Online Auctions such as eBay have really grown in popularity over the past few years. And it's easy to understand why. From a buyer's perspective when you browse eBay you can find just about anything you might be looking for. From collectable to clothing, from automobiles to the odd and weird. It's listed for auction on eBay. And from a seller's point of view if you have something that is worth selling, you are bound to find a buyer for it at eBay.

As explained in my book "eBay Marketing Wholesale SourcePak" eBay is a community of members who can buy/sell items locally, nationally and internationally. And while eBay has over 100 million members there are rarely any real problems between buyers and sellers. I believe much of this can be attributed to the eBay feedback. Feedback is where buyers and sellers can leave comments on their experience with each other. Whether is was a good or a bad transaction, you can read about it in the feedback. Now I won't lead you to believe there are no problems at all, because that would not be right. But all in all things run very smoothly.

Harris Poll did a survey regarding online auctions that I found quite interesting. 43% of participants said that they bid at online auctions looking for bargains, 23% said they are looking for hard-to-find items and 21% were looking for collectables.

When it came to how confident buyers are at receiving their purchases, 54% were confident and 40% were very confident they would have no problems receiving their product. This compared to only 1% who was not confident.

51% of those surveyed said they always, check feedback before buying from a seller and 36% said they usually do. Only 3% said they never check. I've got to believe that this 3% are newbies.

A whopping 83% of participants said they had bid and purchased items. With 51% saying the average value of the product bought was up to $50.00. 24% said the value was $51. - $100. and 21% said $101. - $500.

66% paid for their items by personal check, cashier check or money order to the seller. While 44% paid by credit card using the third party payment service listed on the auction. And 59% said they had never experienced a problem with their purchases.

Considering eBay recently reported $15 billion in annual merchandise sales, there is generally very little problems between buyers and sellers. That is one of the reasons eBay makes such a great Home Based Business.

Happy Selling!

Joe Clare