Buying equipment on FleaBay

[Char-Gar]

I have bought and sold many gun and reloading items on Ebay. There is no mystery about it at all. Whether you are a buyer or seller the first step is the same, i.e.;

1. For several days, look at your item of interest for sale by others and place them on your watch list and forget about them. Come back in a week or ten days and see what they sold for. That will give you an idea of the general price point for the item. Then you decided if you want to sell or buy for that general price.

2. If you want to sell, place the item up for bid with a low starting price, no reserve bid and reality based shipping costs. Then forget about it. Most of the times you will get about what you expect, sometimes more and sometimes less. Just take your profit or loss and move on. That is just the way of life.

3. If you want to buy, figure out what you are willing to pay, then use some online bidding program. This program will make your bid 7 to 15 second before the auction is over and you either win or did not win. By using one of these programs, you don't trigger or respond to auction fever. In ether way pay what you owe, continue looking and bidding or just go play golf or watch a movie on TV. Whatever you do, don't watch the bid on the item and try and top the bid of another, that is how the foolish auction fever starts and the origin of idiotic prices on some items.

Ebay is our national garage sale where items can be found with ease that would take you years of searching locally. It is a good place for wise buyers and sellers to trade, but a bad place for idiots to try and do either.

Addendum: Ebay is NOT the place to buy a new anything. Whatever it is you are looking for, 99.99% of the time you can buy it for less from some online merchant. Ebay is THE place to buy used or out of production items.

[FLHTC]

I have to agree with Char-Gar. I look for things on ebay but I set a price that I'm willing to pay and then enter that bid. Sometimes I win but more often I'm out bid. I buy my gas checks from Sage and he has Buy it Now auctions but when it comes to bidding wars, I only like those when I'm a seller. I won't bad mouth ebay because I use it and am quite satisfied when I find something. I once bought a $10 box of powder cans at a yard sale and inside was a tin from a local cough drop company from the early 20th century. I placed it on ebay starting at a penny and two brothers from the family both wanted it and drove the bidding up to $175. I corresponded with them both and advised them that it was an auction and for them to let their desire be their guide. That said, ebay has done good for me and you won't hear me complain.

[ballistim]

I used to buy a lot of stuff off eBay. The key to getting good deals is patience. Like someone else mentioned, pick a price you're comfortable with and if someone else overbids you, so be it. Let it go, something else will come up. Some times there is a demand for the item you want and everybody and their uncle bids on it. A week or so later, no one may be looking for the same item. Also, I look for items that are mislabeled. For example, I wanted a 10" Ridgid aluminum pipe wrench. I was searching for model 810, kept seeing them going for $20-$25 plus shipping. One day, I searched for 10" aluminum pipe wrench and found a listing with a pic of 2 Ridgids 810, and the listing described them as Ridgid 810. Got them both for $20 plus shipping, and they were in excellent shape for being used.

Great deal! I've been looking for aluminum 10" Rigid or Irwin, hard to find, have a complete set of both but smallest is 14", have several 18", wish I'd replaced my cast iron Rigid wrenches years ago, might have avoided surgery, will trade 18" for 10" with someone if I get the chance sometime.

[bedbugbilly]

I sell and purchase on that site - have for years and I have gotten some good deals on reloading equipment and dies - but - set our limits on what you want to pay and then stick to them. If you don't get the item - wait - another will come up eventually and unless you are in a "hurry" - look at other sites such as this one as well.

I agree . . it's insane at times what people are paying and I see the same thing on Lee dies (used prices) as compared to what Dennis at Titan can sell new ones for. Part of this is folks who just don't have the knowledge your "gumption" to search for what they want and check prices of what they can buy things for when new. But . . . "folks are funny" as they say.

I recently saw a number of Lyman die sets for sale on there that were priced at twice what they sell for new from Midway with the shipping added on. Obviously, the seller was not getting any bids. When I sell something on there . . I view it this way . . . I start it at a reasonable price and it will go for what it goes for. I've always said that an item is worth what a willing buyer is willing to pay for an item to a seller at the time the sale is made. What may not be worth say $10 to you might just be worth $20 to a guy who needs it to complete a set of dies or something he collects.

Crazy? Yes. . . but it's called "free enterprise".

[W.R.Buchanan]

Roger: I mostly only buy " buy it now" items. I recently bought a Ponsness Warren Metal Matic II for a very good price and I fully intend to resell it for twice what I paid for it.

If the item is something I want but is not a "buy it now" item I hold off until the last day and if the price is still below my max I will snipe it. By sniping your bid is only dropped in 10 seconds before the auction ends, thus preventing others from bidding up an item based on your bids, simply because they don't have time to do it. However if others are sniping that same item also and bid more,,, you will lose it.

