Ebay fiber laser, I'll be the guinea pig--

[Kev Williams]

Out of sheer necessity- and my fascination with buying the cheapest of something to see if I can make it work (Usually I have good luck, my big Triumph for example)

One of my customers picked up a job making parts for an established company that moved into town from CA, they sell worldwide, and the parts that need engraving just keep coming in- at the moment the one item I have in house will keep the fiber busy for 3 days. That's okay 'cept for the fact I have another 3 days work waiting, and more comes in daily. My fiber is the only piece of equipment I don't have at least 2 of around here, and while I could really use a 50w fiber, I'm going to pull the trigger on a cheap 30w ebay machine...

So, as soon as I'm done here, I'm going to order one, guaranteed delivery by next Tuesday--

Progress reports to follow

[Kev Williams]

the deal is done...

bought.jpg bought2.jpg

[Kev Williams]

emails received--

b1.jpg b4.jpg

[Kev Williams]

so far so good

b3.jpg

[Scott Clearman]

so far so good

b3.jpg

I'm watching closely to see how this goes. Very interesting. I am curious, how you decided which vendor to choose? Was there anything particular about who you bought it from?

[Jerome Stanek]

When I bought my laser off E Bay I had an ongoing chat with the seller. everything went as we had discussed. My laser came faster then I thought it would and was just as she had told me. She even gave me some tips on un packing it so it would be easier.

[Kev Williams]

I'm sure it'll be fine... I hope so, just got another 2000 or so parts dropped off, most of them need 2 sides engraved... may end up needing even another one if this doesn't let up!

[Kev Williams]

I'm watching closely to see how this goes. Very interesting. I am curious, how you decided which vendor to choose? Was there anything particular about who you bought it from?

Nutshell- cheapest I could find, seller (there were many selling the same machine) is 'top rated plus', and where it's shipping from is only 700 miles from me...

[Bert McMahan]

where it's shipping from is only 700 miles from me...

Check the tracking info when you get it, I've heard stories of "Shipped from USA!" being a bit on the deceptive side

[stan kern]

its a nervous thing to do, I am also looking at a china purchase and its scarey

[Bill George]

Kev is an experienced laser user and buyer. I think he has evaluated the seller and the product pretty carefully. Its the Newies who know zero about lasers and do not even own a meter are the ones having the issues on eBay.

[Ross Moshinsky]

The upside of buying this way is the person selling is simply looking to move product. This means very competitive pricing and typically good general customer service.

The downside of buying this way is the person is selling a whole bunch of stuff and this is just another item to them. This means no technical support of any kind.

Ultimately, as long as you bought with a credit card you'll be protected. This does seem kind of foolish only because if you have so much work coming in and need this machine to produce, if it's not perfect, it's going to cost you all sorts of time troubleshooting and fixing it.

[Kev Williams]

If it's not perfect, it'll be pretty much like every other machine I've ever bought About all I'm really expecting is that it will need a couple of hours of alignment tweaking. And one reason for picking this seller is because Fedex ground from CA to my house is 2 days. Even if this one is faulty, I can have a 2nd one here before any other first one will show up

[Jacob John]

Kev, you truly are a Guinea pig.

[Tony South]

any updates?