What have Ebay done now

[pedrobedro]

I buy a lot of bits from ebay as buy it nows and find a lot of the prices are very good compared to what I could buy anywhere else and a lot is post free if you look for it or even reasonable including the price of P&P. Sellers must still be happy with the deal they are getting or they would walk. I have found sellers websites sometimes sell items for less than ebay because they don't have the charges to cover.

 

[brightspark]

I buy a lot of bits from ebay as buy it nows and find a lot of the prices are very good compared to what I could buy anywhere else and a lot is post free if you look for it or even reasonable including the price of P&P. Sellers must still be happy with the deal they are getting or they would walk. I have found sellers websites sometimes sell items for less than ebay because they don't have the charges to cover.

and ive found sellers on ebay selling cheaper than direct on there website and paid over the odds

 

[the snooper]

ebay is still quite good, bought a suspension coil spring 27 quid delivered. exact same spring local over 40 quid

 

[MattF]

and ive found sellers on ebay selling cheaper than direct on there website and paid over the odds

I've noted quite a few doing that too. Seems arseways round, IMHO. I always double check to see if any business user on Ebay has a proper website these days, so as to find on which site their best prices are.

 

[tigler]

I buy a lot of bits from ebay as buy it nows and find a lot of the prices are very good compared to what I could buy anywhere else and a lot is post free if you look for it or even reasonable including the price of P&P. Sellers must still be happy with the deal they are getting or they would walk. I have found sellers websites sometimes sell items for less than ebay because they don't have the charges to cover.

Me too. I needed some M3 button and CS head screws and nuts in SS last week. Had a look in baffled and queued, waste of time, I should have known.
Called a local stockist, they had a £25 min order !!
So, found them on ebay, had to buy 10 of each in 3 items but the whole lot was under a fiver and they arrived within 48 hours !!
If I factored in driving about, phone calls and time that I saved by using ebay it's a no brainer !
Still not as good as it used to be though, and they must be feeling the pinch because they are continuously offering free listing weekends !

 

[Weldinator]

Yeah they have been doing free insertion fees for a while now, almost every month now.

Still the charges are still extortionate expensive for what it is imo.

Gumtree are owned by ebay but ebay has more members and visitors so that is what makes ebay the daddy when it comes to internet auctions.

Agreed, ebay isn't what it use to be, all directed for the buyers.Its a buyers market at the moment due to the state this country is in right now.

 

[Shox Dr]

I've spoken to 3 businesses I found through ebay in the last week, and all three offered big discounts for purchasing directly. One of them was 60% cheaper. Needless to say my purchases were made off ebay

 

[tigler]

What sort of items ?

 

[Shox Dr]

CDS tubing 1" and 5/8.

1"x1"BSP Brass Hosetails and 1"BSP Stainless Tees, only because they were cheaper than Brass.

and some other stuff

 

[Wallace]

I use Ebay fairly regularly but treat it as a tool to work for me mainly as a price comparison and as Tigler says to save wasting time running around. As an example, I needed a pair of ball races and checked prices on Ebay so I had an idea what a local bearing supplier would be charging me. After narrowing the search down to around £2 each I then compared all the carriage charges and managed to get a pair of SKF bearings delivered next day for £4.30. The fuel cost driving to a supplier would have been that alone!

Those of you that have used RS and Farnell over the years will know that they would not normally be your first port of call unless someone else is paying or you are desperate! Recently I have found a trip to RS is becoming more cost effective than Ebay and they beat the price of a 1/4" drive Facom ratchet hands down over any Ebay seller or supplier via Google.

The down side of visiting an RS Trade Counter is I always come away with more than I planned. The "Managers Special" bins should be avoided like herpes if you suffer from the well known medical condition around new tools called "lack of restraint".