Do you use ebay?

I've bought:

• 
  a car,
  a car transmission,
  clothing - a lot (both new and used)
  books, car manuals
  batteries
  LED lites
  watches
  food (caviar and honey)
  shoes
  cell phones
  socket sets, wrenches and many other auto tools
  chess sets
  perfume
  old newspapers
  laptops
  software

I've sold:
1 car
Many auto parts
Car manuals
Clothing
collectibles
coins
desktops


and much more

Sure do. I have 500+ transactions, I figure maybe 70/30 or 60/40 selling/buying. Despite so much being wrong with it, I think it's one of the great creations of the Web era.

I've got 179 feedbacks. I'm sure there are some that didn't leave any, too. I use it all the time and love it. I bet at least 75% of CPFers use it. It can be a real rush when you're bidding against people and you try to manually snipe the auction. It's a rush when you get a killer deal, too! I got a pair of brand new ultra-compact binoculars made by canon (7x17) for $12, after shipping! The cheapest buy-it-now price for those was like $89 bucks, and auctions usually end up around 60 or 70 bucks, before shipping. What a score! I sold some coins of my dads, too, for 5x his purchasing price. Made over $400 in profit on those! Ebay is awesome!

I think that automotive-wise, it is a buyer's market. You can get great deal on vehicles 3/4 of the time. Of course you have to bid within your geographical region so you can go and look at the car in person, unless it's really really new and they have really really high feedback, and even then, I would look at it.

As for little things, like LEDs and cells and books and such, it's also a great place. You have to make sure you getting something from the seller with a high enough rating.

A lot of times though, I couldn't find some specialized items I was looking for, for example some 12,000 MaH D cells, all they have are some 10,000 MaH ones. Then I go to an online place. But I did get a bit lot of C cells for a huge discount.

One huge advantage is that you don't have to stand in line in some noisy Walmart-like place with questionable people around you (sometimes) and drive there and whatnot.. (Not to mention exposing yourself to accidents and crime in the parking lot, crime, theft of your vehicle, etc.) I've purchased things on there even when they came out to about the same as in Home Depot/Chimart - it's nice and raises the feedback. Ebay generally has much greater selection than anywhere else. I even stopped going to yard sales which I previously liked.

Some problems I've had:

With clothing, you have to know your size. Even then, sometimes an item will not fit perfectly.

Some things are just hard to buy, like eyeglasses frames. You have to know your size, but it's inherently difficult. But if you do get it right, you don't have to pay crazy prices like $200 for a Chinese-made Titanium frames... Get it for 1/4 of the cost if that.

Shipping can be too much with big items like computer monitors. I got a nice monitor for $25 (which cost $500 new, but had a few scratches) and shipping came out to $60. So big and heavy items like TVs and fridges are not very practical -- but even with shipping, may turn out to be a better deal than the local hardware place.

I have become addicted too. About half my shopping is now done on eBay. You can't beat it for searching, having comparative prices, and home delivery.

Yeh I'm starting to get hooked but with all of my recent flashlight purchases I can't afford much over there ATM.

I use it, but lately my computer wont let me log in to Ebay. It works fine when I log in at work, but not at home. I've restarted the computer, cleaned the cache, cleaned the passwords, history, cookies and have tried both Internet Explorer and Firefox. I guess my computer wants me to save my money

I seem to use EBay maybe 4-6 times a year.

Yes, I have been on eBay for about 4+ years solid. I have several accounts for different jobs and really enjoy it. I have sold over 700 items and have delivered a good value and fast shipping and also gotten some very good deals. It is definately worth the time.

I've bought 502 items (100% positive feedback) since signing up on 02-16-99.
You need to have a charge card to sell on Ebay though, so I've never sold anything via that vector.

Things I purchase on Ebay include but are not limited to lasers, LEDs, flashlights, Christmas light sets & Christmas light bubs, Digimon plush, Digimon episodes on CD-ROM and DVD, movies on DVD, batteries, Seattle Mariners stuff, computer hardware, glass telephone insulaters, books, and even a baseball autographed by Ken Griffey Jr. (with COA).

iced_theater said:

I use it, but lately my computer wont let me log in to Ebay. It works fine when I log in at work, but not at home. I've restarted the computer, cleaned the cache, cleaned the passwords, history, cookies and have tried both Internet Explorer and Firefox. I guess my computer wants me to save my money

Click to expand...

The same thing happened to me when using an older version of Opera (7.21), bot at home and at work.

But Firefox works just fine for me.

Mostly for smallish purchases, CD, DVD's and misc things. I've used it to find car parts for my project vehicle in the past. It is fun...just won a vintage lock.

These days, most items, I can find locally through traditional stores or they price match with the big mail order places. If not for that, my buying would probably be much more there.

A little bit...mostly a couple of major brand outlet stores where I can get last years stuff cheap. and not worry about who I'm dealing with.

I've also procured some specialty parts for my Suzuki Samurai on Ebay. Nice place when you're shopping for something rare or of a specialty nature. In fact, a couple weeks back, I bought a piece of 1930's sheet music. It had a picture of my wife's granddad on the cover (he was the director of the NBC Orchestra at one time) and pleased the heck out of my mother-in-law when I gave it to her.

And that's priceless....

Yes I do look for a certain brand knife that went under I think in the late 70's or in the 80's ( you might know them now as "Bark River knife and tool") and I have bought other things on occasion (like flashlights).
Topper

I'm not a big eBayer. I've purchased two things, both of them "Buy It Now" and neither one an expensive item.

I got digital electronic calipers and a cool SLO.

As long as we are on the subject of e-bay.

Watch out for any "second chance" offers you get. I would bet 95% are fraud. I have people calling me nearly every day asking about a second chance offer I sent them. I NEVER send second chance offers. If I get a call a day there's no telling how many others don't go back to my ad and call me. They ignore it or possibly send money to the fraud. Typically they want you to send money via Western Union or PayPal. E-bay has a warning up but I bet thousands of people are getting burned.

I had a man call me yesterday about a second chance offer he got on one of my items. I told him it was not me and it was fraud he should report. He called me back 15 minutes later and asked me if I was sure I didn't send him the offer because it looked very official and he wanted to take me up on the offer. When people get greedy (see a price way too low) they often times close their mind to logic.

Another guy called me yesterday because he also got a second chance offer on one of my items. It was an offer on a item I had already sold him for $31.5k. He was being offerd the item via second chance for $22k. They just needed him to Western Union them 10% to hold the vehicle. He laughed about it.

I've gotten many second chance offers and none were fraud. I always love second chance offers because I get the item for less than the winner, and often for whatever I had decided my limit for the item was.

Oh yeah, ever second chance offer that I have ever received has been for my highest bid, which was, of course, never the winning bid.

Yep, i use it sometimes. useful for buying cheap little whatsits - anything under $30us or stuff you pick up people usually don't bother to scam you for.

--neg

Watch out for any "second chance" offers you get


GOOD Point ! ! ! And all these emails about "Need to verify your account", and beware of hijacked accounts selling small high priced items like binoculars, laptops, cell phones ... if the seller sold socks or DVDs for 500 auctions and is suddenly selling a laptop, beware!!!

If the item is expensive, I do not bid unless feedback is high enough.

If the 2d chance offer is from Ebay you'll see it in your..My Ebay section in the messages file. If it's not there then Ebay didn't send the 2d chance offer.