Auction tips

Alan Chow, managing director and co-founder of Go2Hk.com,
suggested three ways for young people to protect themselves
from being cheated.

“First, one should seek advice from friends who have
experience with auctions.

“Second, for most auction sites there is a grading system
designed to protect the rights of buyers and sellers.

“A grade will be given to both the buyer and the seller after each
transaction,” he said.

“By reading the transaction record of another party, one can more easily tell if the transaction with that party is reliable or not,” he said.

“Last, choose a trustworthy site with good customer services and a sound security system.

“Let’s take sites which only allow valid email addresses. That means only a school’s or a company’s email accounts are accepted during registration for the auction.

“In case there are any cases of cheating in the future, it will be easier to trace those frauds,” he said.

“But the most important thing is that before demanding others to be honest, one should be honest himself in every transaction.

“It is our obligation to give a clear description of our products and to hide no facts,” said Mr. Chow.

Online auctions

Students find bargains on Internet

By Sally Yip
Cheap. Trendy. Interesting.... Online auctions are now open and
ready for business.

“Definitely young people are our main target group,” said Miss
Jaclie Chan, director of operations for an online auction site,
www.cat-street.com.

“They are more economically independent and they have great
purchasing power.

“During special occasions like Christmas and Mother’s Day,
bids for hotel rooms and discount meals are mainly made by
young people,” said Miss Chan.

“If a product is successfully sold or bought, there will only be a 5 percent service charge if the product is not more than $10,000.

“This encourages young people to participate in bidding,” said Miss Chan.

Miss Hilda Wong, director of business development and marketing for another online auction site, red-dots.com, agreed.

Said she: “We always want to attract more young people.

“Goods like mobile phones, computers, and some other collectable goods are specially designed for them.”

Frankie Liu, a Year 1 accounting student at Hong Kong Baptist University, claims to be an auction-maniac.

“It keeps me trendy,” he said.

“I started bidding at auction three years ago when I wanted to buy my first mobile phone. It is much cheaper to buy a secondhand product.”

He said it is easier and more convenient to compare the prices of different mobile phone models by visiting different sites than by shopping around in person.

“I can easily sell my old mobile phones through these auction sites,” he said.

Mr. Liu said he sometimes acts like a middleman, helping his classmates to sell their old mobile phones.

“At the peak of my auctioning, I bought and sold mobile phones 25 times when I was in Form 6.”
He even made a small profit through these transactions.

“Online auctions have turned out to be a profitable trade for me, which was unexpected,” he said.

Miss Lo Kok Ming is a Year 2 student in the Department of Biology at The Chinese University of Hong Kong.

She has two years’ experience with online auctions.

“I make successful deals twice a month now.”

She is a big fan of Winnie the Pooh and likes collecting its spin-off products.

“Auctions allow me to collect many of its products that are made in other countries, and hard to find in Hong Kong, like the first generation Winnie the Pooh doll. It cost only $34,” she said.

Miss Lo also bought a MiniDisc player and some pins, comics and bracelets, all at low prices.

“I can find plenty of goods on these sites. All I have to do is sit in front of the computer,” she said.

“The improved customer services provided by the sites are another reason I am attracted to online auction sites.

“Most of the sites have customer service centres. Both buyers and sellers can make transactions safely under the supervision of the staff at these centres.

“Or one can collect the products at certain post offices.

“It is no longer necessary for both parties to meet each other personally,” Miss Lo said.

She mentioned, however, that she does not participate in auctions where only credit is accepted for payment.

“It is dangerous to expose personal information on the Internet,”she said.

Most auction sites have addressed this problem by accepting payment by other means.

Take cat-street.com, for example. In addition to paying by credit card, one can pay by cheque, bank transfer or cash.

Nevertheless, to bid in an online auction one must be cautious.

“The quality of the products is not guaranteed,” said Mr. Liu from Baptist University.

“Once I bought a mobile phone which was supposed to be very new, but the battery ran out quickly,” he said.

“Sometimes, the product descriptions are unclear or untrue, or you are unaware of broken inner components of the product,” he said.

To avoid this problem, Mr. Liu suggested asking for detailed information about products before buying them.

Buyers should also ask for warranties; otherwise one may have to pay expensive repair fees if a problem occurs.

Mr. Liu said that some buyers are irresponsible, though.

“I experienced several buyers who did not show up at the meeting place without informing me in advance. This is quite common, and it is frustrating,” he said.