Arguably, there is no better way to buy and sell products and services than over the internet. E-commerce has allowed millions of business owners to expand their frontiers and reach potential customers beyond their physical reach. For buyers, the internet allows anyone to get what they want regardless of where it is. E-commerce has been used to sell goods like food and drinks, products like paper and electronic books, electronic devices, vehicles, and services like web development, writing and social media management. The two most commonly heard names in the west for e-commerce platforms are the giants Amazon and eBay.

Buying things over the internet is not new. The origins of eBay come from the 90’s, when programmer Pierre Omidyar built the AuctionWeb platform, where transactions between two people could be made, with an emphasis on auctions. The site grew very quickly, going from around 250.000 auctions in 1996 to 200.000 in a single month in the next year. The company saw another huge outburst of growth when it went public in 1998, with the stock market increasing public interest in the company and in digital commerce. As of 2019, eBay is a multibillion-dollar company with a revenue of more than US$ 10 billion.

With eBay, sellers can set up items for traditional auctions where the best bidder gets a product. The platform also offers regular shopping, similar to other e-commerce sites. Buyers can use the website free of charge, while sellers pay a small fee for each sale. eBay customers get different options to get their products shipped to them in different ways. Customers can rate sellers according to their feelings about the transaction.

Today, you can find almost anything on eBay, and it is specially used by hobbyists and people selling collectible items. A lot of countries around the world use the marketplace to sell lost-and-found items at auctions. All kinds of curiosities have been sold on the site, including two previously undiscovered animal species, a town with a population of 25 people, half a slice of bread eaten by Justin Timberlake, and a single cornflake. During its early beginnings, at least 10% of the listings on eBay were Beanie Babies. On a more serious note, eBay’s open market is used by economists to research buying-selling behaviors, auctions, and the price of items over time, both internally and by third-party research funds.

Despite all of eBay’s strengths as a service, it has been widely criticized for many reasons. For one, the prevalence of fraud and scams. eBay reports that less than 0.1% of its sales result in fraud, but a lot of complaints have been made regarding this claim, as well as the platform’s tendency not to answer when fraud is reported. Fraudulent, bootleg and counterfeit products have been sold on eBay, posing as legitimate. eBay uses PayPal a lot for online transactions, which has been criticized for its widespread use by scammers and fraudsters. Some auctions on eBay are also subjected to “shill bidding”, where fake accounts make bids on items to artificially increase their prices.

eBay has also had some controversies for some of its behavior as a company, having used loops in the law to enforce the use of its then subsidiary PayPal in Australia, or having high profile people in the company carry out a stalking campaign in 2019 against an online blog that criticized their services.

You may want to try out eBay as an alternative to other e-commerce sites that also have shady practices. But you may be cautious about the kind of information that you share online, and with good reason. In 2014, the site had a security breach where banking data, email addresses and phone numbers were leaked out to a group of hackers.

If you want to give eBay a shot as a customer or as a buyer, a great option to share the least amount of information you can to the company is to use a virtual number. With these, you can create an eBay account and verify it without giving them your personal phone number. This way, you can try the service out without compromising an important part of your data. In this guide, you’ll learn how to create an eBay account and how to verify it with a temporary number.

Step 1: go to eBay.com

The first step is to create an eBay account. If you already have one available that has not been verified yet, you can skip this step. On your browser, search for “eBay”. The first option on the list should be the correct one. Click on it.

Click on “Register” at the top left corner.

Fill in the form presented with your information and click on “Create Account”.

Now go to “my eBay” and click on “Summary”.

Then, go to “Account”.

Fill in the form but leave the phone number section blank.

Step 2: get a temporary number

Sign in on our website, or sign up if you don’t have an account with us yet. Both options are available at the top menu of our webpage.

Once you access your account, go to “Services” and click on “Short-term numbers”, these are located on the left menu. But first, make sure the top tab says “United States”.

Now, on the search bar type “eBay” and click on the blue “Purchase” button underneath to get this number.

Mark the checkbox to confirm your purchase, and click on “Next”.

You should be seeing your number, copy it and paste it on eBay’s page. Then, click on “Continue”.

Step 3: verify your number

You’ll be redirected to your summary page, so click on “Account” and then on “Personal Information”.

Scroll down until you reach the phone section. Then, click on “Verify”.

Click on “Send code” and then on “Next” on our page.

You’ll receive the code shortly after, so enter it on eBay and click on “Verify”.

And that’s it! With these simple steps, you were able to verify your eBay account using a Non VoIP number provided by us, Major Phones. Have a great time shopping around eBay’s great inventory!