How to buy on eBay Larry Fast has been buying stuff on eBay and using PalPay with great success. The most exciting purchase being a BMW 7 Series for $2,125. You will need to have a sign in account name and password for TWO different places. You can (and probably should) use the same name and password for both accounts. eBay requires an account name to buy something. You can look without a signin name, but you can't buy anything without a login. PayPal is a little tricky. They have done a good job of making it fraud proof. This does however confuse and delay things. When you sign up with PayPal, it costs nothing, in fact they put money in your bank account when you sign up. WHY! you ask?

When you complete the first half of the PayPal sign up process, they will ask you for a bank account that has your name and current address. Then they will make TWO DEPOSITS into this account. In a day or two, you check your deposit summary and find out how much those two deposits were. For example $0.23 and $0.17 were deposited in my account by PayPal. Then you go back to the PayPal web site and complete the sign up process. This is when you will be asked what those 2 numbers are.

This actually has nothing to do with the account you use to pay at a later time. Paypal will ask you to provide either a credit card or bank account to use for payment. When you select one or more, make sure the bank account is registered to your current address. This is another fraud prevention system they have in place. When you move, you need to start over with PayPal at your new address with a new ID. Their fraud prevention is a little bit of a pain, but worth it for security.

When you buy something really expensive (like a car), the seller will often ask for a deposit with PalPay, followed by a Cashier's Check sent by FedEx. This is because PayPal takes a percentage of the transaction as their fee. So paying for a car would result in the seller paying a very large fee to PayPal.

If you buy a computer, you should send an e-mail to the person when you bid. Then you can check the return e-mail and make sure they live where they say they do. That can be done using IP address mapping software that you can download for free. Also make sure you know EXACTLY what you are bidding on. If you buy a laptop, does it include everything? Is any software included? Do you get the CD's and the certificate that has the magic number ID on it?