Buy antiques and vintage – eBay basics

Part one of my beginners guide to buying antiques,vintage and collectables on eBay.  Buying on eBay can be enjoyable  and a great source of that special antique or elusive collectable.  But where to start?  Part one covers some essential skills and knowledge I recommend before you even start.

1. Absolute essentials:

          e.mail, Internet access and a Paypal account.

Hopefully as you are reading this you already have e.mail and internet access and so I shall say no more about those here. Please do set up a paypal account before you start bidding. Whilst this is not strictly essential it really is the best insurance for your safety. It is now a requirement of selling on eBay that all sellers accept paypal. The biggest tip I can offer with using paypal is to fund it from your credit card rather than your bank account. There are two reasons for this:

•  If you use funds from your bank account they take several days to clear and get to your seller ( this is known as an e.cheque ). Your seller will not normally post until the e.check has cleared and it will take much longer for you to get your antiques.
• It is safer to use your credit card – if all else fails your credit card company will give you your money back

2. Knowledge of how the eBay system works:

•       how to find the item you want (see part two of this guide)
•       how to check out the seller and the feedback system (see part three of this guide)
•       know your consumer rights for if things go wrong (see part seven of this guide)

3.  An eBay account:

Whilst you can take a look around eBay before registering an account you cannot bid or buy before setting yourself up on the system. To set your self up as a registered user you will need:

•  an e.mail address which is not already used on any other eBay account. So if you share an e.mail address with someone else who has used it for eBay it may be time to get independent and you own e.mail address.
• Think of a “userid” or the name under which you will be known on eBay. This needs to be a combination of letters and numbers which has not been used by anyone else. My eBay used id is AntiquesAvenue in case you want to take a look.

Now you have armed yourself with the essentials, please go to part two of my guide to buying antiques, vintage and collectables on eBay to learn how to find that elusive piece on the system