What Is eBay?
eBay Inc. is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website.
eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995, and became a notable success story of the dot-com bubble.
Can I Order From eBay In South Africa?
You can buy all sorts of items off of eBay or any U.S. retailer and have them shipped to that address.
The freight forwarder will receive packages for you. When you want them shipped to South Africa, they will consolidate the items into a single package and send it on to you.
General Security Rules For All eBay Users
Make your account password long, difficult to guess, and unique. That means not using passwords shorter than 8 characters (which are easy to brute-force), passwords that are simply your date of birth (or those of relatives), or passwords you’ve already used for other services (data leaks occur every day, and in the likely event that your password was part of one, then no matter how complicated it is, an attacker can simply try it on another site).
If you are having trouble thinking up and remembering dozens of passwords, use a password manager, which can perform both of these functions for you.
Activate two-factor authentication. eBay offers two options: You can receive a code by text message or push notifications from eBay’s mobile app. Any attempt to log in to your account from a new device will trigger the generation of a code, so simply having your login name and password won’t be enough for an outsider to access your account.
eBay Security Guidelines For Buyers
If the price seems unbelievably low, it’s suspicious. eBay is a well-established platform, and you are very unlikely to find a genuine item for sale here that is much cheaper than average.
Read product descriptions carefully. If you receive a damaged (scratched, broken, or torn) item, you can return it for a refund, but only if the defect was not indicated in the description.
The same applies to any discrepancies between what you expected and what you actually got. When you buy a product, you are agreeing that everything in the description is acceptable.
Pay attention to the seller’s rating. Everyone’s threshold is different. If you aren’t comfortable with a seller’s rating, but the deal still seems attractive, go ahead and read other users’ reviews, including in particular the negative ones.
Perhaps the seller made a couple of mistakes at the start of their selling career, but their record has been perfect for a long time.
Don’t buy illegal goods. It may sound obvious, but remember that what is legal in one country may be illegal in another.
eBay Security Guidelines For Sellers
If you are a seller, keeping meticulous records of your transactions is a must. Keep all receipts documenting the sending and delivery of goods to avoid situations in which a buyer can claim they did not receive anything and requests a refund. In the same vein, use a reputable delivery service that can issue receipts for shipped goods.
Write accurate descriptions. Carefully describe all of the important characteristics of the product, including any defects. If an item has a flaw you didn’t mention, you may have to accept its return and issue a refund.
Never ship an item before receiving payment from the customer. That’s where the eBay-plus-PayPal combination shines, allowing both parties to use an escrow account, which means PayPal withdraws the payable amount from the buyer’s account, holds it until buyer and seller are mutually satisfied, and then transfers it to the seller’s account.
How Can I Buy From eBay Safely?
If it’s too good to be true, it really is.
Researching the seller on eBay.
Read the complete item description.
Never accept offers to deal outside of eBay.
Keep all the delivery and shipment details handy.
Ensure your product listings are accurate.
When buying on the marketplace, your first step, of course, is to browse the categories of products that are available on the marketplace.
Once you see an item that you like, you can click on it to get further information, including the product description and pictures, payment options, and the shipping method.
Then, when paying for a chosen item, you have two options that you can choose from.
You can opt for the “Buy It Now” option, or you bid on the item.
When you choose the “Buy It Now” option, you will have to pay a fixed price stipulated on the product and pay for the item immediately.
But if you bid, it means that you need to win in an auction so that you can buy for a lower price.
