Customer Reviews

The eBay Myth-Bu$ter: Turn 199 Misconceptions Into Money! (For Dummies Series)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
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eBay becomes more complex each day.
David Busch has put together useful information about this challenging oportunity. He bases it on his own experience.
I bought the book and am glad I did. I would recommend purchasing several works on eBay to get a complete picture. This book is worth being one of them. It is easy reading and gives answers to many questions plus offering good ideas.
There are so many misconceptions as to what is allowed, right or proper on eBay. David makes a good dent in correcting many misconceptions.
For example, his thoughts on the rating system are valuable. Also, useful is his observation that fighting over problems often ends up being a waste of time. Better to learn and go on.
From his comments David seems to be a true modern entrepreneur; he is able to look at common things/ideas in new ways. Pretty good!

This book is very useful. The best coverage for me:

- ebay scams (in particular bid rigging - shilling)
- interpretation of feedback (in particular assessing the likely risk to you).
- auction timing
- presenting information
- legitimate use of multiple IDs

The information on sourcing is more up for debate. Some of the comments are overstated (e.g. bargains hard to find at yard sells). In general sellers are more knowledgeable, as they are on ebay. However, many people selling through ebay or garage sells are doing so to rid themselves of items. There are some people who run "weekly" sells that sacrifice volume for profit. The author is spot on in his comments about dumpster diving though (if anything legal, health and security risks are understated in the current climate).

Like the ebay hacks book, some of the information wont be new to most ebayer's. It is mostly original and well worth reading. It's not very technical in style and should be of benefit to new ebayers and old hands.

I learnt alot. This book should pay for itself, this is the best test, for me, of any eBay book.

I have been a buyer on ebay for a couple of years and would like to get started selling. Due to a combination of procrastination and lack of confidence I have not yet taken the leap. Well, now I have the confidence to try. All of my lingering questions were answered by this book. It doesn't walk you through getting started, that would be a waste since that info is available from so many other sources. But it does address things like determining when to start and finish an auction, how long to set the auction for, when to use Buy it Now or set reserve prices, etc.

The author has a really great writing style- not cutesy or gimmicky and very readable. (I read the book in one day- I should have been sleeping, but I couldn't put it down.) He gives great examples of different scenarios that help the reader to be better able apply the information. He tells us his opinion and the opinions of others- he does not bash ebay or paypal but he does give honest observations of some of their practices and services -whether good or bad or simply necessary. I have read alot of informational type books on various subjects lately and reading this one was a really refreshing change of pace. Mr. Busch wrote with confidence but there was nothing self-congratulatory about his style at all- he was even charmingly self-deprecating at times (but not cutesy- I hate that!) The book has very straight forward advice and doesn't waste time trying to hype one way of doing things over another.

Mr. Busch's personal business style is also very appealing and one that I would be happy to emulate. As a buyer, I wish more sellers would follow his example. As a buyer I have often wondered if it was really necessary to put all of those terms and conditions and warnings in the auction- I thought there must just be a ton of bad buyers out there to warrant such practice- but now I know differently. I also find it extremely annoying when I encounter animation or overly busy backgrounds and - worst of all- sound and music when I view an auction.

This book would be great for anyone- there are great tips for buyers- a couple that I will definitely put into use. I would recommend that a person get a little bit of experience on ebay as a buyer before reading this book- then you will really know what is being described and it will have more meaning because you can apply it to your own experiences. A few transactions would really be all it takes. But definitely get this book!!

In attempting to get started on eBay as a seller, I read about 10 books. Most covered the same ground, in pretty much the same way. I appreciated Mr.Busch's approach and believe I got more out of this one book than the others that I read up till then. This book is very good.

Busch hopes to disabuse common misconceptions circulating amongst many eBay users. He presupposes that you have already done some buying or selling on eBay. He goes straight into explaining various aspects. Like how sniping is not against the rules or even the spirit of the auction. And even if it was, it is very problematic that this could be banned.

Another common topic he addresses is that if you lose an auction by $1, say, that somehow if you had bidded $2, you would have won the item. This is not necessarily so. The winner might have placed a maximum bid of $20 above yours. But the eBay mechanism only charged the winner $1 about your bid, which was the second highest.

If you are planning on using eBay frequently, you might want to slowly go through this book. It could be a huge time and worry saver.

This book was published in 2004 but even though it's four years old, compared to the books written this year (review written 2008) it is still a lot more helpful than Dummies and other books which let's be honest, none of them are much good at all, as all the info inside you could find on Ebay's FAQ, help pages and discussion boards. Not so with The Ebay Mythbuster which basically argues against the stupid actions by a lot of sellers (still occurring on the site in 2008), their wrongly repeated claims on discussion boards that something is against the law or e-bay policies, as well as explaining to readers why some seller's obsession with feedback is an absolutely ridiculous waste of thought. Importantly half of this book is geared towards buyers on e-bay, an area that barely rates a mention in every other e-bay book I've come across even though obviously half of everything done on Ebay involves them.

David Busch explains stuff those who aren't long time sellers or buyers may be unaware. Stuff like boxes are free through the US postal service pretty much dismisses the claims that its not just the actual cost of postage born by the seller. Busch also points out why it makes no economic sense to try and double dip and make extra profit from postage (something still very much done by greedy sellers today).

Written before 2004 this book was written before the ability to give negatives to buyers was changed (ie you still could, now you can't) or when Paypal became compulsory for sellers. However his arguments against retalitory negging buyers and the stupidity of not having Paypal payment options more than justifies e-bay's changed policies on these matters.

Myths that international customers take more effort or are more trouble would be very reassuring for the reader seller who may have wrongly believed the myths on discussion boards and so forth. Pointing out who is actually responsible if an item doesn't arrive (the seller) if read by a lot of tantrum throwing seller from hell discussion board seller posters would deem their posts unnecessary. Also means those charging the buyer for insurance are pretty much just con artists. The book is quite an eye opener if you've actually been reading the discussion boards before this books as to how wrong a lot of e-bay users, particularly sellers are using the very site that their livelihood comes from.

Lengthy text on auction pages, stupid unenforceable rules like must pay within 7 days or threats to customers if they don't comply, well lets just say Busch shows just how stupid those sellers are and how much business they're losing.

The book is written in an easy to read style but doesn't talk to you like your a moron or have never used a computer in your life like a lot other competitor books do. Some info does repeat itself answering some myths but if you weren't reading this cover to cover this is actually needed. A highly recommended book that would give confidence to those yet to buy or even take the next step and become a seller.

If you are into eBay, then you MUST have this book. It contains some very valuable information obout working with eBay. Some things are common sence, but most of the things in this book, you would not know unless you get the book. If you buy and sell on eBay, you may be loosing money because you are not armed with the info in this book. I am very glad that I bought this book. I keep it hidden at home, because I don't want company to borrow it. If you are a ebayer, how have you been wheeling and dealing on eBay without this book?

Being a New Zealander, naturally I prefer to use Trademe.co.nz as that is our local Australasian auction site!

Being focused specifically with busting myths about online auctions Myth-Bu$ter is quite specialised. However, many of the principles found in the book can also be applied to any other local auction sites such as Trademe.

I wholeheartedly recommend the book to kiwis, but (to use a pun) the book does require some unencryption from the American language!

My veiw is, you can never read enough books on the subject of eBay. There is always something new you can learn from any book on the subject. I am still an "amateur" but, things are looking good for an amateur...please critique me if you wish:

http://members.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewUserPage&userid=nydancingangels

Happy selling!

Best Regards,
Mersada
@
NYC Trend Setters Outlet....on eBAy.