Picking a Pickproof Password

Choosing a good password is not as easy (but is twice as important) as it
may seem. Whoever has your password can (in effect) “be you” at eBay —
running auctions, bidding on auctions, and leaving possibly-litigious feedback
for others. Basically, such an impostor can ruin your eBay career — and
possibly cause you serious financial grief.

Many passwords can be cracked by the right person in a matter of seconds.
Your goal is to set a password that takes too much of the hackers’ time. With
the number of available users on eBay or PayPal, odds are they’ll go to the
next potential victim’s password rather than spend too many minutes (or
even hours) trying to crack yours.

As with any online password, you should follow these commonsense rules to
protect your privacy:

✦ Don’t choose anything too obvious, such as your birthday, your first
name, or (never use this) your Social Security number. (Hint: If it’s too
easy to remember, it’s probably too easy to crack.)
✦ Do make things tough on the bad guys — combine numbers and letters
(use uppercase and lowercase) or create nonsensical words.
✦ Don’t give out your password to anyone — it’s like giving away the keys
to the front door of your house.
✦ Do change your password immediately if you ever suspect someone has
it. You can change your password, by going to the Account Information
area of your My eBay page or to the following address:
signin.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.
dll?ChangePasswordAndCreateHint
✦ Do change your password every few months just to be on the safe side.

Selecting Your User ID

Making up a user ID is always a pleasant chore. If you’ve never liked your real
name or never had a nickname, here’s your chance to correct that situation.
Choose an ID that tells a little about you. Of course, if your interests change,
you may regret too narrow a user ID.
You can call yourself just about anything, but remember that this ID is how
other eBay users will know you. Here are some guidelines:
✦ Don’t use a name that would embarrass your mother.
✦ Don’t use a name with a negative connotation, such as scam-guy. If
people don’t trust you, they won’t buy from you.
✦ Don’t use a name that’s too weird, you know, something like babyvampire-
penguin. People may chuckle, but they may also question your
sanity.
✦ eBay doesn’t allow spaces in user IDs, so make sure that the ID makes
sense when putting two or more words together. A friend of mine
intended to register as “gang of one.” She forgot the hyphens, so her ID
reads gangofone.

Signing Up and Getting Started

The prospect of getting started on eBay is exciting — and daunting.
Perhaps you’ve visited the eBay Web site once or twice with the idea that
you might buy something. Maybe you’ve heard your friends talk about the
things they’ve bought. Did you look up something simple, such as a golf club?
Did eBay come up with several thousand listings? Or maybe you figured you’d
get smart and narrow the search down to a 3 iron, but you still got more than
a thousand listings?

Did you consider buying something and then just left the site, for fear you’d
get ripped off? eBay works much better for me than any quasi-convenient
TV shopping channel because there’s no overly made up huckster telling me
how great I’d look in the outfit on the screen (displayed on a size-4 model).
On eBay, you have the opportunity to give an item a leisurely once-over,
read the description and terms, and click a link to ask the seller a question
before you bid or buy. eBay’s as simple as that. If you don’t like the seller’s
response, you can just go on to the next seller. That’s the great thing about
eBay. There’s always another seller — and always another item.

Registering on eBay
You can browse eBay all you want without registering, but before you
transact any sort of business on eBay, you must register. I recommend
registering while you’re reading this blog.

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to register at eBay. The only hardand-
fast rule is that you have to be 18 or older. Don’t worry; the Age Police
won’t come to your house to card you — they have other ways to discreetly
ensure that you’re at least 18 years old. (Hint: Credit cards do more than satisfy
account charges.)

If you’re having a momentary brain cramp and you’ve forgotten your age,
just think back to your childhood. If your first memory is watching The
Animaniacs and Chip ’n’ Dale Rescue Rangers on TV, you’re in. Head to the
eBay home page and register. The entire process takes only a few minutes.

During the early days of online trading, I was selling Star Trek memorabilia
on Auction Web (the initial eBay site) and doing quite well. I ran into William
Shatner (Captain Kirk of Star Trek fame) at a marketing meeting in mid-1997.
Anxious to let him know how well I was doing with my merchandise online, I
tried to explain Auction Web. Shatner scoffed, “No one will ever make any
money on the Internet.” (Really, I have witnesses — remember, this is the
future Mr. Priceline.com.) Ah, well.

Before you can sign up, you have to be connected to the Web, so now’s the
time to fire up your computer. After you open your Internet browser, you’re
ready to sign up. In the address box of your browser, type www.ebay.com
and press Enter.

Your next stop is the eBay home page. Right there, where you can’t miss it,
is the Register button — it’s “fast and free!” Click this button and let the signup
process begin. You can get to the Registration form also by clicking the
register link next to the eBay logo at the top of the page.

When you’re at the Registration form, you go through a four-step process.
Here’s an overview:

1. Enter the basic required info.
2. Read and accept the User Agreement.
3. Confirm your e-mail address.
4. Breeze through the optional information.

You register on eBay through an encrypted (supersecret) connection called
SSL (Secure Sockets Layer). You can tell because the normal http at the
beginning of the Web address is now https and a small closed padlock
appears at the bottom-left (or bottom-right) corner of your screen.

