Ebayers - Must read 2

Step 3: Bidding tips to bag a bargain

Once you’ve spotted listing you like, it’s time to bid right and close the deal.

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  Snipe your way to a bargain
  Spotted something you want to buy? The last thing you should ever do is bid on it! Bid early and competing buyers will bid back, forcing the price upwards. Instead, sneakily win auctions by swooping in and delivering a killer bid about 10 seconds before, leaving no time for others to fight back.
  
  Sniping websites automatically bid on your behalf. Here, you simply sign up, enter an eBay* item number and the highest price you’re willing to pay (this also stops you getting carried away in the heat of a last minute bidding war). Goofbay.com has a free auction sniper, or alternatively, the more reliable Bidnip.com charges roughly 35 cents (17p) per auction won.
  A big warning! You need to give these sites your eBay password for them to work, which is a serious security concern. While feedback has generally been good from MoneySavers, there's little protection from eBay if things ever do go wrong, as you have willingly given your password to a third party. If you do sign up, never use the name password for eBay as you do for other accounts like banks or email.
• Manipulate eBay ‘best offers’
  Some sellers specify that they’ll consider ‘best offers’. This is where you propose a figure, then they mull it over and tell you if it’s a goer. Yet, because sellers often sell the same item repeatedly, especially electricals, there’s a loophole to see which prices they’ve already accepted, and lower your best offer accordingly.
  To do this, click on “advanced search”, tell it what you want, and check the show only “best offers” box. Once you’ve found a product which accepts best offers, click to view the sellers other items, on the top right hand side of the page. On the next page, click “completed items”, to see all the items that seller has already sold. Look at the items that say best offer by it, and, bingo: you can see the lowest price they’ve accepted.
• Arrange your own postage
  Some sellers try to supplement their income by charging excessive delivery rates. If this happens, ask if you can arrange your own postage. Then have a courier pick up the item and deliver it to your house. For a full guide to this and finding a mega-cheap courier, read the Cheap Parcel Delivery article.

Step 4: Scam busting tips

In it’s essence, eBay’s a simple marketplace and it takes only limited responsibility for what goes on there. This means that, while it's easy to snap up a scorcher, it's just as easy to get burnt.
If you’re new to eBay, it’s a good idea to learn the ropes by making a couple of small purchases, such as books or CDs, before graduating to more costly items. The following should help you avoid common cons.

• Check you're bidding on the item itself.
  While scare con stories of ebay are abound, with a bit of common sense, it’s fairly easy to stay safe. Most sellers are decent types, who want to protect their feedback scores. If you’re new to eBay and want to check whether an item’s legit, why not post it on the eBay board, where experts will tell you whether it looks kosher.
  Sometimes it seems you're bidding for an object on eBay*, when all that's actually up for grabs is a link to a site selling it. E.g. it only takes a few minutes after logging onto eBay to find a link to a £200 laptop sale, where inspection of the small print reveals it's actually selling a link to a discount laptop site.
  Always read the whole description in detail before bidding. Often the catch is hidden in the tiny text at the end – an attempt to protect the seller from any comeback.
• Know your rights.
  Use the 'Buy It Now' button, rather than a standard auction, to buy from a UK based trader on eBay, and you've all the same statutory rights as buying from a shop (see the Consumer Rights article). A trader is someone who makes some or all of their living from regularly selling goods. Technically it's up to the courts to decide but it's usually pretty obvious.
  Buy from a private individual and the law says “let the buyer beware”. Providing your purchase arrives ‘as described' there's little legal comeback (assuming you can trace them anyway) and the standard seven day internet cooling-off period usually doesn't apply to auction purchases.
• Take feedback with dose of skepticism.
  eBay sellers have a ‘feedback' rating which acts as a useful guide to whether they've dealt fairly in the past. As a guideline, look for a seller with over 98% positive feedback, and a high feedback score of at least 30. Never buy an expensive item from a seller with zero feedback, as it means they’ve never sold before.
  Remember that feedback is useful but not infallible. One thing to watch for is traders flogging a few tiny things for 10p each to build their feedback, and suddenly listing 15 mobile phones at £200 a pop.
  Normally, viewing a sellers’ negative feedback means trawling through reams of comments, but a handy tool lets you view it instantly. Just in a seller name into negative feedback checker Toolhaus, and it’ll expose all the negative/neutral comments.

eBay is not the only site

While eBay is hugely dominant, there are alternatives which can yield decent bargains.

