This is important for buyer and seller alike. If you are an east coaster, you may have a tough time staying up to 2:15 a.m. EST to enter your final bid on the last day of the auction. The same holds true an item is listed at 8 p.m. EST. The average west coaster is going to be stuck in rush hour traffic at about then and unable to bid.

However you buy – auction or immediate – let's say you got your reel. How you pay for an item is up to the seller. Most sellers don't like personal checks. They are a hassle because shipping gets delayed while the check clears the bank. Money orders are great, especially those from the U.S. Postal Service, which are one of only a few that are accepted in Canada. There is also Paypal, a service that, for a small commission, allows buyers to pay online. By establishing a Paypal account that is connected to your bank or credit card, you can pay immediately with a minimum of effort.

SELLING OUT

I started out as a buyer. But eventually, I decided that I needed to sell some stuff to support my boat and eBay habits. Selling is a bit different, and you need to take a business approach. To start, you must make a listing that describes your item. If you have been a buyer for any length of time, you know some listings are better than others. The key to a good listing is to include everything that is pertinent to that item and to be honest about it. Think like a buyer, and answer the questions that a buyer would logically ask (before you receive a ton of email asking those very same questions). A good listing will contain how an item was used, its age, model numbers, manufacturer, dimensions, weight and anything else important. It will also include several quality pictures. If the item has some wear or damage, show that in the pictures. That scratch may bring back the bad memory of a bungled docking maneuver, but it means absolutely nothing to someone else if the price is right. My attitude is good used parts for a good used boat.eBayThe bidding history on this item shows how it went from $20 to $200. But it doesn't name the bidders.

Pay careful attention to how you price your stuff. I post an el-cheapo opening bid, for several reasons. Again, think like a buyer. If a $50 item has an opening bid of $35, I typically figure why bother. If that same item had an opening bid of $1, I am automatically interested. It may eventually reach $35, which may or may not be a deal, but it held my interest from the start. The more people you have bidding and watching your item, the more it will sell for.

Many sellers get nervous listing a $200 item for $1, thinking they would rather keep it. But eBay has solved this problem by incorporating a "reserve" feature that allows a seller to set a minimum price. For example, you might list your item for $1 but elect to place a reserve of $50. If the bidding does not reach the $50 reserve price, the auction ends and you keep your item. The reserve amount is not available to potential buyers, but it is common to see a "reserve not met" posting on auctions.

As a seller, it is important to post honest and reasonable shipping costs. Few things tick off eBayers more than inflated shipping fees. Weigh the item, select your preferred shipping method, add a couple of bucks for packaging. EBay has a great shipping calculator that uses zip codes to determine costs to the nickel. Do not try to make money on shipping. It's bad form.

DISPUTE RESOLUTION

With all of this buying and selling going on, sooner or latter there will be misunderstandings. We have all read stories about people getting taken on eBay, whether because the seller was misleading or the buyer was naive. But the experience I have had, no doubt shared by millions of others, has been overwhelmingly positive. In the seven years I have been buying and selling on eBay, I have never been stiffed.

eBayKnowing the seller is important. eBay gives you feedback scores, what the seller has listed and how long they have sold. This seller is a relative newcomer.But the company does have a support system to help to resolve disputes, and in my limited experience that works pretty well too. About three years ago, I was the successful high bidder on a Sunfish sailboat. The listing indicated the item was located in Detroit, Michigan, and was a "pick-up only" item. This meant that I had to go get it because the buyer was not willing to arrange shipping for something so large. I live only about four hours from Detroit, so I emailed the seller after the auction to coordinate the pickup. When I inquired about an address, so that I could use MapQuest to get a route, they indicated the boat was actually more than 3 hours north of Detroit.

To me, a listing in Detroit meant somewhere within a half hour of downtown. I had planned on four hours to get there, an hour to load and four hours to get home, all in a Saturday drive. An additional six hours was out of the question. I told the seller that I would not purchase the boat because of the misleading location listing, unless they got the boat closer to Detroit. The seller went ballistic and gave me some nasty negative feedback on eBay's system. I contacted eBay and they put us into virtual arbitration with a third-party arbitrator. When the dust settled, eBay removed the negative feedback from my record, providing I never buy anything from that seller again, and the seller was out of luck.

THE 99 CENT RAFT

If you spend any time on eBay, you will quickly learn that most people just want smooth transactions. My experience is that they will go out of their way to do things right – and to do the right thing. I try to do the same, which brings me to the story of that six-person Winslow life raft.

eBayAn auction listing gives a fair amount of information: the current bid, the high bidder, the bidding history and the amount of time left. There is also a description of the item and multiple photos (not shown).The raft was five years old and came with a soft valise – and it was listed for 99 cents. I figured it was either the deal of a lifetime or some sort of a scam, but it turned out to be neither. Apparently the seller meant to list the life raft with a 99-cent opening bid, but instead created a "buy it now" auction for 99 cents. It was a keyboard mistake – a costly one.

When they received the announcement that I had just purchased the life raft for 99 cents, they realized the problem. The life raft was legally mine, but when the seller emailed me and explained the mistake – and said they would honor the auction contract anyway – I folded. I thought about what it would be like to botch something like that. I told the seller that I knew it was too good to be true, that I would not be completing the purchase and to have a nice day. They emailed me back in disbelief, thanked me profusely and posted glowing feedback. Naturally, I watched the re-listed raft for the next 10 days. I had to smile when it sold for more than $800.