Book Review: Don't Get Burned on eBay, Shauna Wright

BKDGBOEB.RVW 20061108

"Don't Get Burned on eBay", Shauna Wright, 2006, 0-596-10178-3, U$16.99/C$23.99 %A Shauna Wright

snipped-for-privacy@whowouldbuythat.com %C 103 Morris Street, Suite A, Sebastopol, CA 95472 %D 2006 %G 0-596-10178-3 %I O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. %O U$16.99/C$23.99 800-998-9938 fax: 707-829-0104 snipped-for-privacy@ora.com %O Audience i+ Tech 1 Writing 2 (see revfaq.htm for explanation) %P 160 p. %T "Don't Get Burned on eBay"

The preface states that this book was conceived as a series of personal stories about (and experiences on) eBay, plus lessons about what *not* to do. It isn't intended as a primer for using eBay, and, in fact, assumes that the reader has a working knowledge of eBay.

Chapter one outlines some of the complexities and rules about bidding. It also includes information about "shilling" (activities to artificially drive up the price of an auction) and a story about poor communications. The dangers involved in various types of payment (including PayPal) are outlined in chapter two. Packing items for shipment, in chapter three, is predominately aimed at sellers, but buyers are advised of steps to take in case of a problem. Again, vendors might be seen as those primarily interested in the advice on different issues related to shipping, in chapter four, but purchasers should note a number of them as well. (I was interested in, and can personally and fully attest to, the tales of United Parcel Service's inability to properly handle shipments to Canada, and the random and unreasonable nature of charges that can be involved in the process.) Chapter five's stories about other people on eBay generally refer to non-malicious errors or misunderstandings, whereas chapter six closes off with intentionally fraudulent scams such as phishing.

The book does use a number of eBay specific acronyms. These are listed in the glossary, but under the full expansion, so they are not easy to find.

If you use eBay, this work will likely help you to use it much more effectively, and to prevent any number of disasters. (If you don't use eBay, this text will probably keep you from ever getting started.)

copyright Robert M. Slade, 2006 BKDGBOEB.RVW 20061108

====================== (quote inserted randomly by Pegasus Mailer) snipped-for-privacy@vcn.bc.ca snipped-for-privacy@victoria.tc.ca snipped-for-privacy@computercrime.org I have to share the credit. I invented it, but Bill made it famous. - IBM engineer Dave Bradley describing the control-alt-delete reboot sequence Dictionary of Information Security

[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The main thing I do not like about e-Bay is their lack of a 'spoof' address to use in the same way as many other sites. I've tried sending the more outragous spoofs to the company, but unlike PayPal where they immediatly send on your submission to the 'police' for handling and send you back a receipt, e-Bay does not put any sort of address to be used in a conspicuous place on their site, and email to ' snipped-for-privacy@ebay.com' comes back to me with a complaint letter from e-Bay saying that address is reserved for something or another. If they made their 'spoof' address easy for the public to use, then I would like to use it also. Lord only knows how many 'complaints from a user' or 'account suspension, please re-enter your personal data' emails I get each day from the 'e-Bay fraud team' whidh are themselves simple frauds. I am frankly sort of scared to use e-Bay anyway, and given their (it would seem to me) lack of any real concern for users, I tend to stay away. PAT]