Auctions article: How to Waste Time on Auction Web Sites

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In recent years online auctions sites have grown internationally to a point where most web surfers have visited at least one site to buy or sell some item or other - but are they wasting their time?

Online auctions offer for sale a wide range of products at vastly different values and qualities, so we tend to think everything is there to satisfy all our needs, which potentially is far from the truth.

A quick analysis of a typical online auction site suggests the following advantages on offer;

A) Wide range of goods - overall yes but some specialist items may be poorly represented compared with dedicated web sites for this type of item.

B) International coverage - true but do really want to sell or buy your items worldwide? Or just in your own country, you may be better on a classified ad site. Many of the biggest auction sites have dedicated country sites so be sure you link to that if available.

further thought and study the following downsides may be apparent to many auction site surfers also;

A) For sellers it costs money to list even if no sale is made, especially bad for lower priced goods where listing costs can be greater than the eventual sale price.

B) For buyers there is a risk of buying goods which are fake or misrepresented in other ways, and this remains the biggest source of complaint by auction buyers and something many auction sites seem reluctant to care about.

C) There is little or no interaction or community spirit with users - you are there to SELL at best price, who to does not matter - or to BUY best quality as cheap as possible, who from does not matter.

D) Newer, smaller auction sites although offering cheap or free listings may lack variety of offers.

E) Larger, more established sites may be more costly due to their size and popularity and bidding against a larger number of others means times lost in tracking auctions over several days and loosing out in the last few seconds. OR paying over the odds for goods of unknown quality with limited, if any guarantee.

So auctions to many are the easy one stop route to buying and selling - but are not definitive solutions to all our online needs. There are many alternative web sites which can help our buying and selling online including;

A) price comparison sites which help track down the best and cheapest deal for new goods especially electrical items.

B) second hand clothes and other wearable goods sites offering direct swaps or swap for points trading, which also build a useful community spirit with between users.

C) Classified ads - good for localised ads of low value goods, or specialist goods inc collectibles.

In conclusion auction web sites can be a useful distraction for a few hours, whether they will retain their dominance in the over buying and selling needs of web surfers only time will tell.

http://www.whatweusedtowear.com provides readers with the latest reviews, articles, commentaries and write-ups on online auction sites, sale, buying and selling.