Tips for Online Shopping
It’s easy and fun to shop online… You can shop at any time of day or night, and you don’t have to go out to do it. Here on this website, I am collecting items from various resources: Amazon, eBay, an excellent pet supplies store called Sitstay, a terrific dog bookstore called Dogwise, and more.
General Tips
[1] If you see something you like but aren’t ready to buy, at some sites you can put it on what Amazon calls your wish list and eBay calls your watch list. You will have to be signed in to do this, so if you haven’t created an account, you’ll need to that first. If you aren’t ready to do that, or if the website doesn’t offer that, just copy the address of the page into your with control-C for Windows or whatever it is for Mac, and then copy that onto something you will remember. Even easier is to drag the address into your bookmarks or favorites.
[2] Before paying with a credit card, look for https instead of http at the beginning of the address, as this indicates it has a much higher level of security.
[3] You may need to sign up for an account at paypal.com for many sellers on eBay. It is very secure.
EBay Tips
[1] Look at the “Meet the Seller” section which is on the upper right of any page that describes an item for sale. You’ll see a number in parentheses right after their username. This is the total of all the things that they have bought and sold on eBay.
I haven’t ever bought from someone where this number was under 10, though once I did buy from someone whose number was exactly 10. He had a very clearly written item description, and I used the “ask a question” feature to get a sense of his professionalism.
You can learn a lot about a seller from this upper right part of the page, and if you see “me” you can click through to a page they have created about themselves.
[2] Be sure to check what the seller’s feedback percentage is. If it’s between 95% and 100%, I don’t generally look further, but if it is lower than that, you can right-click on the number to open a feedback page in a new window. There you can look around a bit and see what caused the number to be low. I don’t usually buy if it is below 90%, but it all depends on the circumstances. Decide how you feel.
[3] Read the full description of the item, to be sure it sounds like something you want. Notice what the seller’s returns policy is, and take a glance at the shipping charges to be sure they seem fair to you.
[4] If you are bidding on an auction (rather than purchasing a Buy-it-now item), decide what the most is that you want to pay, and type it in the box. You won’t pay that much unless other bidders bid up to that amount. Also, you may want to bid something like $41.17 instead of $40, since most people use round numbers.