Students have it eBay

Student shopping habits have gone online -- from discounted books at Amazon.com to online clothing retailers like gap.com -- ordering from the comforts of a dorm room has become the norm. An increasing number of people, however, are selling their own possessions on eBay, changing the end of the year dump-and-run to dump-and-sell.

The popular website, through which members can buy and sell any goods they desire, was created by Tufts alumni Pierre and Pam Omidyar in September 1995. Members post a product which is then sold via a bidding system.

Sophomore Mary Humphreys both buys and sells products on eBay. "Whenever I get low on money I go through my closet and look for clothes I don't use anymore," she said. Humphreys posts pictures of herself wearing the clothes -- from the neck down only -- on the website to advertise, and has had a good deal of success as a merchant.

"Any kind of designer's name, people will buy it," she said. "I had Bebe shoes I bought for $50 and I sold them for $120."

For many students, great deals and rare finds on eBay seem to be the norm. "I think it's useful for finding stuff that you might not know where to buy in a store or to get stuff cheaper than it usually would be," sophomore Seth Rosenberg said. "I bought a Burberry scarf for my friend last summer for her birthday for about a tenth of what it would normally cost."

While searching the products offered on eBay, sophomore Alexis Ong was surprised to find a riot protection vehicle up for sale. "It had an AK-47 mounted on the roof and electrified panels," Ong said. Though not the most useful car to cruise around the Tufts campus, it is one of many rare -- and sometimes strange -- goods sold on eBay.

Ong first used eBay to find a vintage bowling bag. "There's just so much stuff you can find on it -- like infinite mountains of junk," she said.

Students do acknowledge several drawbacks to online shopping and, specifically, eBay. "It's so hard to bid on eBay when you are trying to bid on a really popular item like an iPod," Ong said. "Everyone is going to wait until the very last minute to bid, so the price rockets up by like $100 in the last minutes."

Rosenberg agreed: "It kind of annoys me how people outbid you at the last second," he said. "Of course, now I've learned to do that myself."

Overall, students are still on the fence about whether they really can "have it eBay." The comforts of one's own desk can be nice, but shopping in a store still has its benefits.

Sophomore Hilary Pentz has perused eBay, but her online cart always remained empty. "I would [buy something], but it takes awhile to look for things you actually want," she said. "It's an investment to search online, compared to going to stores and getting immediate satisfaction."

Humphreys was ripped off when she attempted to buy the first season of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" on DVD for her father last Christmas. "There were six disks total and four of them were ruined," she said. "And I waited forever to get them." Humphreys had few options for recourse. "I wrote him a bad review or whatever, but there was nothing else I could really do. I had been waiting so long for them that I didn't really care anymore."

Despite experiences like Humphreys', most students feel that a balance between shopping online and shopping in stores is the smartest way to save money and avoid getting ripped off. As Humphreys explained, "I like shopping at a mall because you get it right away and you are able to try it on and there is that guarantee."

In comparison, Humphreys uses eBay because, "it's generally cheaper and you can find a lot of stuff on eBay that you can't find at a mall."

Rosenberg similarly divides his purchases. "In some cases I like [using eBay] better than going to the mall, but I wouldn't really buy clothes on eBay unless I knew they would fit."

Most students find that eBay is best for objects and accessories -- purchases where size doesn't matter. "It depends on what I'm buying -- if it requires trying or testing I would prefer to be able to do that," Ong said. "But if it's stuff like bags and jewelry or a used iPod ... because if you manage to bid successfully on a used iPod, you're so money, baby."