eBay has been a great asset to find hard-to-find objects and great deals!
you just have to do your research first
- comparing prices wit local and internet stores
- feedback and history of seller
- patience

The biggest bargain i have had on eBay was a brand new road bike for 70% retail. saved more becuase it turned out the LBS was only 30 mins away from work and picked it up.
it was a combination of no reserve and bad ending time for other interested bidder

good luck with your finds.... they're out there!!!

What service do you use?

I have been buying (and occasionally selling) on EBay almost since it first started. In the early days it was like a small town flea market with individuals selling items they no longer had a use for and there were incredible bargains to be had. It has changed to the point where it is now mostly businesses selling new or remanufactured items. There are still bargains, but they are becoming fewer. You also have to look at shipping charges closely as they can eat up any savings very quickly. Often, the price will look good, but adding in shipping raises it to more than you would pay at somewhere like Amazon.com (for non-bike items) or Nashbar/Performance. Like any other internet or mail order business model, there are unscrupulous sellers (and buyers), but I believe they constitute a very small percentage; always look carefully at the feedback ratings (and take them with a grain of salt as it is possible to "salt" them). CAVEAT EMPTOR!

I think what some people forget is that E-Bay is really good way for those of us living in fairly remote areas to find hard to find items. There are not as many buys as there used to be but in some areas stuff is cheap. I bought 2 digital camera batteries with a charger for less then half what Cannon wanted for just 1 battery.
As for the thread being about stolen stuff. I'm sure some of the used stuff is, but I think most of it is simply people clearing out their drawers. I'm going to do the same thing and get a few bucks for bike parts that I would have eventually gave away or threw out in time.

I think it's auctionstealer.com.

Snipers are also somewhat protected from the execrable practice of "bid shielding", where a potential buyer has two shills run the bidding up to an irrationally high level early in the bidding. The shills retract their bids at the last minute, allowing the buyer to pick up the item for a very low bid.

I have never actually seen this done, and ebay probably has rules now to prevent it!

Your friend is 100% right. Most used parts on ebay are stolen. This goes for bicycles, motorcycles, and cars.

Yea, they changed their bid retraction policies quite a while back to prevent this.

I use AuctionSentry exclusively to make ebay bids. Bidding early is pointless and only serves to run up the price. It also prevents me from getting caught up in a bidding war and paying more than I should.

/shrug

I dont really like gaming the system personally. I know the true Ebay path is to get a bidsniper program and bid with 1 second left, but whatever.

when i see an item I want, I bid once and only once what im willing to pay for it, and never check it again. This may be days or weeks before an auction ends. Im not "losing" anything. If I lose the item, then someone else got suckered into paying too much for it b/c they got caught up in ebay bidding, if I win the item, I got it for a fair price since i decided the price. I dont see the issue.

If i really really want something, and its really really important to get it cheap, i might change my habit and 'snipe' the bid a the last second someday, but for 99% of auctions it really isnt necessary for me yet, not to mention using a sniper service is against their TOS.

You've somewhat made my point for me.

I don't bid on an item unless I intend to buy it. I always bid to buy. You, like most of the other early bidders, are bidding for sport and don't care if you win or not. My guess is that you rarely do. Identical bids placed within the last ten seconds would have gotten you a higher "win" percentage.

Eight years ago I would set reminders and sit there waiting to place the last second bid manually. That my computer automatically does the same exact thing for me doesn't phase my conscience in the slightest.

Based on what actual evidence that these items are stolen?

Actually, that is exactly what can happen. Early bidder makes high bid for less than actual value, then late bidder places bid above early bidder but below late bidder's perceived value.

I sell on eBay. Random stuff like a gift certificate. A non working laptop I parted out (individual items make more more than the sum). Although for large household items can't beat Craigslist. I've sold an oven, dishwasher, awning, and some old tiles. Even if giving it away it often saves in disposal fees, and you're "freecycling" to others rather than dumping it.

I stand corrected. I'd never witnessed the "incremental bidders" at work before (I don't buy that much on eBay) but since this post have kept an eye on a few auctions...sure enough, I've seen people punch their bids up by small increments, day after day. In the face of this type of psychology, I can see where an early bid might "feed the frenzy". My un-scientific experiment doesn't prove anything (in fact, all the auctions were eventually won by snipers, so the "incrementals" may have had no impact at all), but it certainly opened my eyes to something that most others here seemed to know already.

Shame on me for assuming that we all behave rationally...

I think I fall into that category...I just HAD to have this freewheel!

https://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...5644&rd=1&rd=1