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?

Not to be snide, but...was it ever?

Definitely. I used to look there but I noticed this phenomenon you describe occurs with nearly everything (cycling related, at least ). Perhaps there are good deals to be found but I value my time as well and it is not cost-effective for me.

Im not a huge user or fan of ebay, but sometimes you can grab a good deal <especially on bike components>

I grabbed an XT front derailleur for $12.50 <5.17 s/h> ..Usually its 45 bucks or so. So theres a nice 25 bucks saved. As for good deals on anything like Bicycles, component packs, or anything at an outright bargain, forget about it.

I had a high bid on a FULL XT Component set at $102.50 and when i hit refresh the last like 18 seconds, it was at $130 by another user...royal pain in the ***, and it always happens.

yeeeeehehehe...."I value my time"...Okay Mr. President! NOT COST EFFECTIVE... HAHAHAHahahaha!....10 minutes of bikerider's time is worth 10 grand, roight?

My favourite e-bay story comes from my LBS
who put a pair of Cinelli handle bar plugs on e-bay
starting at $.02 by the time the auction closed he
sold them for $21.50 and these are items that are
free with any new tape.
I do sometime e-buy, and picked up a
Serotta frame for a song.

Marty

Before bidding on anything I always check the price of a new one just to make sure I don't overbid. Most people don't do that - probably why bidding usually goes so high.

Perhaps one day you too will value your time. You will probably then choose not to spend it making infantile and nonsensical personal attacks on the internet.

You truly have my sympathies.

heheh...relax buddy...harmless bs humor.

I value my time...part of the way i relax is post

I am of the opinion that e-bay is a better place to sell than to buy. Every time I've tried, no matter how uninteresting I thought the item to be, the bidding rose until it was way out of proportion with the value of the item.

A guy I work with put a common fishing boat for sale on e-bay. Summary: Soon after posting, someone emails and asked the reserve price. Shortly thereafter, reserve price was bid. Bidding continues upward thereafter. Seller stopped the auction and sold the boat 3 days early... bidding had gotten way out of proportion to the value of the boat.

That's great, love it!!!

I'm currently awaiting delivery of a Raleigh Folding Twenty that only went for £15, as the previous few I've bid on have gone for £35-45 it should be a bargain if it's in reasonable condition.

Some stuff, goes for silly money, some for peanuts, I've never understood the logic behind the bids.

I did pay for much of my honeymoon with the £270 a Canadian paid for a paperback I'd bought secondhand for under a pound...

Richard

Time is money as they say.

I dont know, theres quite a few deals to be found, if you look. At the same time, i was once bidding on a 3 1/2" floppy drive, and it went for over $60! Retail was $45

I still have bikes on my E-Bay search, I haven't found anything worth biding for yet, but here in the UK the Police use E-Bay to get rid of the mountains of stolen/recovered/unclaimed bikes.

There was a block of 50 (yes fifty !) bikes sold as a single lot for £10.00 (US$15.00) a few weeks back

That works out at 20p or 30 cents a bike, now even if it was all rubbish, there had to be some good parts/fames in that lot

Most of the bikes are sold as single lots with a starting bid of £10.00 (US $15.00) -

Look for the seller 'Alpha Foxtrot' (No doubt some sort of 'in' joke for the British Police, probably supposed to be read backwards 'FA' = 'F**k All')

There are some deals online to be sure. The best I've done was at Campy-Only.com where I scored a very clean Campy (well duh ) S Record gruppo with built wheels for a nice price.

I build scale models on occasion and used to find nice prices on older kits on eBay but those prices are being driven up too. Oh well it's not like I need to buy these things.

Hey!

I bid on ebay a lot... I used to bid a lot in my early, pre-addictive days, but since the first lot of stuff came in, I've toned back the bidding considerably. Actually, I more liked the idea of winning rather than the buying merchandise... which is why I stopped.

Now when I bid, I do what someone else said- I check the retail price. Then I check the reviews from past ebay winners of the person who's selling the item. Then I email the seller with questions. Then I make a decision to buy after perusing ebay and getting the best priced one. From there, I just moniter the bidding. Sometimes it gets a bit crazy with the bidding and I don't even bother at that point. I just bow out. But for the times when I do stick around, I can get some great bargains. I only bid when I know it's a bargain. I can't be bothered with bidding against idiots who have no idea about the true cost of items.

