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is Ebay a rip off ?

C

ciproxr

Senior member
Every time I looked on ebay everything seems to be rediculessly overpriced, im suprised anyone buys anything from there....I actually have had an ebay account for about 3 years and i may have bid on 2 items but have never actually bought anything.

I have an older toshiba tecra 9000 laptop which was working fine up until a month ago , so i went on ebay to look for a new motherboard which to me seems to be the problem with my laptop , so i bid on a motherboard that came with a cpu , i put in about 30 dollars , and someone outbids by 100 bucks....why would u pay that much for something that might now even work. Then you have people selling their toshiba tecras for 300 bucks, and again who would pay 300 bucks for a 128mb ram 1ghz laptop, yet i see people buying them.

i can go to the dell outlet site and for 350 buy a dell Latitude with pretty good specs and pay a little more to get some kind of waranty or you can buy a brand new Compaq Presario V3000Z series for 400 after rebate which has a 1 year waranty

I bought my epiphone les paul custom for about 560$ brand from sam ash , about 3 years ago yet you see people selling that guitar for almost the same price in some cases, i mean i know guitars hold their value better than pc's but god damn, you can buy the guitar brand new for slightly less rather than going to ebay..

 
Ebay right now is place to get charged high shipping fees, get scammed by the nigerian scammers and find decent deals to whoever finds them.
 
I finally got a working Atari 800XL on eBay after trying for a couple of weeks to get one here in FS/FT.

Was it a bargain? No, but without eBay I'd have had to do something like hit a hundred garage sales and possibly buy several dead ones before getting a working unit.

eBay is a good service if you are looking for something specific you can't get cheaper new, and are willing to pay the price the market has set for it.
 
Originally posted by: axelfox
cell phone clip for 1/3 the price of retail.
Click to expand...

eBay = best place for cheap, China-made accessories! :thumbsup:

<- got all his cell phone accessories from there. 😉
 
best for collectibles or really really proprietary electronic treasures that are another man's "untested, sold as-is" trash.
 
There's a lot of bad deals out there, and there are a lot of good deals. You need to know where to look.
The best deals are the ones that have poor descriptions, or ones that are miscategorized. That, or search for common typos.
I got two Logitech Quickcam 4000 for $9 each shipped.
I got a logitech bluetooth elite pro keyboard and mouse combo for $24 shipped.. this went for $150 at newegg when I got it.
I got a 35mm F/2 camera lens for $71. I later sold it for $142.
I got a flute for $700. It had a really poor product photo. I took a lot of high quality ones with my DSLR, and sold it for $850.
I bought a Panasonic FZ15 from the store for $380 with a $20 battery and $30 memory card. I sold it 4 months later on ebay for $480.
Ebay has been nice to me 🙂
 
$80 worth of batteries for my Canon camera (the high capacity batteries) 2 for $17 shipped. Like those above I also have gotten many accessories for all my phones from ebay. replacement screen for my PDA = $20 for a dead one on ebay and 5 minutes of unscrewing. yes ebay is indeed a place for rare, weird, simple stuff. Retail stuff is usually overpriced and when you think you have a good deal you get sniped.
 
It's great for iPod related parts because it's flooded with them (meaning I can get a lot of stuff rather cheaply)
 
guess it depends on what you're looking for.

like right now i want to buy 2 wavebird gamecube controllers. used ones are going for the price of new ones...plus people want like $10+ to ship one. i guess they're going so high since the Wii can use them and play GC games.
 
Ebay is good for rare items, items where demand > availability, or items which are no longer being manufactured.

However ebay is a rip off when sellers try to use it as a retail store.
Most retailers & internet stores now offer discounts like
% off of MFRP
free shipping


but on ebay, the item is often full MFRP + full shipping = 25-30% markup on new items.


 
Got my used Nikon 80-200mm F2.8 for $400 when it was over $500 used locally.

Please listen to the following rant carefully.

