Going ... going ... gone!
by Alan Rowley, 22nd December 2002

Many people are still wary about buying goods on the internet. True, you do have to take care and only deal with reputable traders, but the rewards are well worth taking the chance. If you really are looking for bargains, online auctions are the ideal place to look.

Online auctions have been around, in one form or another, for a few years now, with the most popular auctioneers being eBay. eBay can be found at www.ebay.co.uk for United Kingdom users, or www.ebay.com for International users. Billed as "your personal trading community", eBay users can buy and sell a host of items, including antiques, books, coins, computer equipment, electronics, DVDs and CDs, jewellery, photography, even holidays.

One area of eBay's vast sections of goods for trading that will be of special interest to site readers will be the cricket section, which can be found by clicking the link below:

Cricket auctions on eBay

Here you will find all sorts of cricketing goodies, including equipment, memorabilia and games. There are some startling bargains to be had. I have recently aquired two imported Indian Balbro cricket bats (pictured), which were unused and came in their own case for less that £80 - that's for both!

Another interesting article that recently landed on my doorstep was a Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club shirt, autographed by the 2001 squad, which cost me a mere £18. Not sure what I'm going to do with it, but it will look very nice framed and hanging in some club pavillion.

If anyone is tempted to try their hand at an auction, you can check the seller's credentials on the site and see how other users rate them. One particularly useful area of the site is "my eBay", which you can customise to show you items you are bidding on, items you are watching, items won and items lost.

I have been using the site for over a year now, and have off-loaded some unwanted items, and earned some much needed cash into the bargain. You can find a permanent link to "cricket auctions on eBay" in the 'Goodies' section.