The website is every collector's delight. A friend of mine, whose definitive measure of being a good mother was to provide her child with a rocking horse, found herself a vintage Gibbs miniature cherry wood rocking horse made in 1911.
Don't bid until the very last. You are unnecessarily raising the bid price. Let others fight over it until the end. Minutes before closing, if the price is still agreeable to you, step into the arena - the matador that appears unseen from the shadows - and grab the bull by its horns.

Once you are on eBay, there is no turning back. The ambitious experiment in Internet commerce, that pioneered person-to-person online trading and earned CEO, Meg Whitman, the top spot in Fortune magazine this year, has snowballed into a 24/7 efficient and often entertaining site. Offering tips on how to avoid the pitfalls of e-buying, self-confessed addict, Arati Menon-Carroll, declares that the online marketplace is the answer to your every shopping whim

Right at the outset, I confess. I am addicted to eBay. They say admitting your fixation is the first step to recovery. But the central issue here is: do I want to recover? eBay is certainly here to stay, and I'm clearly hooked. It all began with the magic of the swirling patterns and psychedelic hues of an Emilio Pucci scarf. Blame it on the Pucci, I say! A harmless (actually, don't let a woman ever tell you any kind of shopping expedition is harmless) hunt for a Pucci bargain (did I say Pucci and bargain in the same sentence?) led me to my discovery of eBay. The rest as they say is history. Once you're on the site (and are an e-buyer!) there's no turning back.

Imagine the vision behind the power of one website to generate global business totalling millions of dollars a day? Jeff Skoll founded eBay on Labour Day in 1995 as a grand experiment in Internet commerce that pioneered person-to-person online trading. Since then, this site has become more popular than he ever expected and has developed into an efficient and often entertaining trading site on the Web that is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Today it has more than 2.1 million registered users and there are currently more than one million items listed for sale. In fact, President and CEO, Meg Whitman, earned the title of the most powerful business woman in Fortune magazine's listings this year.

Even as I revelled in the sheer beauty of my very first purchase, that wonderfully luxurious Pucci scarf, I realised that I had made my very first mistake as an e-buyer. I hadn't adequately scoped out the scene before indulging my fancy! Till date I have witnessed the sale of 43 Pucci scarves at prices that have made me cringe with guilt at my costly buy. Lesson One: Do not assume that every high fashion item on sale is a bargain item. eBay is not a bargain site. People sell on it to make money! Once you understand that basic principle, you will learn to be far more sensible in your purchases.

Okay, so my use of the website hasn't ventured beyond the narrow spectrum of fashion but please don't let my myopic shopping needs lead you to presume that's all that eBay has to offer. With over 1,000 categories, including antiques, books, movies and music, coins and stamps, dolls and porcelain figures, jewellery and gemstones, photographs and electronics, pottery, glass and sports memorabilia, eBay is the answer to your every shopping list and much, much more. Sometimes a little too much more! Someone recently auctioned a nuclear submarine on eBay. Before the site pulled out the auction since it was illegal, the submarine was receiving bids well into six figures! Which leads to Lesson Two: I don't know what tickles your fancy but please do not indulge in the purchase or sale of anything that may seem slightly dangerous (this includes nuclear submarines), not to mention illegal.

I just found out that for $19.95 you can have the Dean of eBay Education (now will that be a degree or a diploma?) and author of the Official eBay Bible, Jim Griffith, teach you everything you'll need to know to get started on the website. An online course, you could study this from the comfort of your own home! That to me is preposterous. Lesson Three: Don't let websites sell you silly gimmicks like this. Take time out and learn for yourself. eBay, for one, isn't that tough to figure out. All you need is some common sense, a basic understanding of how any business works, and a rein on your instincts to buy, buy and buy! My work on all three aspects is ongoing.

So we hear about strange things being sold on eBay… An employed Berlin executive once put himself up for auction on eBay at a starting price of one Euro, only to have his bid quickly revoked. Here's another one. It took authorities just 12 hours to hear about and stop a man's eBay offer to sell his vote. The item, advertised as 'Presidential Vote for Sale', with a starting bid of $50, was yanked off the listing after it was posted. Part of his description read: "Simply tell me who to vote for after paying for the auction, and it will be so. If you care, buy my vote and you will have twice the power in the upcoming election!" The man claimed he didn't know that selling a vote was illegal.

But seriously, eBay is every collector's delight. A friend of mine, whose definitive measure of being a good mother was to provide her child with a rocking horse, found herself a vintage Gibbs miniature cherry wood rocking horse made in 1911. Art enthusiasts can find original lithographs by Pablo Picasso. But please, use your discretion to approximate what's original and what's not (that's Lesson Four for you). A random search for Noddy collectibles, led me to the discovery of a 1952 print of Enid Blyton's Noddy Goes To School with the original Afro-boy Golly Gollywog in it. I mean, I am all for political correctness, but there is nothing cuter than Golly Gollywog and Noddy will never be the same without him.

But eBay isn't just about buying. For the princely sum of 30 cents (as I write this) you could be selling pretty much anything from the clothes your babies outgrew, to a record collection and even your roll-top desk. Post it up on eBay, initiate the bidding and watch in incredulity as people start frantically bidding for your item! But, as a suggestion, which I will call Lesson Five: Be sensible about your starting price. Keep it low. Contrary to popular belief, just because you start off low, it doesn't mean bidding cannot assume crazy proportions. Keep it affordable, within the reach of many, and they will be all over each other's bids. However, if you are uncomfortable with selling at an unacceptably low price, put a reserve price on it, below which you will not sell.

eBay has a great system as a check to bad sellers. Both buyers and sellers are encouraged to post their feedback following every transaction made on eBay. So, when you transact, take the time to read feedbacks left behind for your buyers or sellers. Lesson Six will serve you well: Give any seller with less that 98 per cent positive feedback the pink slip please! No, not even for that covetable pair of Manolo Blahniks at that unbelievably low price. Something that sounds too good to be true probably is. eBay was created as an open market that encourages honest dealings between complete strangers. And most people are honest. And they mean well. But occasionally you may meet people who are not honest. It's a fact of life.

A trick I use, that I would strongly advise you to follow as well is: don't bid until the very last. It's silly to place a bid six days before closing. You are unnecessarily raising the bid price. Let others fight over it until the end. Minutes before closing, if the price is still agreeable to you, step into the arena - the matador that appears unseen from the shadows - and grab the bull by its horns. Most people today have cottoned on to this trick.

Just last week I joined in a bid for a fantabulous pair of Marni four-inchers (of course, they were Sarah Jessica Parker endorsed. For the uninitiated anything that even vaguely features in the wardrobe of Carrie from the famed Sex And The City is a must-have for most.) As the bidding came to a photo finish close and I watched my bid slip away from me, I swore under my breath and cursed the local Internet providers that I know (well, I think I know) are a secret lobby against excess spending on Internet auction sites. (Lesson Six) If you want to win a bid, get yourself broadband. Then click away. Time, tide and bidding wars wait for no man, or slow Internet connections.

eBay is ultimately a grand testament to its founder's vision - the vision of one site to do global business. It completely cured my shortsightedness towards Internet shopping. So, my final piece of advice to you is this: go on and give it a try. Then try and resist. Whatever you do, just don't contest me on my bid for that Chloe dress!