The Top Description Portion of the Listing

• The current bid shows at what price the auction is currently at. If the auction ended right now, this is what the camera would be sold for (unless there is a minimum bid amount restriction set by the seller-which we will talk about in a moment).

• The End time is the exact time an auction will end. It is listed in both Date, Hour and time zone as well as a rounded off time (days and hours) determined by your time zone settings.

• The shipping info shows the information that the seller has entered regarding shipping. In this example they have selected a flat rate shipping total. This means that everyone no matter what state you live in will pay the same amount for shipping - $11.00. It also shows that this rate applies to the United States. Under "Ships to" will show the locations that the seller is willing to ship to. In this example only the United States is shown. Therefore in this example, the seller does not ship to other locations such as the UK. If you live outside of the United States, you will need to first contact the seller and ask if they would be willing to ship outside of the US, however keep in mind they are not required to and sometimes will not. Don't be offended or get aggravated; keep in mind there are more steps involved when sending outside of your own country and some people may not want to deal with the extra steps or may be unfamiliar with what is required, so they choose not to. We will go over how to contact the seller in a moment.

• The item location is where the seller is shipping it from. This will help you in determining when the item will get to you after the item is shipped. For example if you live in Texas and the item is also being shipped from Texas, you will presumably get it much sooner than an item being shipped from New York. You can also keep in mind where it is shipping from as to whether or not you may need to pay sales tax. Some sellers operate as a business and are required to charge sales tax if the buyer is in the same state. However, the sales tax terms should be stated in the more detailed description of the item. If you have questions, feel free to contact the seller.

• The history and high bidder will give you information as to who has bid on the item already (if anyone) and who is currently winning the auction.

• If you click on the link next to History (in this example it shows "1 bid", you can see the details of this bid. This is useful if there have been multiple bids and you would like to see the progression of the bids as well as how many times the same person has bid on an item (which would indicate they REALLy want the item and you may need to keep that in mind when entering your highest bid amount-which will be discussed further down).

• Another choice here is to "Watch this item". You may not be ready to bid on this item, but want to watch it. For example, you want to do more research on the item or look up it's value, etc. In this case, click on the "Watch this item" button and you will see as in the picture below that it has taken you back to that item and it has now been added to your "items watching list"-which is discussed in another chapter.

• There is also a choice to get an alert via text message, IM or phone call when something in the auction changes, such as another user outbids you. We won't go over the individual choices here, but if you would like to utilize this feature, click on the manner in which you would like to be contacted. Then fill out the requested information. *Be aware that you will still be charged any fees by your cell provider for text messaging, IM or phone calls if you choose an option that includes these and input your cell number.