• Free Classified Ads
  Perhaps the fasted growing trend is for offloading gear on a free classified site, the power-puncher of these is Gumtree* which divides the UK into different towns. It sells anything from bikes to beds and doesn't charge either the buyer or the seller (except for job ads).
  Interestingly Gumtree is owned by eBay, it was bought in May 2005, probably as eBay started to identify it as competition. Thankfully it hasn't impacted its free community-based operations.
• Other Auction Sites
  While eBay is massively dominant ebid* is also a sizeable auction site. Its advantage is it charges sellers less than eBay, which means some prefer it. So if you're searching for something specific, it's worth adding it to your search. A useful website, auctionlotwatch.co.uk is a shopbot for online auctions. Search for an item and it trawls the four big auction sites for you.
• Amazon & Play
  Amazon* and now Play* have second hand marketplaces, for most of the products they sell new, and these can actually hold a candle to eBay's size. Do a normal search for something on the site, and if there's a second hand version available, it's listed. It primarily operates as a fixed price rather than an auction, making it an easy alternative.

Get it for free!

It’s even possible to bagsy stuff for free. There are several environmentally friendly and cheap alternative to auctions sites, where users give away items they no longer want. The idea's that folks ‘recycle' goods they'd otherwise have thrown out; some of the stuff is junk, some are top notch goods from generous people. For a step-by-step guide on give-away websites, including Freecycle and others, showing how to use them best, read the Freecycle guide.

 

Credits: Moneysavingexperts

 

Warning Ebayers - Must Read 1

How to jailbreak iphone you found

 

 

Warning For Ebayers - Must read 1

 

eBay is a mammoth marketplace, with millions of goods. Most people just bid, but there are a range of hidden tools you can use to track down and then bag the ultimate bargains. Whether it’s speedy searches for under-priced goods, taking advantage of spelling mistake listings, auto-bidding to cheaply seal a deal or just working out the maximum you should pay, they’re only a free click away.

 

• Step 1: Tools to find under-priced goods
• Step 2: The price ... is it right?
• Step 3: Bidding tricks to bag a bargain
• Step 4: Scam busting tips
• Ebay is not the only site
• Add Your Tricks/Discuss/Other Articles

 

 

 

 

You're bidder off on eBay!

 

 

Step 1: Tools to hone in on under-priced goods

There’re a whole host of powerful online tools that let you exploit eBay* to the max. These not only let you track down exactly what you want, but help you spot bargains that may have gone un-noticed by other bidders, keeping prices low.

 

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  Spelling mistaykes save you cash
  Many people can't spell (martin's is awful) and consequentially mis-enter their eBay entries. This English teacher's nightmare is a bargain hunter's dream: wrongly spelt products attract fewer bids because many don't see them. A few specialist search sites take advantage of this, trawling eBay for all possible spelling mistake combinations.
  These include the simple typo search Fatfingers, set up a few years ago by a MoneySaver to help others and Goofbay with its powerful search tools including locating no bidders.
• Local bargains cut delivery costs
  Sellers often specify that bulky, heavy items – TVs, tables, life size Dr Spock figurines – must be picked up in person. As people are loath to travel far, lack of competition keeps prices low. It’s possible to exploit this by going to Localbargainfinder. Simply tell it your postcode, how far prepared you’re to schlep and a maximum price; it then trawls eBay for hidden gems nearby. This trick’s a must if you’re furnishing a house on a budget.
• No bid items
  Often sellers start auctions at 99p, hoping a bidding war will erupt. Yet many items go unspotted, staying at this super-low price. To take advantage, Lastminute auctions scours for ebay auctions that are due to finish within an hour but are still under £1, meaning there are many bargains to be had.
• Keep alerted to favourites
  If you want something that’s a) hard to track down, or b) cheaper to buy second hand, set a ‘favourite search’ and eBay will email each time a seller lists the item you’re after. Simply type a product in eBay’s own search bar, such as “Star Wars Lego Millennium Falcon” or “Manchester City Subbuteo players”, and click “save this search”. Be as specific as possible for the most accurate results. Then, when someone clears out the loft and lists the item, an email will pop into your inbox.
• Buy from eBay USA
  There are bargains to be had on overseas eBay sites, particularly the USA. To include foreign auctions in search results, simply click “worldwide” for location, on the left hand bar. But keep an eye on postage costs, and remember that if you’re buying from outside the EU, you may be stung with customs tax.

