It is also important to remember that EBay auctions are fully legal business transactions and if you bid on a lot and win, you enter into a contractual agreement to purchase that item. Most EBay members understand and abide by the rules, but all too often certain individuals start bidding frivolously on several auctions at a time, and after the dust has settled, find out that they do not have the means to pay for them all. Several vendors have taken legal action against non-paying bidders and it is essential that this process be taken very seriously.

This EBay Buyer's Guide has been written with the entire spectrum of users in mind. As such, the first part of the article is geared toward the novice and covers all the EBay basics. Later on we get into subjects more in-depth, and there is even an interesting tips and tricks section towards the end that will appeal to the intermediate and more advanced crowd. So be patient, there is definitely something in this guide for everyone.

One innovative feature of EBay is the presence of specific sections for its international members. While US-based bidders will automatically use the default EBay homepage, there are also EBay global sites for Australia, Canada, Germany, France, Japan and the UK. While language is an important aspect of the German, French and Japanese areas, these sections are basically a way to filter the EBay auctions so that only those available to your particular region are openly displayed. For example, a US EBay auction that allows for international shipping will show up on all the different EBay homepages, but a French vendor shipping only within France will naturally only be displayed when using EBay France.

Before jumping into the deep end of the EBay pool, it might be best to just lurk around and observe exactly how the whole process works. Just like playing a test stock portfolio before finally making the plunge, it is best to first keep an eye on a few interesting EBay auctions and then see exactly how the bidding progressed, and how the final price compared to the value you placed on the item. This is important for a number of reasons. One, it helps you to understand the supply and demand aspects of EBay and enables you to see what items are currently “hot” and which ones can be had for a song. This can be very cyclical in nature, and when a new overclockable CPU is found, expect demand to be high and bidding to be ferocious. On the flip side, when a hot new 3D card is released, expect to see a rash of older cards being auctioned off as more and more users upgrade.

Lurking for a few days can give potential bidders a pretty good idea of what the going rate is for a given piece of hardware or software, and ensure that your expectations reflect the current environment on EBay. And don't worry if you think that time spent lurking is going to cause you to somehow miss out on some hot deals. That is definitely not the case, as new items are thrown into the auction pool on a daily basis. As you watch one GeForce 256 DDR auction come to a close, you can rest assured that a few more have been listed since.