Buying from E-Bay?

[irv]

Finally got around to changing my password yesterday and updating my info with Pay Pal so I am curious what is all involved with purchasing/bidding on something from E-Bay?

I was just in, looked at some cards, hit the "bid now" tab and it looks like I could have if I proceeded?

I see most/all have name like this "A**B" or something like that, I assume I should also come up with something like that for me as well?

Is there anything more to it, something I am not aware of, fees etc that is associated with this?

I have never bid on something before in my life so any and all info would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.........Irv

[irv]

Found/read this so I guess that pretty sums up my questions?
http://pages.ebay.com/help/buy/bidding-overview.html

Just curious what I need to be aware of, if anything, so I don't get burned etc.

Thanks

[Shoeless Moe]

If your just buying, and not selling, there are no fees.

Buyers just pay the price they win the item at, and then if there is a shipping charge shown, some sellers have free shipping.

My 2 cents, if its an auction and not a buy it now, bid at the end, within the last minute......it avoids you getting in a bidding war early.

Just know what your max price is factoring shipping too, and bid that, sometime you will win, sometimes lose, sometimes well below your max bid sometimes right at it.

Good luck!!!

[gregr2]

Another good method is to use a sniping service such as gavelsnipe.com

You enter the URL of the eBay auction and you max bid and in the last few seconds of the auction it bids for you. Same theory, you'll win some and lose some but it takes out the urge to keep pushing up the bid.

[irv]

Thanks guys.

I tried to enter a bid and it wouldn't accept it? Tried a few times, read some stuff then called E-Bay.

Was informed, due to my lack of use, that I had to be reset. The lady on the other end was great, although a tad hard to understand at times, but things went smoothly.
She reset me, I tried it and it worked. Thing is, what I bid on wasn't exactly what I was after, nor did I pay much attention to what it actually was, so I also learned how to retract a bid today.

After being careless, I will now pay closer attention, be more careful, and definitely look over things better, including shipping fees. Those vary greatly and there doesn't seem to be a reason for it that I can see?

[irv]

Well, I got my feet wet and purchased a couple cards from E-Bay last night.
A 1959 Fleer Ted Williams and a 1961 Fleer Goose Goslin, both PSA graded.

Like what has been already mentioned, shipping rates vary exponentially!

Passed on a few I wanted more but the shipping rates/fees killed it for me, plus when I add up the CDN exchange rate, a $10.00 card can easily turn into a $40.00 or $50.00 dollar card!

Being since I was given a bunch of 52 Topps cards, I thought I'd give back or contribute to the hobby, but I am not sure, especially with what I mentioned above, if I can do this very often or not?

Any idea why shipping rates are so expensive compared to others? I assume the sellers also make money off of those?
I can understand, maybe, an expensive card, but when you see a $10.00-$20.00 dollar worth about half the shipping costs, it sure makes you wonder!

Edit: Can someone tell me why some cards/ads have an import fee/charge and others don't? I seen last night and today, some of those are just as much if not more than shipping costs.