about some sellers being fined for bidding on their own products.

However, another similar way that sellers boost their prices are by using families, friends or associates to bid on the item for the same reasons. I sometimes noticed the same people bidding for products from the same seller and it did raise some red flags but I never bothered to raise an alarm because they might actually be genuine collectors (this particular seller was specialised in vintage watches). I guess this is much more difficult to detect especially if they are bidding from different places (with different IP addresses) and even more so now that bidders' accounts appear private on listings.

Do you know of other ways some unscrupulous eBayers are getting away with fraud?

Get an iPad cheap

So far the Apple iPad is only available in the US and prices start from US $499. According to the news reports, 450,000 iPads have been sold in the first 5 days. That's pretty amazing. However, there are also reports that lots of people are returning them as well.

So you just have to be patient for a few weeks and wait for the used iPads to appear on eBay for a fraction of the retail price and in fact they are already there

In case you are one of those guys who think the iPad is a phone, you better read up here.

Bad buy on eBay

I have been able to grab a number of bargains on eBay and I thought that this Binatone MR620 Quad Two Way Radio, was one of them.

The batteries were dead when I got the walkie talkie and left them on the charger units to recharge overnight. Woke up in the morning and it seemed to be working fine when one of them died off after about a minute.



Naturally, I was really pissed off and left a neutral feedback on the seller's profile (I should have left a negative). The seller contacted me much later and she said that he/she would be willing to give me a refund. However, that was the last I heard from "ohhelsbels".

Tried contacting Binatone - no replies from their customer service.
Tried contacting a rechargeable battery reseller - no reply. I guess they don't have batteries for the particular model.

I sometimes wonder what the hell's wrong with businesses in this country. No wonder they are going bankrupt one by one.

Now I am stuck with a pair of useless gadgets. I plan to get a replacement rechargeable battery when I go back to Malaysia next time. Some of my friends has assured me that I can find a replacement battery for any gadget back in Kuala Lumpur.

There are a number of great personal license-free two-way radios in the market with an average range of up to 3km (some like the MOTOTLKR T5 walkie talkie has a range of upto 6km²).

Of course you may wonder why we need a 2 way radio in this age of mobile phones.

You should be aware that some place don't have mobile phone reception. Plus, there's no monthly bills to worry about and no contract either.

Guy sells life on eBay

Ian Usher, a Brit now living in Australia, plans to walk out of his house with just his wallet and passport. According to a report on the BBC site, Ian "is selling his house, friends and job" on eBay. This includes all his stuff in the house. He apparently made this decision after his wife left him.

Bidding has already started and will end on 5am BST on 29 June. You have to register in order to bid. Go to his site "A Life 4 Sale" for more details.



Read another report on the Daily Mail site: Brit who emigrated to Australia sells his ENTIRE life on eBay after being jilted by his wife