Difference between revisions of "Ebay"

Revision as of 02:21, 6 December 2012

"World's Online Marketplace."

eBay is the world's largest online marketplace with over 100 million users worldwide.^[1] Registered users can sell items by auctioning or sell them for a set price, or buy items through auction or simple purchase. Items sold on eBay include clothes, cars, games, computers, antique coins, deals, sporting goods, and more. While the community provides a vibrant market for online users, there are ramifications as to the truth in the description of items sold, what items are sold, and privacy in PayPal, the payment company acquired by eBay in 2002.^[2]

The Beginning

eBay was founded as AuctionWeb by programmer Pierre Omidyar in 1995 as a small code project over a Labor Day weekend. It was an experiment to see how people would react if they had equal access to a single online market.^[2] Upon launching the site, Pierre was able to sell a broken laserpoint pen for $14.83, propelling him to create a full-fledged market site that developed into ebay as we know it today. AuctionWeb officially changed to eBay in 1997.

Features

Selling

Auction

Buy it Now

In 2001, Ebay began offering an alternative to auction-style bidding. Now, with the addition of the Buy it Now feature, sellers can institute a flat rate price for their items. Sellers can offer their items as auctions but include a Buy it Now price for sellers that want to bypass an auction.

Buying

Categories

Ratings

Issues on ebay

False item description

Often times sellers one Ebay will falsify and embellish item descriptions. Common examples of this include stating that something is brand new when an item has been used previously, another example includes fake products that are sold on Ebay as real. Also, pictures can be misrepresentative of the actual item you receive. However, in recent years Ebay has tried to crack down on false items descriptions by allowing users to report sellers and by auditing auctions randomly. Ebay also provides a Help Center for its users which includes information on how to look out for fake items and false item descriptions by sellers. ^[3]

Ethics of items sold

Privacy

Buyer's Power

It has been frequently cited that Ebay gives too much power to the buyer and does not do enough to protect the seller from scams. In some cases, buyers have purchased products, filed a claim that the products were not as described, received a full refund, and in the end, been able to keep a product which was actually as described.

References

1. ↑ Who We Are (2012). "Overview". eBay. http://www.ebayinc.com/who
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} Who We Are (2012). "History". eBay. http://www.ebayinc.com/history
3. ↑ http://answercenter.ebay.com/question/Auction-Listings/False-Deceiving-Item/900345654

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