How to Buy Land on eBay
eBay is the world's largest and most frequently used online auction site. You can use it to buy and sell all sorts of items, from old records to upcoming sports tickets. Here's a short primer on how to use eBay to buy land.
You will be required to provide your name, email address, and other information that will help to identify you as a user of the site and allow you to bid on items. You will also need to create a username and password. (Click here to register now.)
Now you're ready to get started with bidding. Scroll down the list on our home page to find the land you're interested in. In order to find what you want more quickly, you can sort the items by price, time left in the auction, date of listing or payment options available.
By clicking on an item in the list, you can find out further details about the item, such as pictures and the seller's feedback rating from previous customers.
Buying land may be a little different
Make a bid
If you decide that you'd like to try and buy the item, you can bid on it by clicking "Place Bid". Most auctions will require bids in increments. You can also type in a maximum bid amount, and eBay will continue to bid for you up to that amount. This is helpful so that you don't have to sit online and continually watch the item.
Monitor the auction
Every once in a while, you will want to check on the progression of the auction and see who else has bid. If you are not the high bidder, you can raise your bid up to the end of the auction in order to win the item.
Pay for your item
If you win what you were bidding on, you will receive an email notifying you of the sale. From there, you should either contact the seller to discuss details of payment and shipping, or wait for him or her to contact you. It is considered polite to complete this part of the process as soon as possible.
Tips
Some auctions will have an icon next to the price of the item that says "Buy It Now". This means that you can purchase the item for a certain price without having to get into a bidding war with another person. Be warned: this price can often be higher than you might otherwise have paid. Many items have "Reserve" prices, which mean that the seller will not sell the item unless the bids have reached a certain level. If you don't win an item, sellers will often direct you to similar items they are auctioning off, or you can do another search yourself. Ebay is a huge place, so don't get discouraged if you don't get what you are looking for right away, there are always more similar items.
Warnings
Do not make bids that you can't actually back up financially. Each bid you make on eBay is considered a binding contract, and you will be given a poor rating (or possibly worse) if you back out on a winning bid. Be aware of the snipers. Many bidders wait to the last few seconds of an auction to make a bid and many use a "sniper program" to do the bidding.
You can be led to pay more than you expected or losing the bid if you wait until the last few minutes or seconds to do your final bidding. Better to do some research and decide ahead of time how much you want to spend on the item and put in a proxy bid approximately two minutes before the end of the auction and then don't look at the auction until it is over.
