Creating an eBay Seller s Account

   

Creating an eBay Seller's Account

Anyone who wants to buy or sell merchandise on eBay has to establish an account with eBay. Fortunately, this registration is free, easy, and relatively quick. But before you register, you need to prepare some key information, as detailed in the following checklist:

Checklist: Before You Register

Your name

Your street address

Your email address

Your phone number

Your date of birth

Your credit card or checking account number

Even if you've already registered for eBay as a buyer, you'll need to revise and supplement your information when you want to start selling. In particular, you'll need to choose some sort of payment method; as a buyer you didn't have to pay any eBay fees, but as a seller you will!

With this information at hand, you register as an eBay user by following these steps:

1. From eBay's home page, click the Register Now button.

2. When the eBay Registration page appears (as shown in Figure 10.1), enter the following information:

   • First name and last name

   • Street address (including city, state, ZIP code, and country)

   • Telephone number

   • Email address

   Figure 10.1. Enter the first page of your registration info .

   

   

   eBay asks all members to supply a valid physical address and telephone number. They don't disclose this info to any third parties outside the eBay site, although they will supply personal data to other eBay users on request. (It's how they try to contact deadbeat bidders and sellers.) You can get more details from eBay's Privacy Policy, found at pages.ebay.com/help/community/png-priv.html.

   
   

3. Still on the same page, create and enter a user ID into the Create Your eBay User ID box.

4. Create and enter a password (at least six characters long, with no spaces) into the Create Password box.

5. Select a question from the Secret Question list, and then enter your answer in the Secret Answer box. (This is used if you ever forget your password.)

6. Enter your date of birth, and then click the Continue button.

7. eBay now displays its user agreements. Read these agreements (if you want), check each of the I Agree boxes, and then click the I Agree to These Terms button.

8. eBay now verifies your email address and sends you a confirmation message. Click the Web page link in the confirmation email message to continue.

9. eBay now displays a congratulations page, along with a pop-up window that asks you to enter more (optional) information about yourself. This information is used for marketing purposes; you can choose to fill in the blanks or close the window and click the Home link to go directly to eBay's home page.

Your eBay user ID must be at least two characters long, and can contain letters , numbers , and/or certain symbols. It cannot contain spaces, Web page URLs, or the following symbols: $, &, <, or >which means you can't use your email address as your user ID.