Did you know that eBay has great deals on literally tens of thousands of cellular phones everyday?  The eBay Community is made up of more than 100 million people around the world who buy and sell in the eBay marketplace every day.   Whether you are looking for a new cell phone, used cell phone, unlocked cell phone or even a refurbished cell phone, eBay has what you want.  (Unlocked cell phone means that the cell phone is not locked to any particular service provider.  Therefore you can buy a handset and use it with any service provider that is supported by the handset.  Before you purchase the cell phone of your choice, please ensure that the frequency of your cell phone service provider is supported by the cell phone you wish to purchase.)  Not a member?  No problem.  You can sign up at eBay for a FREE buyers account with NO hidden fees.  You can buy your next mobile phone by bidding an auction or buying it right away any time you see “Buy It Now.”

A quick search of new cell phones at eBay.com will yield you thousands of returns.  The same result will come by doing a quick search of used cell phone or mobile phone or unlocked cell phone and on and on.  Need to get more specific?  Then do so.  You can search by brand, like AT&T Wireless, T-Mobile, Sprint/Nextel, Verizon and Alltel or you can search by manufacturers like Blackberry cell phone, Motorola cell phone, Nokia cell phone, LG cell phone, Palm cell phone and Sony Ericcson cell phone.  Get even more specific by searching the model number of the specific cell phone you are looking for.  It also helps to enter used cell phone, new cell phone, unlocked cell phone or refurbished cell phone before the specific brand.  For example, search AT&T used cell phone with a specific brand model number.   The more specific you get, the closer you come to obtaining the new cell phone or used cell phone of your dreams.

Is it safe to buy my next cellular phone online from eBay? The short answer is absolutely! EBay has several ways to help you make sure you are dealing with reputable companies and individuals. The first is what called the feedback system. Feedback is a way to rate the seller. Each time an item is purchased, the buyer gets a chance to leave a positive, neutral or negative feedback. The feedback score is displayed next to each eBay members name (both buyers and seller) and is represented with a number. A member with (100), has at least 100 transactions on eBay. Think in raw numbers, the more items the buyer has sold, the higher the feedback score. By clicking on the feedback score it give you, as a potential buyer, the opportunity to read through what other customers have left for the seller at that seller’s feedback profile. What you may notice while viewing a seller’s feedback profile is that there is a percentage. This represents all the positives + any negative and neutrals, divided by the number of positives. So someone with 100 positives and no neutrals and 2 negatives will have a feedback percentage of 98%. An even easier way to view eBay’s feedback system is to think of each feedback as a customer in a store. If you have served 1,000 customers and only one had a complaint, you are doing pretty good (that’s 999 positive and 1 negative, or 99%). On the other hand, if you had 1,000 customers and 200 had a complaint, you wouldn’t be doing all that well (that’s 800 positive and 200 negative, or 80%). To the right of the feedback score and percentage you will see what is referred to as Detailed Sellers Rating. This is where other buyers have left the seller stars (from one to five) in four categories: Item as described, Communication, Shipping time and Shipping and handling charges. So how do you know what a good percentage is to deal with and how many feedbacks are enough to trust someone? 

That brings us to Power Sellers. An eBay Power Seller is the best of the best and eBay has several requirements BEFORE you can become a Power Seller. If a member is a Power Seller, you will see the power seller logo next to their name. A Power Seller has consistent sales volume, 98% total positive Feedback, eBay marketplace policy compliance, an account in good financial standing, and beginning in July 2008, detailed seller rating (DSRs) of 4.5 or higher in all four DSRs - item as described, communication, shipping time, and shipping and handling charges. If an eBay seller no longer complies with any one of the above requirements, they are removed from the program. Now this doesn’t mean that someone who isn’t a Power Seller isn’t trust worthy, but by dealing with these individuals, you can be sure that you are dealing with the best of the best on eBay.

What about payment?  Some sellers will accept personal checks, money orders or cashiers checks. But almost all major sellers will accept a form of payment called PayPal. PayPal is a secure way of sending funds electronically from one person to another.  You can fund a PayPal account using your bank account or using your debit or credit card.  This makes even the smallest of stores able to accept credit cards, were they may not have been able to before. You can open a PayPal account for FREE at PayPal.com and there is NO fees to send someone money. The person receiving the money pays the fees. As a bonus, most major purchases are eligible for PayPal’s buyer protection program for added protection. PayPal also allows for you to easily dispute a transaction you are not happy with. If you are not happy, you can go to PayPal.com and file your dispute and give your reasons you are disputing. PayPal will return the money to your account while an investigation is held. If PayPal finds you in favor, the money never comes back out of your account. You will know if a seller accepts PayPal by looking for the PayPal logo in the listing of the mobile phone they are selling. The bottom line is, any seller worth their salt WILL have PayPal as an option for payment and those that don’t, you may want to avoid.

Inevitably, what you’ll find at eBay is a very user-friendly atmosphere with lots of options and a safe and secure way to pay. Finding a used cell phone at a bargain price or the new cell phone you’ve had your eye on has never been more convenient. So what are you waiting for? Your dream cell phone is a few clicks away at www.eBay.com.