We dump on CL, but what about eBay?

[Wade Lippman]

I want to buy a Ego snowblower. I checked eBay and they are 15% more expensive there than at HD. What the heck? Is anyone really stupid enough to pay more at eBay? If not, why do they bother posting?

[Alan Caro]

Wade Lippman,

I buy and sell some computer stuff on eBah and there is some constant evidence of insanity:

Here's an eBahh auction for an Intel i7-7820X processor:



- Which is for a new one for only $1,092.57

=and here is the same item today new in the box at Newegg;

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...-794-_-Product

= $500.

I think there are some people that just assume Ebahhh always has lower prices. There are those who think that every piece of old junk they have is a precious antique. And there are an equal number of people that will just try anything on:


That company lists hundreds of these things at a time and never appears to sell any. That system does have some good stuff in it, but a new $5000 HP workstation would out perform it easily. I have a Quadro P2000 that cost new $430 and that has less memory but is faster in 3D than the K6000 that still cost $900-1000 used.


If something doesn't sell, it can be relisted for less until it does sell.

Life is non-stop buyer beware,..

Alan Caro

[Bill Orbine]

Price differences works both ways on eBay. Some stuff are more pricey on eBay and vice versa. A lot of stuff may be more pricey on eBay because free shipping included and people are comparing against cost of item but not considering the cost of shipping or burning gas plus wear/tear on their cars driving 20 miles to the store that has the item cheaper on eBay

[Mike Henderson]

As far as I'm concerned, eBay is a gone goose. eBay seems to be trying to be the same as Amazon Marketplace and encouraging sellers to list new things, with free shipping. You see ridiculous prices on Amazon Marketplace, also, but Amazon sorts the items by price so the lowest price appears first. And Amazon really stands behind the products. In many situations, they'll take the product back, even if the seller wouldn't. I assume they just charge the seller for the refund money they gave you, and they'll charge the seller to ship the refunded product back to the seller.

They have a lot of power over the MarketPlace sellers.

On the Amazon Marketplace, what you see is a list of the exact product you were looking at, sorted by price from low to high, not a long list of stuff that's "close" to what you're searching for, and usually sorted by time, not price.

Also, on Amazon, I can use camelcamelcamel.com and get an alert when a MarketPlace seller puts up an item I want at a price I'm willing to pay.

Mike

[Brian Nguyen]

Going to sound harsh here, but $50 or $100 or even $1000 isn't that big of a deal to some people. Like.. if I have enough in the bank and I want a snowblower and just happens to be on eBay, I wouldn't care about HD having the thing on sale for $150 less than eBay. It's similar to buying a bottle of water, you can just fill up an empty bottle but buying a new one at the convenience store isn't a big deal because it's only $1.50. Yet you've never give it a second thought--same for those who buy stuff for higher prices than you can drum up by spending time shopping around. Obviously, there are buyers out there otherwise these sellers wouldn't list the items and the convenient store wouldn't stock $1.50 water.

[Wade Lippman]

Going to sound harsh here, but $50 or $100 or even $1000 isn't that big of a deal to some people. Like.. if I have enough in the bank and I want a snowblower and just happens to be on eBay, I wouldn't care about HD having the thing on sale for $150 less than eBay. It's similar to buying a bottle of water, you can just fill up an empty bottle but buying a new one at the convenience store isn't a big deal because it's only $1.50. Yet you've never give it a second thought--same for those who buy stuff for higher prices than you can drum up by spending time shopping around. Obviously, there are buyers out there otherwise these sellers wouldn't list the items and the convenient store wouldn't stock $1.50 water.

Sure, some people are too busy and too wealthy to bother comparison shopping; but do those people use snowblowers or shop ebay?

Regarding refunds on ebay....
I sold some computer memory on ebay for $15. Since memory can be fickle, I said that the buyer was responsible for documenting that it worked his computer before buying, as there were no refunds. Guy bought and it didn't work in his computer. He called it defective and ebay gave his a refund when I refused. Fortunately I had no money in my Paypal account or they would have deducted the refund from it. Needless to say, I no longer have a Paypal or ebay account. It wasn't so much the refund as having to pay for shipping both ways (and then probably getting back an empty box because the memory was in his computer)

[Dave Lehnert]

I want to buy a Ego snowblower. I checked eBay and they are 15% more expensive there than at HD. What the heck? Is anyone really stupid enough to pay more at eBay? If not, why do they bother posting?

A lot of stores will not ship to Alaska. So people buy items at the local brick and mortar, Post for sale on Ebay and make a profit.

[Bruce Page]

Folks, Links to eBay or any other auction site are prohibited, you may post the item number and a description if you like but do not provide an active link.

Thanks

[Tom M King]

A buy what is probably a lot from both places, but always price check. Sometimes getting something from Amazon is cheaper, but a quick search on the auction site finds better a good percentage of the time. I'm used to checking CL before my eyes are open good in the morning, and it's my number one source for large tools.

[Brian Henderson]

Sure, some people are too busy and too wealthy to bother comparison shopping; but do those people use snowblowers or shop ebay?

Regarding refunds on ebay....
I sold some computer memory on ebay for $15. Since memory can be fickle, I said that the buyer was responsible for documenting that it worked his computer before buying, as there were no refunds. Guy bought and it didn't work in his computer. He called it defective and ebay gave his a refund when I refused. Fortunately I had no money in my Paypal account or they would have deducted the refund from it. Needless to say, I no longer have a Paypal or ebay account. It wasn't so much the refund as having to pay for shipping both ways (and then probably getting back an empty box because the memory was in his computer)

I can sympathize. Maybe 15 years ago or so, I sold something on eBay, the guy got it, signed for the delivery, then reported to Paypal that he never received it. Even though I had signature verification, they still pulled the money right out of my account and gave it back to him. I closed my account and haven't had one since.

[Curt Harms]

I can sympathize. Maybe 15 years ago or so, I sold something on eBay, the guy got it, signed for the delivery, then reported to Paypal that he never received it. Even though I had signature verification, they still pulled the money right out of my account and gave it back to him. I closed my account and haven't had one since.

I've bought and sold a few things on Ebay and have a Paypal account but the Paypal account is not linked to any bank account. I figure using a credit card I have a better chance in a dispute, dunno if that right or not.

[Tony Zona]

Ok, so my search ability is way off today: How do you get to Amazon Marketplace?

[Brian Henderson]

I've bought and sold a few things on Ebay and have a Paypal account but the Paypal account is not linked to any bank account. I figure using a credit card I have a better chance in a dispute, dunno if that right or not.

This was a very long time ago, you had to manually go in and transfer all money from your Paypal account to your bank account otherwise it just sat there. They took it before I could take it out. Otherwise, I would have told them to pound sand.

[Mike Henderson]

Ok, so my search ability is way off today: How do you get to Amazon Marketplace?

I don't know if there's a place called "Amazon Marketplace". When you go to an item in Amazon you may see a note on that page that says "Used and New from $xxx". If you click on that, you'll go to a page where people are selling the same thing. That's called "Amazon Marketplace". If you buy from one of those sellers, Amazon gets a cut from the seller.

Mike

[Tony Zona]

Thanks, Mike.