A majority of America isn't as hot deal savvy as most of the people on this forum. I was in GameStop the other day buying some NDS games, and the lady in front of me bought an 'official' Nintendo Wii 1GB SD card (God knows what speed it was) for $59.99. She walked in initially wanting to buy the 'official' 512MB SD Card for $39.99, but the cashier convinced her that 1GB was a better deal. There was an OfficeMax across the street where she could have literally bought the same 1GB SD card for $14.

Think about it. 300+ million Americans, and I'm guessing maybe 10% are savvy enough to know what the market value of a product is.
 
Originally posted by: jpeyton
Got my used Nikon 80-200mm F2.8 for $400 when it was over $500 used locally.

Please listen to the following rant carefully.

A majority of America isn't as hot deal savvy as most of the people on this forum. I was in GameStop the other day buying some NDS games, and the lady in front of me bought an 'official' Nintendo Wii 1GB SD card (God knows what speed it was) for $59.99. She walked in initially wanting to buy the 'official' 512MB SD Card for $39.99, but the cashier convinced her that 1GB was a better deal. There was an OfficeMax across the street where she could have literally bought the same 1GB SD card for $14.

Think about it. 300+ million Americans, and I'm guessing maybe 10% are savvy enough to know what the market value of a product is.
Click to expand...

its not only deal savvy, but also not tech savvy, like in your case. i bet most people wouldn't know that they could use a regular SD card.
 
Depends what you're looking for. Know what stuff really costs and don't get suckered into a bidding war and you can find some good deals. Also, be sure to factor in shipping costs.
 
Originally posted by: keeleysam
Bid what you are willing to pay and not a penny more.

It's worked for me.
Click to expand...

the true problem is ebay i flooded with auctions not worth bidding on.
 
Originally posted by: AStar617
best for collectibles or really really proprietary electronic treasures that are another man's "untested, sold as-is" trash.
Click to expand...
:thumbsup: eBay is a huge market for collectible items. I buy and sell hockey cards and without eBay I would have never been able to get back into the hobby to the extent that I have.
 
I've been a member since 1998, have had no problems. Just bought a rare CD, hard to find, got a decent deal on it. Collectibles, yes, good place to find them on Ebay.
 
Originally posted by: jpeyton
Got my used Nikon 80-200mm F2.8 for $400 when it was over $500 used locally.

Please listen to the following rant carefully.

A majority of America isn't as hot deal savvy as most of the people on this forum. I was in GameStop the other day buying some NDS games, and the lady in front of me bought an 'official' Nintendo Wii 1GB SD card (God knows what speed it was) for $59.99. She walked in initially wanting to buy the 'official' 512MB SD Card for $39.99, but the cashier convinced her that 1GB was a better deal. There was an OfficeMax across the street where she could have literally bought the same 1GB SD card for $14.

Think about it. 300+ million Americans, and I'm guessing maybe 10% are savvy enough to know what the market value of a product is.
Click to expand...

Gamestop/EB Games usually charge $5 more for their DS games. No idea why, but check out prices there and prices at say, bestbuy or circuitcity, and you'll wonder why anyone buys anything at EB Games.

Back about the Wii memory card, a friend of mine grabbed one the first day it came out. I told him to return it and buy a regular SD card, can't believe the crap they pull on those who aren't informed. I just bought a 512mb microSD for $20, I can't imagine paying double for a regular!
 
Just picked up a set of Lexus OEM chrome wheels on ebay for a price I thought was a steal. Even though there were 3 days left I offered the guy $200 and he agreed to end the auction early in my favor. These are in mint condition and are being sold on the streets for 3 or 4 times as much.

 
Since they do not force you to buy... it can't be called a rip off. You can find good deals if you are patient.. but for the most part better prices can be had at regular online retailers or even B&M stores.
 
Ebay in general has jumped the shark. But I would still occasionally deal there, just not with paypal. The only safe paypal account is a closed paypal account.
 
I havent purchased anything from eBay in the last couple of years just because it has become soo flooded with scams, and dishonest people.
 
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