You have to be prepared to lose it or pay more. That is simple fact. I have never lost any sleep over losing an item off Ebay, and I don't think anyone else should either. Plenty more where they came from.

On Lee stuff you are better off just buying new from Dennis as there are few deals that will beat his prices and also unless the stuff is new in box,, condition becomes an issue. Used Lee stuff other than Lee Loaders themselves are seldom worth more than half MSRP, so act accordingly.

On Used items condition should dictate the price. That P/W loader I bought was not in as good a condition as I thought it was based on the pics. I had to put more time into it than I had originally planned, but I can still make some money on it and it will be in nearly new condition once I finish with it. However I won't make as much on it as I had planned.

Ebay can be frustrating or it can be a great thing. My wife sells stuff there all the time and it goes both ways for her everyday and I have to listen to the problems she has way to often. However in her case, the good outweighs the bad, so she keeps going.

Ebay has one main rule,,, and that rule is not exclusive to Ebay. "Caveat Emptor." Buyer Beware!

Never bid on something that you don't know about, this is how you get screwed! Do your homework first then go looking for the item.

Randy

[SSGOldfart]

Ebay is our national garage sale where items can be found with ease that would take you years of searching locally. It is a good place for wise buyers and sellers to trade, but a bad place for idiots to try and do either.

.

very well said good job

[Blood Trail]

I've made some good buys off of eBay and Gunbroker. I bought a used Mossberg 5500MKII auto for $150 shipped. That was my go to gun for years. I bought a heavy duty drill press that the guy delivered to my house for $12.50. That's been my best purchase so far. I recently bought a Lee factory crimping die for .44 Mag brand new for $18 with free shipping.

[41 mag fan]

I see where some folks post mention of "good deal" on such and such they picked up on well known auction site. I understand where some things only drop in price to a certain point then hold value. A working set of used dies or used press in good condition is only going to be certain amount less expensive than new.

However I find the auction set up to be insane, prices make little if any sense much of the time. I have a list of things that I would like to buy on my computer. No addiction (yet) so looking at what is in the gun safe informs what I might purchase. What needs the most regular feeding informs what is highest priority.

Lee dies and presses used sometimes sell for a within a couple of bucks of what they are new on Titan, heck I just saw a 3 die set go for $1 more than Titan. Couple of RCBS dies I could buy on Midway new for the same price as the used ones being sold. See the same with other die sets, or presses. $98 starting bid for a press that goes new for $114.

So is there some secret handshake or special way to hold the mouse? Or does this boil down to repeatedly putting in a Bid at a reasonable price and hoping that one stays low so you win below that point to get a "deal"? Having to wait for each item auction to close before trying again so you don't get stuck with duplicate item? Seems pretty inefficient, each auction lasts a week one could easily try a whole lot of times without having the winning bid and have to wait each time for days before being able to try again.

Anyone have any suggestions or am I correct in figuring this is a waste of time unless one is looking for some odd out of production item.

As the old saying goes. ..a fool and his money will soon part. .. or one man's junk is another man's treasure. I laugh at auctions and keep going

[gwpercle]

Another trick is to become familiar with the older, less known but high quality tools/equipment. Like Bair, C-H, Bonanza, etc. A good reference is old Hand Loaders Digests .
I was watching the bidding go into the stratosphere for some RCBS 41 mag dies, but not one person put in a single bid on a set of Bonanza 41 mag dies. I knew Bonanza was a quality die maker, so entered a low bid and got them for $6.00. The RCBS went for more than Midway new! I don't understand why folks do that but there's a lot I don't understand.
Deals are out there you just have to look and wait for them. Patience is truly a virtue ( that's what mom always told me)
Gary

[RogerDat]

And I thought understanding my wife was complicated! Any suggestions on sniping software? Seems like that is about the only way to win a bid if the other fellow is using it. Especially if it allows for odd increments.

I will say the Buy It Now sniping that was mentioned by Randy requires spending time watching for new items to be offered to be the first to hit the button but when looking into it people say it does work to get good deals.

I guess I rarely purchase something without needing it (or at least having convinced myself that I need it) so it seems like the best advice is to plan in advance and keep putting in bids on suitable items until I get lucky. Kind of backwards for me. I normally dig around and do research to find out what brand/model will be the one I want then go looking for that exact thing at the best price.

A member offered a pair of Pacific dies in response to a WTB post I made. I went looking into that brand of dies since I was not familiar with them before agreeing to the purchase. I think becoming familiar with the older stuff is good advice because those are nice dies but not one of the current major brands.

[josper]

I'm one of those e-bay snipers. I set a price that's reasonable in my sniping software and if I win I win .If I lose I lose. If you bid on an item usually some knot head comes along and out bids you. I've seen items get caught up in a biding war and it ends up selling for much more than new from a dealer.