Step 2: Check the price is right

Many people assume that if it’s on eBay*, it’s automatically cheap, and some sellers hike up prices to take advantage of this. Yet with a few basic checks, it’s easy to spot if you’re really getting a bargain.

• Benchmark cheapest prices
  Always benchmark the price before buying. Use shopbots (shopping robots) that whiz to scores of internet retailers to find the cheapest price; MSE's Megashopbot.com tool auto-searches the best of these for each category. After that, you may be eligible for cashback (see Top Cashback Sites).
• Ask 100,000s of people to help
  This site’s forum is a mine of MoneySaving information, where bargain hunters club together to spot top buys. This mass consumer power means someone almost always know whether you're being ripped off. Pose a question on the Shop but don't drop, and you'll often find a bargain hunting nerd can help.
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  My most pertinent memory of this is when I featured Dell's short-term £10 colour printer sale in my weekly email. Later I discovered that one reader had used the info to buy 70 and made over £2,000 profit from eBaying them at £40 each – four times the Dell price. A quick forum check by the purchasers would've saved them serious cash.
  P.S. Some may say "good on them for making profit", yet this kind of behaviour goes against what this site stands for. Of course, businesses source products and make money – that's fine. Yet to use info from this pro-consumer site, to make other consumers pay way over the odds, just isn't cricket.
• Check the ‘eBay going rate’
  After researching and finding that eBay’s the cheapest, there’s a quick way glean a product’s market rate. To do this, fill in the search box and check “completed items” on the left hand grey bar. It’ll come up with a list of prices similar auctions have already fetched; try not to pay more than this.
• Google the info
  Some Del Boy types try and sell web-addresses as ‘exclusive info/tools of great interest'. Yet often they're available free elsewhere. To our great distaste, links to this site are constantly sold to the highest bidder. In the past, people have sold bank charge reclaiming template letters and links to the FlightChecker, as well as other tools from the site.
  Use Google to check exactly what you're bidding for. If it's just ‘information', you'll usually find the same elsewhere for free.

 

Thanks: moneysavingexpert

 

How to recover-your-loststolen-iphone
Warning For Ebayers - Must read 2
 

CRICKET SCAMS india - 1

Never before has a scam been enjoyed and celebrated by such a massive proportion of Indian people. Apart from the very poor in remote rural areas who have no access to television, everyone seems to have relished the fast-pace Twenty-20 cricket matches of the India Premier League (IPL), which finishes its third season with a final tomorrow (Sunday) blighted by massive allegations of corruption.

India is of course a country of scams. To many abroad it is seen sentimentally as Mahatma Gandhi’s country of khadi cloth, good ethics, and care for the poor. To some it is an economic miracle and a future super power, while to others it is an unkind cruel place of caste, ethnic and rich-poor divisions and violence. Above all however, and not far below the surface, India is a maze of unethical, unlawful and illegal swindles that link most politicians, many bureaucrats, and a large number of businessmen and others.

It is scarcely surprising therefore that there is a scam surrounding the IPL, which has grown in just three years to a massive $4bn wealth-creating package of sponsorships, broadcasting and other franchises, fees and other takings.

