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Revision as of 21:23, 6 December 2012
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]
Contents
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. The Buy it Now price is removed if the actual auction price exceeds it, the item then proceeds to be sold in a traditional auction price bidding war with no Buy It Now option anymore.
Buying
Categories
Ratings
Ebay has always offered the feature of leaving reviews for both buyers and sellers. Ebay wanted to give buyers information regarding the reliability of items, delivery time, and overall conduct of sellers. Buyers reviews allow sellers to see how timely payments are made. In 2008, Ebay enhanced the seller-reviews feature by separating the review into four categories: shipping, item description, shipping and handling charges and seller communication. This gave buyers more details into a sellers history and reputation. Ebay provides incentive for users to gain feedback by using a feedback points system. Members recieve +1 point for each positive rating, 0 points for each neutral rating, -1 point for each negative rating. Ebay has also implemented a star rating representing your total points ranging from a yellow star for a feedback score between 10-49 to a silver shooting star for a rating over 1,000,000.
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
While users on Ebay can create their own usernames however they wish. There is still the issue of privacy on Ebay when it comes to personal address information, credit card and bank check information, as well as personal e-mail information. When you win an item on Ebay, you then must provide a shipping address and proceed with payment to the seller. This may violate privacy due to anonymity on the Internet you really do not know who is selling you the product and what they can do with your personal address, etc. even after the transaction is over.
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
- ↑ Who We Are (2012). "Overview". eBay. http://www.ebayinc.com/who
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Who We Are (2012). "History". eBay. http://www.ebayinc.com/history
- ↑ http://answercenter.ebay.com/question/Auction-Listings/False-Deceiving-Item/900345654
