In recent years online auctions have grown to huge proportions, attracting vast audiences and making the owners mega rich in the process from listing and process fees, but is it all good news for web surfers?
Buying, or rather going through the motions of trying to be a buyer of goods listed on an auction site is fun and interesting, and tinged with much disappointment when you fail to land a bargain buy. All too often you are beaten in the final minutes of an auction after spending days watching progress.
Some reports suggest that buying by online auctions are like gambling and can become highly addictive. Safe for sure if all you do is watch or bid, but never WIN or buy anything. All too often out of frustration or desperation you can end up buying an item for a silly high price often more than the new cost.
All too often buyers forget the risk they take over quality and authenticity of their buy and the extra cost of postage and packing which often can be higher than the cost of the goods bought.
The higher the value of goods bought potentially the higher the risk, no one minds loosing a few dollars or pounds but hundred or thousands is another far serious and sinister issue. Let the buyer beware is never more true with online auctions.
Would you run 3 miles to buy a dollar for 30 cents?
For low value goods the high cost of listing fees and display options can erode the eventual sale price (if any) or leave the seller with no sale
BUT a
hefty fee for listing.
The amount of work and effort to list
low value items makes for the seller a less attractive deal, and
many have found the new bred of swap or trade sites an attractive
alternative.
For a small fixed annual fee at worst the new breed
of web site allows users to list items on offer (usually free) and
all you as "buyer" does is agree a trade - either with something
you have and they need or for points.
Once you see a desirable
item - clothes, jewellery and other wearables seem the most popular
at present you offer a trade with the lister usually just for the
cost of postage. Since no actually money changes hands for the goods fraudsters
are deterred from listing on such sites and users to date are enthusiastic
about quality of offers.
Whether this new community of swappers
will grow, only time will tell, but let's not forget the massive
online auction sites are only a few years old,
showing how quickly a new idea can spread across the internet.
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