Every so often I read somewhere about people who don't like ebay for whatever reason or who refuse to use it. I can't understand them. I've used ebay to successfully buy out of print CDs and to locate rare spares for my '87 RC car, all of which would be virtually impossible to find otherwise.
It's true that sometimes you'll see idiots paying above retail for brand new gear simply because they don't do their research. That has never happened to me, mainly because I'm a snob when it comes to shopping - I check the specs and prices of just about everything I buy. I'm not a power user - I don't buy and sell my entire life there, but I do like to bargain hunt too. I'm particularly happy with my most recent purchase, which somehow slipped under everyones' radars.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3029840793

Now if only I could find auctions like that every day!

I'm guessing that it slipped under folks' radar because it never says what it is.

You described what I don't like about it. I only shop online for new items, and most of the times I'm shopping for electronics. There are never any deals for auctions anymore. When I first used ebay, you could find deals, but now, as you say, the auctions either go up to, or way over the price you can find the products for elsewhere. Pricegrabber or any other price search engine, for that matter, will always have a lower price, and with a store I don't have to wait 3 days just to find out somebody outbid me with 5 seconds left, and in the process paid $10 over retail for it.

That's why I dislike it, anyway. That and Paypal blows.

Yeah, it was rather badly listed. I'm sure that if the title had been "Tek TDS360, Tek PS280, BK Precision 4040A + Calcomp Techjet 5524" that it would have been bid way beyond my means very quickly. The fact is that the rest of the IT gear is so abundant in this .crash era that it's tough to give it away.

Recently I've been griping about a certain listing-generators search spamming tendancy. It turns out that if you use it to create multiple listings, every listing contains the html for _all_ of the auctions, with the particular listings html bumped to the top. This has the effect of spamming the "title and description" search so that all of the listings are returned in any t&d search result set that hits any one of them. ebay isn't clever enough to filter out everything after the first </html> tag. If you've ever wondered why e.g. "Barbie and Ken's playhouse" appeared in a t&d search for e.g. "Compaq M700" then check the source.
Anyway, I've got into the habit of ignoring strange looking results, and it was lucky that I clicked on this one.

I only shop online for new items

Why?! You're missing all the bargains!

I'm sure that if the title had been "Tek TDS360, Tek PS280, BK Precision 4040A + Calcomp Techjet 5524" that it would have been bid way beyond my means very quickly.

Were there any Sun and IBM workstations?

Because used electronics like home theater equipment is not something I want to buy from sketchy ebay people, unless I'm really sure they're reliable.

Yeah, one of each. Nothing special though.

I love ebay.

If you also like Weird Al you'll love this.

Apparently he performed it at "eBay Live!" in Orlando last week (presumably at the request of eBay).

Gareth

There are never any deals for auctions anymore.

Like the Toshiba DVD player I bought on Sunday for $32.60? (New price ~$300)

Or the set of 6 fuel injectors for my ShoWagon I bought two weeks ago for $25? (New price ~$900)

Yeah, you're right -- I don't know why I waste my time shopping on ebay.

tanstaafl.

You really just have to know what you are buying and shop around...

I don't really look for bargins on Ebay. I look for items I can't get anywhere else because they are from another country or not being made anymore.

I look for items that I want or need that I wouldn't get WAF for otherwise!

Neat find. Very badly listed indeed.

You want to hear sick? Do you think you would be able to guess the revenue and profit of the top eBay seller? Ready?

100M / 25M. Yes, the M stands for MILLION. USD no less. There are many other vendors who crack the million mark, but I don't know of anyone else with numbers quite that high.

Yes, the numbers are real. No, you'll likely not see them posted in any articles.

Bruno

100M / 25M. Yes, the M stands for MILLION. USD no less. There are many other vendors who crack the million mark, but I don't know of anyone else with numbers quite that high.

Foly Huck. I don't suppose you know who that is? I think I'd like to research their techique

I don't know who makes the most from eBay, but easily the most prolific is jayandmarie aka onecentcds. 129,295 feedback with a 1% dissatisfaction rate.

There are few people that work eBay full-time and make a good wage - alt.marketing.online.ebay is where a good deal of them hang out and it makes interesting reading.

Gareth

I know jayandmarie make six figures, don't know about 25 though. I bought something from them a while back and was amazed by the quantity of auctions they have had.

onecentcds totally rocks. I've bought stuff from them just for kicks because it was so cheap.

I've been pondering for years just HOW they opperate. They're west coast USA (I believe). How DO they get so many CDs? Do they buy them from people, do they buy them from CD stores who want to unload them, do they steal them, do they buy them on the black market?

I worked at a CD store who bought and sold used CDs heavily. The prices we paid for CDs compaired to the price we got for them really wasn't THAT much. And we were dependant on people bringing in their unwanted junk. Sure, rarely, they brought in good stuff, but often it was total crap that never sold.

onecentcds (who I thought was called "mariescds at one point) seems to have the bad, the ugly, AND the good CDs. How do they manage?!

And yes, I'm with the other guy, I don't buy "supposedly new" or used newer electronics from EBay because of sketchy sellers. But I do scour EBay for hard to find electronics and other stuff that I just love. And I try to ALWAYS buy from sellers who've owned the stuff and used it personally; not bulk scrap-lot buyers who refurb and resell junk.

I'll soon be listing my Nikon Coolpix 800 digital cam if anyone's interested. (sorry for the plug)

I'd just have to ask the friend I was discussing it with the other night. I forgot their name. They sell electronics and a lot of higher end / pro stuff. Millions in SONY alone.

My buddy is well on his way to cracking the million/year mark. He thinks he may be able to do it within 12 months (ie. get to that level of monthly sales to put him at that level for the following year).

Bruno