eBay offers quite a few simple tools to help make your buying easier, so you dont lose track of what youre doing. Most of them are on the My eBay screen C if youre logged in, you can go there just by clicking My eBay on the toolbar at the top of any eBay page.

My Summary.

Your summary screen shows what youre currently buying or selling, as well as any announcements eBay want to make that day. It is set up as a list of reminders, so it will tell you if there are items you need to pay for or if you have been outbid C its like your eBay to do list.

You can make this screen show what you want it to by clicking Customise Summary in the top-right corner. To go to any of the other buying tools pages from here, use the menu on the left of the screen, under All Buying.

Watching: This is your watchlist C the auctions you have decided are worth keeping an eye on but dont want to bid on yet. To add an auction to this page, click Watch this item in the top-right corner of its description page. To delete an item, just put a tick in its box on the Watching page and then click the Delete button.

Bidding: This is a list of all the items youre currently bidding on. Items that youre currently the winning bidder on are highlighted in green, while items that youve been outbid on are shown in red, with an option to bid again.

Best Offers: You can see here all of the best offers youve made on Buy it Now items, and whether or not the seller accepted them.

Won and Didnt Win: This is where the items from the Bidding page go when the auction is over. If you won the item, then you will be able to choose an action depending on how far along you are in the buying process. From here, you can pay, tell the seller youve sent payment, or leave feedback once youve got the item. You should keep going through these steps until youve done them all. There are small blue icons to show you which of these steps you have completed so far, and whether the seller has left any feedback for you.

Dont worry if you dont often get the chance to check back at My eBay. If anything important happens, eBay will email you, and the email should contain a button or link to let you do whatever you need to do. If you want real control all the time, though, then the tools available on the My eBay page can work well for you.

By now, youve probably dipped your toe in the water and got quite used to buying on eBay C but is it worth it for you? In the next email, well take a look at the advantages and disadvantages of buying on eBay.