The Virtual Woman: A Woman's
Weekly Guide To Cyberspace
GoingOnce, GoingTwice, Gone (Online That Is)
If you're like me (and for the sake of humanity let's hope few of you are) you'll find yourself wondering now and again: "Hmm...whatever was I thinking when I started my Elvis saucer collection?" And then, "It's been ages since I've added anything to it. Pity."In the past I might have thought about hitting yard sales, flea markets, antique and hobby shows. Now? I fire up my modem and head to an online auction (but you coulda guessed that, right?) Online auctions can get you what you want (or entice you into procuring many objects you don't need) with merely a few clicks of a mouse. And they're fun, too. Feel the power of bidding on that one-of-a-kind Liberacci bust for your grand piano. Or finally turn that antique coffee grinder that's been collecting dust into some cash. Online auctions are truly exciting, useful and deliciously convenient. Sound interesting? Keep on reading. And keep on writing too (my email's at the bottom of the column!)
Dear Virtual Woman:
There are some stale auction
sites out there, not well maintained. I was searching for some New Yorker
Magazine paraphernalia and thought I stumbled on a great collection, but
the items had already been sold. Where to go?
- Tine G., Atlanta, GA
Dear Tina:
e-Bay (http://www.ebay.com) is your answer. This powerhouse auction for the masses lives up to the hype as a credible venue for sellers and their goods, just as much as it is for buyers. Toting itself as "your personal trading community," e-Bay's community of buyers is kept happy with up to date sale items. Plus, you can track the reputation of a seller's credibility by clicking on what other e-Bayer's say about them.
To find a particular item related to the New Yorker Magazine, I typed "New Yorker Magazine" in e-Bay's internal search engine. I found one Item# 63262343-a "Beautiful Intact 1940 New Yorker Magazine" selling for $9.99. Granted, by the time you get there it'll probably have made its way through the "going once, going twice, gone" route that most auction items take but keep your eyes open-eBay is enormous and bound to have more items worth bidding upon.
Warning: This site is highly addictive. To illustrate, while visiting to answer your question I placed a $20 bid for a Wyoming Micro Ranch (I could not resist)-my own square foot of Wyoming Ranch Land. Next I need to find a micro farm, micro ranch hands and micro animals. Not a problem. Ebay has 1.8 million items for sale-I should have my pick!
Dear Virtual Woman:
I've been trying to sell my
antique china for the past year with little
luck. First through antique dealers in town who were not going to offer me
the full worth of the china since they needed to make a profit, then
through the classifieds in the paper. Even though I've always been wary of
Internet sales transactions, I'm at my wit's end to find the best place to
sell my goods at fair market price. Any suggestions?
- Last Resort, New Haven, CT
Dear Last Resort:
If you're determined that your plates are worth, let's say, millions because they were eaten off of by, say, George Washington, I would suggest the famous Christie's International Auction (http://www.christies.com) in New York. You can't sell your goods online through Christie's, but you can get in contact with people you can "entrust to sell [your] treasures" in a live auction.
If your plates aren't exactly worth millions though and you are interested in checking out how the online world could work for you in getting a fair price for them, check out Yahoo! Auctions (http://auctions.yahoo.com). As with every online auction, Yahoo requires buyers and sellers to register their personal information to track account information. Additionally, Utrade (http://www.utrade.com) is also one to explore, and the pages are less busy, and more user-friendly. It's easy to find anything from an egg incubator to a paintball gun. Give e-Bay a try as well. And although just fresh out of the gate and new to the biz, the powerhouse book reseller Amazon.Com (http://www.amazon.com) has started an auction division as well (this was just launched so any readers who have feedback on this service, please write to me).
Relative to your being wary about doing business online, generally the security of sales transactions through online auctions is not guaranteed. How to deal with this? I recommend using i-Escrow (http://www.iescrow.com), a company dedicated to being the middleman for any sales transaction between two parties. Both the buyer and seller who meet at an auction venue online sign up with i-Escrow, then the buyer pays i-Escrow the agreed purchase amount, the seller ships the goods to the buyer, the buyer approves the goods, which gives the nod to i-Escrow to pay the seller. Throughout this, i-Escrow charges a 5% transaction fee based on the cost of the goods. Usually the buyer picks up this cost. A little complicated, but a good bet for the cautious at heart.
Happy Surfing!
Find these links and more at WWWomen.Com (http://www.wwwomen.com) the web's largest search directory of topics for women online. Email the Virtual Woman with your Internet questions or send snailmail to: WWWomen.Com, Attn: Virtual Woman, 3701 Geary Blvd., #325, S.F., CA 94118. Copyright, 1998. WWWomen, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Contributing Editor: Mary C. Ray
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