Forget Tampa Bay, this is eBAY! Following on from Mark Caress’ article on buying over the Internet, I thought it might be helpful to offer my thoughts on purchasing through the auction site ‘ebay’. Buying by auction can seem quite daunting at first. The very fact that pushing a button on your keyboard commits you to parting with your hard earned cash, can make your palms sweat but, in my experience, it works. Start by getting a feel for what is available on ‘ebay.com’. Searching for buccaneers will bring up plenty of gear. You can narrow your search with more specific keywords as required. Having kept an eye on the site for a while, the next step is to register and choose a username. This will allow you to bid on an item. You will not see any names, addresses or telephone numbers on the site, just usernames. Anyone who buys or sells is invited to comment on the other, and so a picture is built on a persons reliability etc. You can check this out before placing a bid. If you see something that catches your eye, check to see that the seller will ship to the UK. Some sellers quote the delivery charge on the page. If not, email them for a quote so that you know the true cost of the item before you bid. Any bids you make cannot be withdrawn. Before you place your bid it is a good idea to set yourself a limit so that you don’t get too carried away. It’s easy to be caught up in the excitement. For instance, at the beginning I got quite excited at being able to buy an Autographed Shaun King jersey for only $20, so I jumped in. As it happens no one bid against me - its now hanging up at home. Experience shows me that you can get loads of King stuff - so don’t jump in and buy the first thing on offer, chances are the item, or a better one, will appear again. (I’ve now got a Johnson jersey). It is possible to place a maximum bid at the time of bidding. This means that if anyone beats your initial bid, the site will automatically bid again on your behalf, up to the limit that you set. This can be worthwhile if you are particularly keen on an item but you can’t be up at the time that the auction expires! You will find that some auctions expire in our ‘early hours’ due to the time difference and that a lot of bidders enter their bids in the final minutes of the auction. So lets assume that you are successful and the proud ‘owner to be’ of a Warren Sapp bobblehead doll. How do you pay for such doll? Well, there is a system in place called ‘paypal’ which allows you to pay securely over the Internet. Once again you have to register, this time also giving your credit card details. Most sellers accept ‘paypal’ so its just a matter of informing ‘paypal’ of the transaction and they will do the rest, deducting the amount from your card - without charge. Never send your card details to anyone via an email. I always check to make sure that paypal is accepted by the seller before I bid on an item. You will be able to email your name and address to the seller. You will also enter these details on ‘paypal’ so that the shipping can be arranged. In my experience, the item usually arrives within a few days, ready to enhance your Buccaneers supporting experience. Beware that buying by auction can become addictive - my wife is constantly warning me! The range of items available is overwhelming, especially now that the words ‘Superbowl’ and ‘Champions’ appear alongside the name of the Buccaneers. Nothing can beat shopping for Bucs gear in florida, but this can be a satisfactory substitute. One final point - please do not bid against the one who calls himself ‘bucsfanuk’! Thanks.