eBay sUrvey, tOday -hOoray

[monster]

Are you an eBay addict?
Are you scared of eBay?
Do you buy and sell or just buy/just sell?
How often?
Do you pay attention to shipping costs?
Do you eBay when drunk/other other influences?
If so, does this lead to stupid decisions?
Do you watch your "rating" like Lumberjim used to watch his post count?
Have you any eBay purchase regrets?
Do you ever buy things just because they are bargains, then found a need for them?
Do you browse or search for specific things?
Do you watch s&h costs and mentally include them in the price?
What's you best bargain ever?
What's your worst disaster ever?
What is your most "unusual" purchase on Ebay?
Do you buy used or new or both?
Do you "subscribe" to particular vendors?
Do you use an automatic "sniper" to bid for you?
Do you use eBay as a price index for purchases elsewhere?

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Feel free to answer as many or as few as you like. Add your own.


Looking at our history, it looks like we make 4-5 purchases a year. Most common recently is cellphones for the virgin PayLo program -you can often get them much cheaper on eBay than in the stores. We do use it as a price index for purchases elsewhere.

My worst purchase was a used Speedo bag which was damaged and dirty when it arrived, but the seller was prompt with a complete refund.

I usually sit and watch sales and snipe, have had several really good bargain over the years -especially by finding products with poor photos or mis-typed product names.

We used to buy a lot of Thomas the Tank Engine wooden track and accessories for the kids.

I always research the sellers' histories before bidding, which kind of let to this thread -to me some people's purchase histories look like it's something they do while consuming huge quantities of drugs! no wonder eBay started being more secure about the details they show.

[glatt]

I buy about 1 thing every two years. I buy things that are hard to find elsewhere or that are ridiculously expensive elsewhere.

I bought a laptop battery, a trombone, some antique tools. A cd-tape deck for my specific car. Stuff like that.

[footfootfoot]

What kind of poll is this?

eBay can eat my stool

[Rrrraven]

Not an addict, not afraid, have sold a few things over the years. Mostly books through Half.com which is affiliated with Ebay. I mostly buy new shoes through Ebay - Dansko to be exact, since they are so pricey in real life. Nice to get a $125 pair of shoes for half price. No regrets I can think of so far.

[limey]

Are you an eBay addict? No
Are you scared of eBay? No
Do you buy and sell or just buy/just sell? Both
How often? Occasionally
Do you pay attention to shipping costs? A little
Do you eBay when drunk/other other influences? Not especially
If so, does this lead to stupid decisions? Nope
Do you watch your "rating" like Lumberjim used to watch his post count? No
Have you any eBay purchase regrets? No
Do you ever buy things just because they are bargains, then found a need for them? No
Do you browse or search for specific things? Search, mostly, though I occasionally save a "seller" and browse their stuff
Do you watch s&h costs and mentally include them in the price? Sort of
What's you best bargain ever? Tiles for the living room fireplace, first thing I ever bought on eBay
What's your worst disaster ever? Can't think of one
What is your most "unusual" purchase on Ebay? A sousaphone
Do you buy used or new or both? Both
Do you "subscribe" to particular vendors? Sometimes
Do you use an automatic "sniper" to bid for you? No
Do you use eBay as a price index for purchases elsewhere? No but it might be a good idea.

[Clodfobble]

First ebay purchase was Sept 1999, which would mean an average of about 6 items per year since then, both bought and sold. But that also doesn't count the items that I have continued to purchase regularly from a woman I initially became connected with through an ebay auction.

[plthijinx]

used ebay about 3 times in 10 years. ok, well, lets not count the almost 3 year hiatus from society, but i did buy:

1. fake ass cell phone antenna boosters (yeah i fell for it)

2. 1000 poker chip set

3. (my best purchase yet) Nikon D-3100

[BigV]

ebay virgin. no plans to change that.

[Griff]

Just a few purchases, mostly stuff not available elsewhere like wooden cross-country skis. My FiL was selling on there for a while so we gave him a few items...

[Sundae]

Are you an eBay addict?
Not at all, but I'm probably on there 3-4 times a week, depending on what time of the month it is (payday-wise!)

Do you buy and sell or just buy/just sell?
I buy more than I sell, but I have been known to punt a few items I thought might make the queue in the Post Office worthwhile.

How often?
Buy monthly at least
Sell... 2-3 times a year? I always seem to log on just after a free listing weekend though - grrrr.

Do you pay attention to shipping costs?
OH YEAH!
When looking for Buy It Now items I always use Lowest price first (inc P&P)
I need to know the bottom line and with unhealthy mental arithmatic I can be fooled.

Do you eBay when drunk/other other influences?
Have done. Back when free time usually meant drunk.

