Welcome to eBay. eBay is the world's largest online community of buyers and sellers! It's your place to buy what you want, sell what you have, and make a few friends while you're at it.

If you're new to eBay, you’ll find it helpful to learn about the following:

• Step 1: Register on eBay

• Step 2: Review Information for New Users

• Step 3: Learn How to Find and Buy Items

• Step 4: Learn How to Sell Items (Optional)

Step 1: Register on eBay

The first step for buying and selling on eBay is to register as an eBay member. Registering on eBay is easy and free. To learn more about registering, see:

• About the Registration Process

• Registering for the First Time

• Problems Registering?

• About the User Agreement and Privacy Policy

• Choosing a User ID

• Providing Identification for Registration

• About Signing in to Your Account

Step 2: Review information for new users

After you’ve registered as a new user, it’s helpful to review some information about eBay.

• For a list of tips for new eBay users, see Tips for New Users.

• For information on how eBay promotes a safe trading environment, see Trust and Safety on eBay.

• For information about the community resources available to all eBay members, see About the eBay Community.

• For information on where to get help when you need it, see About Getting Help on eBay.

Key concepts about eBay
The following key points will help you understand a little bit more about how eBay operates:

• When you buy an item on eBay, you are buying from another eBay member, who is the seller. You are not buying from eBay. For more key concepts on buying, see Buying – Overview.

• eBay is an agent for bringing together buyers and sellers. eBay does not buy or sell anything directly.

• To ensure that eBay provides a safe and fair trading environment for all eBay members, eBay has a User Agreement, which you agree to when you register, and rules and policies for everyone. When necessary, eBay will step in to enforce the agreement, rules, and policies and to prevent fraud.

• To help keep you safe when buying and selling, eBay includes tools such as feedback, a valuable indicator of your reputation for buying and selling on eBay, and Buyer Protection Programs, which are educational resources for shopping safely online. If something does go wrong, eBay includes a Security & Resolution Center for helping you resolve a dispute and eBay Customer Support for additional assistance.

• Make sure to keep your email address current. Having a current, working email is especially important on eBay because email is used to notify you when you've won an item and to find out shipping and payment options from other buyers and sellers. Learn how to update your email address.

• Be careful of deceptive or spoof emails that claim to be sent by well-known companies—including eBay—and that ask you to reply with personal information, such as your credit card number, social security number, or account password. Learn how to spot a spoof email and what to do about it.

• eBay’s Community is made up of its large membership of buyers and sellers, as well as eBay staff. Being involved on the eBay site makes you a part of the eBay Community, too – welcome! There are many Community resources available to you, including member-to-member forums, eBay news resources, and the Community calendar of events. Learn more about the eBay Community.

• eBay includes thousands and thousands of items in a world-wide marketplace, and this can sometimes feel overwhelming to a new user. To help ease you into trading on eBay, after you register, go to My eBay, where you can track and manage your eBay buying, selling, messaging, account information, preferences, and more from a single, secure location. (Learn more about My eBay.)

Step 3: Learn how to find and buy Items

Once you’ve registered and reviewed some key information about eBay, it’s time to learn how to find the items you want to buy and how to buy them. See Buying – Getting Started.

Step 4: Learn how to sell Items (optional)

Are you ready to start selling? You’ll need to provide some additional information. To review an overview of selling, see Selling – Overview. To become a seller on eBay, see Becoming a Seller.

Ready to get started?
Register Now!
Take the New to eBay tour from the Learning Center.
eBay University offers eBay University offers classes across the country or in the comfort of your own home.

• New to eBay – Overview

• Using My eBay – Overview

If you're looking for more help or have a question to ask, please contact us.