I'm a dedicated eBay watcher and occasional bidder (rare seller). I'm coming to the conclusion that eBay is losing it's cachet as a bargain mecca.

I have recently been outbid, on a few occasions by alot, on a number of fairly mundane and by no means rare cycle stuff. I'm not ranting about that, if I really wanted the items I would have "sat" on the auctions and sniped at the last minute, instead I entered a bid and checked back the next day knowing full well I may get beat. However, when I look at the selling price I see $ figures that would often buy outright from a catalog and often times aren't far off what your LBS may charge. I don't understand the logic. Is auction fever that virulent?

Btw my rule of thumb is if I can save $10 or more I look online less than that I go to the LBS. If my LBS was in fact "local" I might bump that to $15-20.

Any thoughts?