PROFITING FROM EBAY

     by Troy Segler, Meeting Scribe

The general meeting in August was a resounding success. Attendance was improved, and information about buying and selling on EBay flowed freely. Doris Collins, our program chairman, has been making money buying and selling items on EBay for the past several years and appears to have the process down to a science.

Doris began the session by illustrating what is required to set up an account with PayPal in order to conduct business on EBay. We were walked through the steps, but Doris did not share here credit card number as she set up another account. She strongly recommends the use of PayPal for all business transactions. Money must be available if you are a buyer, but should something go wrong with the transaction, Doris stated PayPal was quick to resolve any conflicts that might ensue with the seller of the merchandise.

She explained her research process for establishing a price for either selling an item or for determining what should be considered a reasonable bid for a buyer. An illustration of her bidding was welcomed. She demonstrated how to enter a bid and submit a final bid at an interval of approximately 2 minutes prior to the item selling. Doris subscribes to a program called quick E_Snipes Bid Wizard to protect her bid process. In most cases this methodology allows Doris to “win” the item at the best price she is willing to pay.

Doris set up the sell of an item, walking us through the various steps necessary, including the placement of a picture on EBay in a suitable frame. We also watched Doris purchase a book by Robert Bateman for one of our members.

If you are a novice in buying and selling on EBay or wish to embark on that path, you should contact Charlene Francis, our very own SNUG leader and ask about signing up for a set of lessons taught by Doris. This series of lessons were composed by the National SeniorNet Users Group for our use and Doris has altered some of the individual information she will relate in order to provide our local students with her experiences in making some mad money.

At the conclusion of the meeting, a 1 year membership in CCOKC was given to Noreen Burns and a set of 10 R/W CDs was given to Linda Hare. I should add that we had 13 visitors at this meeting – the most visitors for quite a while. All members names were included in a drawing and one lucky person, Martha Duerksen, received VCom System Suite 6, a security program. Ray Rash’s name was drawn for an APC Uninterruptable Power Supply.

IMHO, the meeting was a huge success for those interested in internet buying and selling. More informative meetings are being planned by Doris for future months and hopefully you will place our meeting on your calendar.