I just recently purchased a digital camera that does 80 sec film shots as well as still shots. My friend got the same camera new for $550. I got it new for $240. He was shocked when I showed up with his camera a few days after he showed me his for half the price.

I got a number of things for my upcoming cycling trip for Italy (see the touring forum for my dedicated sub-thread). I haven't opened them yet because I haven't been home all weekend, but I'll be home tonight. I'll report back on the forum site on the condition of the equipment I received.

On a side note, I've purchased a number of interesting medical equipment that you couldn't buy if you were a pimp with 20 good hookers working all night for a week! This has helped my business considerably. As long as the machines are salvageable and good for a year, it can save you thousands in the long run to buy it cheap on ebay and then get it repaired.

Food for thought.


Koffee Brown

Ebay is a great place to buy books. There are so many thousands of books and only a few buyers... often I am the only bidder. Once shipping is factored in, the price is about the same as buying from a used book store, only the selection is better and it is a lot more convenient.

That's another problem with Ebay - shipping. I've noticed that some of the shipping rates people quote are outrageous.

Also, if the seller prefers to use FedEx and UPS, I would have to pay an exhorbitant "brokerage" [extortion] fee if the item was being shipped here from the U.S.

Someone could probably get bids on used toilet paper on Ebay.

For my trip, the ebay items so far:

1 tent- (new) paid 38 bucks. It's in perfect condition with a 3 year warranty.

1 thermarest 3/4 length- new. Paid 38 bucks. Checked it and looked great!

1- 6000 cc backpack- paid 80 bucks. Also brand new.

1 sony digital camera- takes still shots and 80 sec movies in realtime. Paid 240 bucks. Turns out it's brand new! Wow!

2 panniers for front wheel. Used- paid 15 bucks for the pair. Guy was great and sent it free of charge. They seem nice, but I haven't tried them out yet.

So far, I think I'm doing pretty good. Ebay can be good, but you really have to look around, do some research, then check the bidders and place your bid. Then you have to invest the extra time into protecting your bid. It's a lot of work, but if you get what you want and saved good money, I think it's well worth the effort.

Now I can spend all that extra money I saved on some good wine and cheese! Whooooooo!


Koffee Brown

Bikerider is right, if you don't look closely at the shipping fees you could get a nice little shock when you have to pay the bill. I always look at the s/h fee and if it's seven bucks for a ten dollar part I don't even bother with it. Many people will sell something cheap and try to make up for it with s/h.

I have found good deals from time to time but like people have said sometimes the bidding just gets crazy. I think it's more of a "I want it no matter what" mentality than a "These bar ends are worth 20 bucks" type of thing. That was pretty funny by the way

What gets me about Ebay is the sniping. Nothing pisses me off more then getting outbid at the last minute by a dollar, sometimes less. I've learned if you really want something on Ebay you better sit there and watch it the last few minutes, right up to the closing. There's always some rat out there just waiting to take the cheese from you.
-BT

Once, I saw somebody selling a lot of used bike tyres on eBay, and I believe somebody actually bid $20 for them!
You can still get good deals on eBay, but you gotta watch out when a "newbie" is bidding against you (guys with 5 or fewer sales). Sometimes, these guys are over-anxious, sometimes they are idiots, and somtimes they may be a shill.

I just picked up a blackburn expedition rear rack on Ebay for $12.50 plus $8 for shipping. These retail for $50. It was a dutch auction and there were 20 racks, so the price never got out of hand.

I agree with Koffee Brown, I have found, check Shipping and handling first, if it is way out of wack, I pass. If starting bid is to high compared to street price, I pass. If I think it is worth bidding
on, I usually place a bid where I think it would be a good buy. If I get outbid, so be it, there is always tomorrow.

My strategy resembles Fofa's. Over the past two years, I have bought two dozen bicycle components on eBay. I bid only on items I really want or need, such as oddball-sized chainrings, and I decide ahead of time what each is worth to me. I win less than 15 percent of the time because I refuse to get sucked into a bidding war with anyone, but I admit that I am not a "certified NOS, museum-quality" collector, but just a guy who loves to ride and to repair old road bikes and does not mind that they look well-used (and well-maintained).

Over the past year, eBay prices for classic bikes and components have been escalating dramatically, and I visit eBay primarily for "looky-loo" curiosity, amusement, and information, rather than as a serious buyer.

My greatest ebay prize was an XTR seatpost for $10. I also got a Shimano RSX 46/36 crankset really cheap.