Ebay- good/bad deals???

Anyone else here shop ebay? I haven't in the past but my wife has. I look but up until a few weeks ago, I didn't even know how to place a bid on something there. I decided this spring that it was time for a new leather jacket as mine was old and worn and I recently managed to get a big rip in the sleeve.(I sewed it up but it still looked like crap). So, I started looking around and found one I really liked on ebay for a decent price. I got it in the other day. I'm happy with it. It's a good quality leather jacket with a removable liner inside for spring/fall.

I also figured that since I'll be spending allot of time out at camp this summer, I'd like to pick up a used guitar for cheap to have around at camp. I started looking on ebay again and found one that was starting at 0.01cents with no reserve. I liked it and placed a few bids on it. I ended up getting it for $51 with a hardshell case. I looked it up and the model guitar I bought normally sells for around $800. I got it in today and man, what a deal. It is 10 times better then I was expecting. It sounds great, plays awesome, and is way better than the guitar I already had. So, my only problem now is that I don't have the heart to use it as a beater guitar out at camp. I think I got a good deal on it. There's barely a mark on it.

Anyways, anyone else have any good/bad experiences with ebay??? Were you happy with what you bought? How what the shipping? Did you get a good price?

Ebay is good. Craigslist is also good. Here's an old thread from when Sushi was asking about how to start.

You need to learn how to research and identify scam sellers before you bid real money for something. Sooner or later you will walk into a situation where you learn just in time (hopefully!) that you are in the middle of a scam, so you need the intuition to distinguish a legitimate sale from a ripoff.

There are lots of excellent deals out there like your guitar. Sellers find something and don't know what it is so they set the starting price low. If they don't describe it well, it may never be discovered by anyone willing to pay top dollar and you get it cheap.

Probably the most important first lesson is patience. Don't get caught up in outbidding somebody who is willing to pay too much.

Set up a 'favorite search' and they will email you when a desired item gets listed.

I just missed a deal Friday. I took a trailerload of stuff from Mom's estate to Goodwill and then of course I had to look around the store. Two guys were looking at a pair of Altec Model 14 speakers and bought them for $7.99 each. Those are expensive audiophile speakers worth perhaps $1,000 for the pair. They had no idea, they just wanted them for their apartment. If only I had been a minute earlier, I would have bought the speakers and put them on ebay.

My last ebay purchase was a 650 gallon tank. (I'm planting replacement trees way down in the orchard). New condition, from a City water filtration plant. 52 dollars.

I shop ebay on everything I buy that is not food or clothes, even though I have purchesed some logo shirts.

I also sell quite a bit.

I love ebay. My last big score was a pair of Mercury Racing Cleaver props. They go for about 1800 each. 300 for the pair.

But when buying, I never buy from anybody that has had negative or nuetral ratings taht were not resolved. And they need to have at least 25 ratings from a variety of users from around the country. Anybody that has anything revoloving around lack of communication is out as well.

I've bought 4 cars on ebay. The first, I drove down to Florida to check it out before I gave up the bucks. The other three, just had them shipped in.

But you can get burned, so buyer beware.

I've gotten pretty decent deals on a few things and burned once - but not badly.
I've also used it as a way to estimate "real world" worth on a few items I was looking to buy or sell locally.

I haven't had any bad purchases on eBay. I've also sold a number of higher priced items and had no problems there either.

My wife is on there constantly. The only thing she's had, to my knowledge, was a few no pays. We just didn't ship the item.

I use Craigslist and eBay occasionally. If I want to sell something like old computer stuff that I'm not using then I will use eBay as there is a layer of protection there.

For big things like tractor parts then I use Craigslist.

eBay is good for a broader market and when you don't really know how much something is worth.

Craigslist is nice because there are no fees and it is local.

I think they both serve separate but similar purposes.

Yes, they each have their place.

Recently I used Craigslist to liquidate furnishings that the family didn't want, as I closed Mom's estate. Most sales were local as I expected.

But one item, a gorgeous 1895 Steinway piano that I described as 'needs internal rebuild' got no interest. A local piano repair service had said it would cost $200 for professionals to get it out of the house because it weighs near 700 lbs and it had to go down three stairs, a project beyond what amateurs or Goodwill could do without destroying everything along its path, or getting someone hurt.

Then I got an email from a piano rebuilder in Los Angeles (400 miles south) who paid my $650 asking price and sent a crew to pick it up! You never know what an ebay or craigslist transaction will evolve into. I had forgotten that Google will spread your Craigslist ad nationwide.

Steinway photos.

Photoset for the craigslist Estate Sale listing (now with a couple of photos removed). I also mentioned selling the house in my Estate Sale ads, which brought me a couple of realtors who will eventually show it to their prospects.

Anybody want some 1950's Russel Wright dishes? That and the china cabinet are all that remain.

Be careful and be ready for a deal. I want a new/used light meter like I had before, minolta 3. they go for some bucks, but one will come around........bought my lights from an advertiser there, bought some umbrellas there, bought some lenses there, filters, all good. I usually only buy new though