eBay

eBay began in the United States in 1995 as a website for online bidding and pioneered person-to-person trading on the internet. It now mixes auctions with fixed-price listings, many of which accept offers, and both private sellers and professional shops sell new and used items there. Each country has its own domain, such as ebay.com, ebay.co.uk, ebay.de, ebay.fr or ebay.it, and a buyer protection program covers most purchases that never arrive or don't match the listing.

For collectors it is a worldwide reference: trading cards, coins, stamps, vinyl, video games, vintage toys and comics, with auctions that let rare pieces find their market price. Inventories differ from one country to the next, because plenty of sellers stick to their national site, so looking beyond one domain reveals items that never appear elsewhere. Before bidding from abroad, it pays to check where the item is, whether the seller ships internationally and what shipping costs.