Cricket is not just a national sport in India but also a passion, and people have watched in awe as the rupee and dollar figures have grown to such an extent that over $300m has recently been bid for new franchises, raising the total from eight to ten teams.

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 A lot of the IPL activity has been alleged in the past week or so to be unethical, unlawful and sometimes illegal. Politicians and others are said to be laundering black money via Mauritius and other tax havens which, though officially recognised, hide investors’ identities through shell companies and benami (false) names. There are suggestions that matches and bids for team franchises have been fixed, and that there have been bribes, tax evasion, illegal betting, and breaches of foreign investment rules.

At the centre of the growth, and the controversy, is Lalit Modi (left), creator and chairman of the IPL and vice president of the highly politicised Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), who is facing calls for his resignation [and was suspended on April 24] .

 “Overlord of a national passion” was the headline on a Financial Times profile of Modi two years ago. More details of his business career appeared in the India’s Mail Today newspaper a few days ago headlined “Modi and controversy go a long way back”.

The national celebration of the lucky few getting rich in a poor country is one of India’s many curious contradictions. The poor have (up to a point) always admired the massive illicit personal wealth of some politicians, such as chief ministers Mayawati and Jayalalitha in Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, because it shows what can be achieved from a deprived background. Similarly, the successes of the IPL organisers, cricketers, and the business and film star cricket team owners, have been enjoyed as a symbol of hope for what might be, as well as a spectator sport (now switched to tracking the leaks and scandals).

Earlier scams and political corruption have also been celebrated to a lesser extent, and some have even done the country good for a time. While stock market fraud primarily makes the price-fixers rich, it also benefits private investors and boosts company capitalisations, and the country has revelled when the Bombay Sensex has soared in past scams. Also, as an ex-army friend has reminded me, the Bofors gun at the centre of 1980s corruption allegations won India a border war with Pakistan at Kargil in 1999 – though it has also stymied defence purchases for 20 years.

This celebratory reaction probably partly explains why the workings of the IPL were not looked at earlier by the government’s financial and criminal investigations agencies, nor the media, even though rumours of illicit deals and links between politicians and investors have been around for some time. It was just too big a tamasha (party), with too powerful hosts, to be interrupted.

Club of friends

As one of those involved said to Tehelka weekly news magazine last week, “It’s common knowledge that ….politicians running across aviation, agriculture, road transport and the Opposition, are minting money and have undeclared stakes in every cricket pie”. Last September, Outlook weekly news magazine noted that “the IPL is largely a club of friends with mutual interests, and often conflicts of interest”.

The main reason for the lack of investigations is of course that, as in virtually all scams (not just in India), politicians are so deeply involved that few officials would dare start inquiries. And most of the Indian media does not begin to investigate until it is fed information.

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 This suddenly came unstuck earlier this month because of the involvement of Sashi Tharoor (left), an ambitious former top United Nations official who last year became an MP and a gaffe-prone external affairs minister. Tharoor helped a consortium based in his home state of Kerala to bid for one of two new IPL franchises on offer this year, and a woman friend, Sunanda Pushkar, was promised a $15m sweat equity stake on account of future consultancy work.

Known as Kochi, the consortium put in the highest bid of $333m, which apparently upset Lalit Modi’s plans for who should win. The consequential row went public on Twitter and exploded in the past two weeks into a scandal that has led to a stream of media leaks, presumably from the government and political parties and mostly directed against Modi. There have been rows in parliament, tax and other raids, and calls for an official inquiry. Tharoor has been forced to resign from his minister’s post, and Pushkar has given up her $15m.

Companies involved

Anyone looking at some of the leading businessmen and companies involved in the IPL would surely have noted long ago that virtually all of them are at the wrong end of India’s corporate respectability spectrum. There is Vijay Mallya of United Spirits and the Kingfisher beer and airline businesses, infrastructure operator GMR that has grown miraculously fast in recent years and grabbed massive land holdings along with airport franchises in Delhi and Hyderabad, and the secretive Subrata Roy of the Sahara group that is famous for its chit (small savings) fund and real estate activities.

