I had a long term assignment in a different state and didn't bring a bike with me. (I recently sold my old fixie (built up myself) so I wanted another one.) After several months of doing the garage sale, thrift store thing I gave up and went to ebay. I ended up buying one of the fixie conversions w/ the packaging fee. Here are a few comments on the experience:
I first auction win didn't work out. The looser wouldn't sell to me. (Hey, I was new to ebay and even emailed him to see what could be done to prove I am not a scammer. I never heard back and even offered to send him money up front.) The real reason may have had to due with the $$. It would have been a $28 Peugeot(sp?). His boxing fee was larger than the win price. Even given the shipping and boxing fee, I would have had a decent beater fixie for $100 or so.
I then tried another attempt and won one from someone mentioned in the first post or so (applecart). This time, the applecart seller was easy to deal with (IMO). The bike itself wasn't a stellar deal, but ya get what ya pay for. BTW - I kept doing the thrift store thing, but didn't find anything worth while. I completely agree that the $35 packaging fee is bs. There were some .99c plumbing insulation foam on ALL of the tubes (Maybe $8.00 + 5 for the fork and rear dropout braces. The box was used. (I didn't expect a new one.). So $13.00 in material + 23 in labor? Perhaps this is fair depending on the time spent. .5 hours where I work bill as 50-250 and hour so it seems fine from that perspective. The front brake thrown in was 'thrown out' hahaha and the overall condition was exactly as noted in the add. Overall it was like $135.00. Now, on the dishing and wheelset: amateur at best. The same spokes were used and the chainline wasn't right, not are the spacers adequate to make it so. front is actually set up for 42mm, but the rear is 49 or so. All the spacers were on the same side. Anyway, I've been replacing stuff on this bike and it is now a nice ride (phil hubs up front, new seat, post, bars......), I'll fix the chainline issue when the cheap suzue hub goes out and get a phil.
Again, for $135 one cannot really complain. Sure some can brag about finding the nice lugged Eddy frame for 10$ at the garage sale, and just scouring the parts bin for a build up cost of $10. Besides, I'm a working professional and being away from my wife meant that I didn't have the weekly fine dining costs to tend with, so it was justifiable. Wouldn't do it again though.
My opinion of ebay is that some deals can be had, but they are very few and far between. Ebay is a PITA. CL is a much better wired option, but both pale compared to the thrift thing/swap meet (depending on your location).
Just my 2c.