The padlock icon means that eBay has moved you to a secure place on their
site that is safe from unauthorized people seeing or receiving your information.
Your information is treated with the highest security and you can fill
out these forms with the utmost level of confidence. I could tell you how SSL
works, but instead I’ll just give you the bottom line: It does work, so trust me
and use it. The more precautions eBay (and you) take, the harder it is for
some hyper-caffeinated high-school kid to get into your data.

Exploring Home Page Search Options

There’s an old Chinese expression that says, “Every journey begins with the
first eBay search.” Okay, so I updated the quote. They’re very wise words
nonetheless. You can start a search from the home page in one of two ways:
✦ Use the search box. It’s right there at the top of the home page (and
most eBay pages), and it’s a fast way of finding item listings.
✦ Use the Advanced Search link (which is next to the search box). This
link will take you to the sophisticated Search area, where you can do all
kinds of specialized searches.
To launch a title search from the home page, follow these steps:
1. In the search box, type no more than a few keywords that describe the
item you’re looking for.
Refer to Figure 2-1 to see the search box.

2. Click the Search button.
The results of your search appear in a matter of seconds.
You can type just about anything in the search box and get some information.
Say you’re looking for Star Trek memorabilia. If so, you’re not alone.

The original television show premiered on September 8, 1966, and even
though it was canceled in 1969 because of low ratings, Star Trek has become
one of the most successful science-fiction franchises in history. You can use
the search box on the eBay home page to find all sorts of Star Trek stuff. I
just ran a search and found around 13,762 items in numerous categories on
eBay with Star Trek in their titles.

Try the Advanced Search link under the search box to narrow down your
search. This link takes you to the basic search page, which has some powerful
features 

When you search for popular items at eBay (a classic example is Star Trek
memorabilia), you may get inundated with thousands of auctions that match
your search criteria. Even if you’re traveling at warp speed, you could spend
hours checking each auction individually. (“Scotty, we need more power
now!”) If you’re pressed for time like the rest of us, eBay has not-so-mysterious
ways for you to narrow down your search to make finding a specific item
much more manageable. Take a look at Figure 2-6 to see the way eBay helps
break things down in that Star Trek search. Also, turn for insider
techniques that can help you slim down those searches and beef up those
results.

Maneuvering the Categories

So how does eBay keep track of the millions of items up for sale at any given
moment? The brilliant minds at eBay decided to group items into nice, neat
little storage systems called categories. The home page lists most of the main
categories, but eBay also lists tens of thousands of subcategories, ranging
from Antiques to Weird Stuff. And don’t ask how many sub-subcategories
(categories within categories) eBay has — I can’t count that high.

Well, okay, I could list all the categories and subcategories currently available
on eBay — if you wouldn’t mind squinting at a dozen pages of really
small, eye-burning text. But a category browse is an adventure that’s unique
for each individual, and I wouldn’t think of depriving you of it. Suffice it
to say that if you like to hunt around for that perfect something, you’re in
browsing heaven now.

Here’s how to navigate around the categories:

1. From the drop-down menu, click the category that interests you, such
as Books or DVDs & Movies.
You’re transported to that category’s page. You see categories and subcategories
listed next to each heading. Happy hunting.
If you don’t find a category that interests you among those on the home
page, simply click the Buy button on the navigation bar, and you’re off
to the main Categories page. You get not only a pretty impressive page
of main categories and subcategories, but also a short list of featured
auctions — and links to them all.

If you really and truly want to see a list of all categories and subcategories
(see Figure 2-5), click See All Categories at the bottom of the
category list on the main Buy page. Or, if you want to make it easy on
yourself, go directly to the following:
listings.ebay.com/ /ListingCategoryList

2. After the category page appears, find a subcategory below the main
category title that interests you. Click the subcategory, and keep digging
through the sub-subcategories until you find what you want.
For example, if you’re looking for items honoring your favorite television
show, click the Entertainment Memorabilia category or the DVDs &
Movies category. Note that the Entertainment Memorabilia category has
many links, including the Television Memorabilia subcategory. Below

the Television Memorabilia link, you’ll see links to these subcategories:
Ads, Flyers, Apparel, Clippings, Photos, Pins, Buttons, Posters, Press
Kits, Props, Scripts, Wardrobe, and Other. Click the link that appeals to
you and you’re off on a shopping spree.

3. When you find an item that interests you, click the item and the full
listing page pops up on your screen.

Congratulations — you’ve just navigated through several million items
to find that one TV-collectible item that caught your attention. (Pardon
me while I bid on that Lily Munster — Yvonne DeCarlo — signed picture.)
You can instantly return to the home page by clicking its link at
the top of the page (or return to the listings page by repeatedly clicking
the Back button at the top of your browser).

Near the bottom of every subcategory or search-results page, you can see a
list of numbers. The numbers are page numbers, and you can use them to
fast-forward through all the items in that subcategory. So, if you feel like
browsing around page 8 without going through 8 pages individually, just
click number 8; you’re presented with the items on that page (their listings,
actually). Happy browsing.

If you’re a bargain hunter by habit, you may find some pretty weird stuff while
browsing the categories and subcategories of items at eBay — some of it
super-cheap and some of it just cheap. There’s even a Weird Stuff category —
no kidding! Remember that (as with any marketplace) you’re responsible
for finding out as much as possible about an item before you buy — and
definitely before you bid. So if you’re the type who sometimes can’t resist a
good deal, ask yourself what you plan to do with the pile of stuff you can get
for 15 cents — and ask yourself now, before it arrives on your doorstep.