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.