If so, does this lead to stupid decisions?
Has done. But all bidding decisions rather than Buy It Now ones, so I've woken up and thought "Oh Shit!" then been so happy to find I've been outbid!

Do you watch your "rating" like Lumberjim used to watch his post count?
I used to. The first few stars are closer together. I think I have to buy thousands more items to get my next colour change so I'm haven't bothered for a while.

Have you any eBay purchase regrets?
Yes. Not huge regrets because I don't buy expensive items. But there have been some things sufficintly vague in their description that have arrived and I've thought - ewwww. Wouldn't have bought that if I'd have seen it! Examples - skirt described as Long that was calf-length (no measurement given) my miniscule jam tart cutter (again, no ref to size) a hideous dress that I assumed was cotton from the pic, a League of Gentlemen book I already had - they'd just taken off the dust cover (it was different underneath) and called it rare. I still got it for pennies, but it made me cross all the same. The scoundrels!
This is over many years though.

Do you ever buy things just because they are bargains, then found a need for them?
I'd say never, but I have a nagging feeling I might have done, once. I have bought things anticipating a vague need I suppose.

Do you browse or search for specific things?
Search in a browsing way? I will often browse clothes in my size simply to see what is out there. Ditto shoes.

Do you watch s&h costs and mentally include them in the price?
S&h is a mystery to me. So I guess I don't. If you could please respond and let me know?

What's you best bargain ever?
I shop by price on eBay, so there are too many to mention. I've often been complimented on items of clothing that I've bought for under £5 (which includes P&P). Far lower than Sales prices. In terms of saving money? Probably for Mum & Dad where I've shaved off about £5 from a High Street Retailer or Amazon.

What's your worst disaster ever?
Dress I bought with a view to wearing it at my bro's wedding. It was the viscose thing mentioned above; the colour was not accurately represented and it clung in all the wrong places. It wasn't ruinously expensive, but more than I would usually pay for a dress (being a wedding and all!) and I was just so disappointed that it looked so good and was really quite nasty. That was over a decade ago now

What is your most "unusual" purchase on Ebay?
Laser Eye Surgery - the story is on here somewhere.

Do you buy used or new or both?
Both. Mostly Used for clothes, shoes, books and DVDs, but New for cooking items, books, shoes (there is overlap). Obviously New for underwear!

Do you "subscribe" to particular vendors?
No

Do you use an automatic "sniper" to bid for you?
Not really sure what this means, which must be No.

Do you use eBay as a price index for purchases elsewhere?
Yes and No. I check a number of websites for things like books and DVDs, including Amazon (2nd hand), play.com (new) and CEX (both). CEX is a High Street store that buys and sells DVDs (amongst other electrical items). You can usually buy lower at CEX and sell higher on eBay.

[Undertoad]

I sold an entire coin collection, piece by piece, and never had one problem.

Purchases have all worked out too.

My only regret is in not getting enough for items sold. One, an excellent ring I thought would surely fetch $100, went for about $30. Another time, I didn't realize that the shipping was going to be double what I figured. But these were my mistakes.

[glatt]

My only regret was that I bought a car radio from an ignorant person who didn't know that the theft deterrent had been set, and that when the radio was disconnected from the power source it became a paperweight. He didn't know the code. I had to ship the dead radio back to him at my expense. He even had the gall to imply that I might be keeping his radio and sending back my own dud, and he wanted me to take his dead radio to a dealer to have them turn it back on. (Which they won't do.) He only took the radio back when I pointed out that I still hadn't left feedback for him and that it wouldn't be positive if he refused to refund my purchase.

I bought another radio, but this time from a bigger seller who had lots of radios to sell. And who charged a significantly bigger price, although still less than the outrageous local dealer price .

[Scriveyn]

I have been buying only. Only low cost items, a dozen or so in total. As far as I remember paperbacks + vinyls from the UK, Germany, Australia & Canada sums it about up.
Since my record collection of my favourite band is now complete, I haven't seriously considered bidding for anything for the past two years. Not been to the website for more than 6 months.

[xoxoxoBruce]

After my uncle died, my aunt asked my brother to sell a Model T Ford. He put a $150 color picture ad, asking $500 in Hemmings Classifieds, which is the car collector's number one source. Waited for two months, and not one nibble. Put it on ebay, and got $1,000, with a furious bidding war at the end.

[Gravdigr]

Do you use eBay as a price index for purchases elsewhere?

Totally. Buddy has a [insert object of desire] for sale, what are they going for on eBay? That's about what Ima pay. I got a [insert object of desire] for sale, Ima see what they go for on eBay, and that's about what I expect to get.

Bought stuff, but, never sold anything there.

Never been screwed. Guess I've been lucky, but, I guess if ya treat people fairly most people will treat you fairly.

Heh, what a concept.