Also owning a team is Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Industries (RIL) who has been a strong Modi supporter from the beginning of the league. Those trying to win teams this year include commodity trader Adani, which has been in legal trouble over non-payment of customs dues and monopolising coal imports, and the Videocon electrical white goods and oil exploration company run by Venugopal Dhoot.

Lalit Modi comes from the Delhi-based Modi family business group headed by his father, K.K.Modi. Lalit Modi was not regarded as a success until he started the IPL, and his earlier business ventures include a controversial lottery franchise in the north-eastern state of Manipur.

Modi’s friends and relatives

His relatives crop up as both IPL stakeholders and franchisees. His brother-in-law is a part-owner of the Rajasthan Royals team, which has several shell company investors plus Lachlan Murdoch, son of Rupert Murdoch, the international media tycoon. His step son-in-law, Gaurav Burman, runs Elephant Capital, a private equity company, along with brother Mohit Burman who is also an investor in the King’s XI Punjab team. Elephant has a stake in IPL’s on line and broadcast licensee Global Cricket Ventures. (The Burman family control the Delhi-based Dabur health care and food company).

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) politicians are deeply involved. Lalit Modi has close links with Vasundhara Raje, the BJP’s former Rajasthan chief minister, which are now being challenged on the fringe of the IPL story by Congress politicians. Modi faced tax and other charges after Raje lost power last year. He has sought help from Narendra Modi (no relation), the BJP chief minister of Gujarat. Adani is based in Gujarat and Lalit Modi reportedly wanted it to win the Kochi bid that was secured by Tharoor’s Kochi team. Kochi was allegedly offered a $50m bribe to back off by Lalit Modi (who has denied the charge), so that Adani could take over.

Patel and Pawar

Praful Patel, India’s urbane but under-performing aviation minister, who I described as the government’s “Teflon man” in an earlier blog, has also been a target of leaks to the media. He frequently issues smooth denials of any problems, and of his own lack of responsibility for the worsening state of Air India and India’s over-crowded and potentially dangerous skies and airports.

This week he was rebutting leaks by denying any involvement in the IPL, even though his 24-year old daughter works for the league and, with him, reportedly sent an e-mail to Tharoor about cricket teams’ potential profitability. “Children should not be targeted,” said Patel a few days ago. He is closely involved with India’s cricket in other ways because he is a senior member of the Nationalist Congress Party, which is led by Sharad Pawar, once one of India’s most powerful politicians but now a not very effective agriculture minister. Pawar is former president of the BCCI and is at the centre of a row over what should happen to Modi. He is in line to become president of the International Cricket Council.

It is not clear whether Pawar and Patel are being targeted by the Congress Party as a warning not to upset the stability of the governing coalition, or by the opposition BJP to embarrass the government.

A writer in the Indian Express the other day said that “in many ways, the IPL is a confirmation of what India really is – an emerging economy”. He is correct. The scandal shows how far the country has to go before it can claim to have moved on from being under-developed in terms of market regulation and ethics.

As the economy has been liberalised over the past 20 years, brilliant entrepreneurship has been generated, but unparalleled greed has grown at all levels of society. People from the top of the government down to a village headman use cronyism, patronage, bribery, coercion and generally low ethics to build status and wealth. That looks like continuing for generations because there are still some 700m or more people clambering to enter the economy and reap the benefits of new riches.

On the IPL, the current furore will no doubt lead to one or two resignations, but inquiries will be controlled to protect many of those involved. Some new regulations might be introduced to control the league. The flow of news leaks that is fuelling blanket media coverage will slow down soon and the fuss will almost certainly die away, maybe in a week of two, when it will be neatly swept from headlines by other news.

Thanks: ridingtheelephant

 Do u watch cricket read this

Earning Billions is easy?

Guys, are you one of the many Indians worrying about earning wealth and think earning billions are not your kind of stuff, then I advise to see the list of top 10 richest Indian billionaires below and think again if they can then why can't I?