[RogerDat]

I'm one of those e-bay snipers. I set a price that's reasonable in my sniping software and if I win I win .If I lose I lose. If you bid on an item usually some knot head comes along and out bids you. I've seen items get caught up in a biding war and it ends up selling for much more than new from a dealer.

And this piece explains why your strategy is the optimal one. http://www.omniscienceisbliss.org/sniping.html

Essentially people stink at determining the maximum price they would pay for an item, much better at determination of amount they would pay more than or amount that is too high. EBay auto bids and early bidding just encourages the "nibblers" to drive the price up by providing them a price that they would be willing to pay $1 more than to own that item. A few nibblers will keep pushing the price up a bit at a time.

Snipers are setting an actual max they would pay and deliver that at the end. Avoids giving the nibblers any information or encouragement.

[bangerjim]

Evilbay and sellers just LOVE nibblers and those that "bid early and bid often!"

Years ago when I DID buy stuff on there (antique clocks, scales, scientific stuff only), I would watch stuff and never bid until the last 10 seconds. And would previously have looked at all those bidding early to see their method of bidding ( proxy, sniping, etc). Now they stopped that. ID's are hidden. Hate that!

Makes me sick.

[RogerDat]

I was poking around in sold items and found that I could look at the bid history. Thing I'm puzzled by is if something was at say $30 and 1 person submits a max automatic and hidden bid of say $35 the new "high bid" is $31 but if a second person comes along and decides they would also put in a max hidden bid of $35 then Ebay is going to auto bounce that bid between the 2 people all the way up to $35 almost right away.

Am I reading that history right? Sort of like an live auction where 2 people keep bumping each other until one stops. Then the item sits for a few more days waiting for someone else to come along willing to pay a little more and process starts over again. Sniping is the only thing that makes any sense in that scenario since your best (and really only) chance to win is as time expires. Then it is just a matter of who snipes with the higher offer.

[bangerjim]

Supposedly the 1st time-stamed bid takes precedence.

When I was buying years ago, I won 90% of the stuff I bid on becuase I was there the last 15 seconds of the auction. 2 monitors......one with current bid, one with my bid to place....and a digital countdown timer on the desk set for 7 seconds B4 the close. And (VERY IMPORTANT) a very fast internet connection!!!!!!! No dial-up when sniping.

Now that they have hidden the ID's of all bidders, I quit bidding on anything. But I did buy a lot of antiques in the past..........at good prices!!!!!!!

If you really want something, you probably will have to snipe for it. Those stupid early bidders will run it up but you never know if the high bidder has a high proxy in. If he is always on top, you know he does!

Good luck with bidding.

[Charley]

I sell quite a bit of stuff on Ebay, buy occasionally. I know what most retail/online prices run, and I price accordingly. I sell and make a profit. Buying, never bid early.

[RogerDat]

One (hopefully) last question. If one puts in a snipe bid at the last minute the price you are actually going to pay is not the bid but rather the amount of that bid required to beat the 2nd highest bid by the increment. Is that right.

Say item is at $60 and I snipe at $75 and someone else snipes at $69 then I would end up paying $70 for the item. One dollar (the increment at this price point) over the 2nd highest bid of $69. Not the $75 I actually bid.

With one last twist. I should have bid $75.56 just to beat any other $75 or $75.50 bids that were sniped. However the prices paid history is generally in round dollar amounts (at least for presses). What gives there? Does the $75.56 bid win but get rounded up or down to an even increment?

[josper]

One (hopefully) last question. If one puts in a snipe bid at the last minute the price you are actually going to pay is not the bid but rather the amount of that bid required to beat the 2nd highest bid by the increment. Is that right.

Say item is at $60 and I snipe at $75 and someone else snipes at $69 then I would end up paying $70 for the item. One dollar (the increment at this price point) over the 2nd highest bid of $69. Not the $75 I actually bid.

With one last twist. I should have bid $75.56 just to beat any other $75 or $75.50 bids that were sniped. However the prices paid history is generally in round dollar amounts (at least for presses). What gives there? Does the $75.56 bid win but get rounded up or down to an even increment?

That's correct. It will enter the bid you need to win and not more.

[jmorris]

I will add, the best deals I have made on eBay are on items that the seller misspelled.

I don't generally get an item unless it is a steal, has to beat a "good deal" if I am buying something used that I cannot operate first.

I imagine I win 1 for every 100 items I bid on.

[bangerjim]

I ALWAYS did bid odd amounts when I used to use evilbay, never ever round dollars, to be successful. My snipe bid of $55.99 wins over someone else sniping at $55.00 at the last 3 seconds every single time. Or a proxy of $55.

It is shocking to see, when the auction closed, how high some fool set thier proxy!

Use whatever cents sense you feel necessary to win!

Good luck!

banger