Don't Get Burned on eBay

Glossary

The terms in this glossary are briefly explained. eBay keeps a comprehensive glossary at http://pages.ebay.com/help/newtoebay/glossary.html.

Address Confirmation

A PayPal process whereby the buyer submits a credit card and PayPal matches up the card’s billing address to the mailing address the buyer submitted when he opened up his PayPal account.

Advanced Search Page

The page on eBay where you can do more detailed searches for auctions (including those that have already ended), as well as searches on the activity of buyers and sellers.

Answer Center

A forum in the Community section of eBay. As opposed to the Discussion Boards in the same section, the AC is for quick questions and answers (each thread is limited to 10 replies).

Bid cancellation

A process by which a seller cancels an existing bid on an active auction.

Bid history

The page showing all the bids on an auction. To access it, click the hyperlinked number (e.g., “13 bids”) on the auction page.

Bid increment

The set amount a bid is raised every time the current bid is exceeded. Increments are based on the current high bid (view the bid increment chart at http://pages.ebay.com/help/buy/bid-increments.html).

Bid retraction

The process by which a bidder rescinds his bid(s) on an active auction.

Bid Shielding

Two or more bidders deliberately raising the price of an item to extremely high levels in order to scare other bidders away, and then retracting most of the bids at the last second. This enabled one of the bidders to win ...