   1. Steel czar Lakshmi Mittal with a net worth of $31.1 billion.
   2. Mukesh Ambani with a net worth $27 billion
   3. Wipro, Azim Premji, with a net worth of $16.8 billion.
   4. Shashi, with a net worth of $15.8 billion, 
   5. Ravi Ruia, with a net worth of $15.8 billion
   6. Savitri Jindal and family ($13.2 billion)
   7. Gautam Adani ($10 billion)
   8. Kumar Mangalam Birla ($9.2 billion)
   9. Anil Ambani ($8.8 billion), Sunil Mittal and family ($8.3 billion), and
  10. Adi Godrej and family ($7.3 billion).

Anyways, some of the above took over their parents wealth but many did earn by them self, what makes them to be on this list, I would say their hard work, well planned and executed business ideas.

So plan it well and execute your business thoughts with out second thoughts.

One day earning of our star Indian cricketers,

    * Sachin Tendulkar $60,246.42 per day!

    * Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s income $41,666.67 per day!

By seeing their income makes easier to say because they are celebrities and we are not, but they were also like us once with full of dreams.

To give you more classical example, man who is god of computer, Bill Gates earns $8,947,848.53 per day, he has earned since his birth an average of $32.31 per heartbeat, and this is escalating.

So guys, take a pick and go for it.

To know more about laxmi mittal 

Laxmi mittal - INTERESTING FACTS

Lakshmi Mittal - Success Story

Born: June 15, 1950, Sadulpur, Rajasthan, India.

Age: 61

Country of Citizenship: India

Residence: London, United Kingdom, Europe & Russia

Religious stance: Hinduism

Occupation: Chairman & CEO of Arcelor Mittal

Net worth: $51.0 billion USD

Fortune: Inherited and growing

Source: Steel

Industry: Manufacturing

Website: mittalsteel.com

Marital Status: Married, 2 children

Education: St Xavier's College Calcutta, Bachelor of Arts / Science.

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• He is the fifth richest person in the world.
• The Financial Times named Mittal its 2006 Person of the Year. In May 2007, he was named one of the "100 most influential people" by Time magazine.
• His first years in India, living with his extended family on bare floors and rope beds in a house built by his grandfather.
• Lakshmi was a keen student and his classmates knew him as a sharp student who was good with numbers.
• Since 2005, Mittal has been the richest person residing in the United Kingdom. He is the President of the Board of Directors and CEO of Arcelor Mittal; Arcelor Mittal is the world's largest producer of steel, with assets in France, Belgium, Romania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, South Africa, Poland, Czech Republic, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Canada, Bulgaria, United States and Brazil.
• Although Mittal has been living abroad for many years, he claims he will remain an Indian.
• His residence at 18-19 Kensington Palace Gardens was bought from Formula One car racing boss Bernie Ecclestone in 2004 for £57.1 million ($105.7 million), the world's highest price ever paid for a house. Formerly, this house was the residence of Paul Reuter, the founder of the Reuters news service.
• Mittal paid over £30 million to host his daughter Vanisha's wedding celebration in Vaux le Vicomte on 22 June 2004 and an engagement ceremony at the Palace of Versailles on 20 June 2004, the world's most expensive wedding ever. He even hosted a Bollywood night where superstars like Rani Mukerji, Saif Ali Khan, Shahrukh Khan and Aishwarya Rai performed. Kylie Minogue also sang on stage.
• Mittal's house in Kensington, London is decorated with marble taken from the same quarry that supplied the Taj Mahal. The extravagant show of wealth has been deemed the "Taj Mittal."
• After witnessing India win only one medal, bronze, in the 2000 Olympics, and one medal, silver, at the 2004 Olympics, Mittal decided to set up Mittal Champions Trust with U$9 million to support 10 Indian athletes with world-beating potential.
• For Comic Relief 2007, he matched the money raised (~£1 million) on the celebrity special BBC programme, The Apprentice.

Source