Strategies for Buying Test Equipment on E*bay Part 2

Same here... The 'watch item' feature in E*bay is useful and I use it myself. However, I am wondering about the exposure. It's not a concern for let's say 100 people watching the same item.. If I watch the item...100 to 101 won't make a difference. Likewise, bidding on an item with say 12 bids...if I'm the 13th bid...I don't think it'll attract more flies.

D from BC

I think you need to stay off ebay while you're stoned. ;-)

Cheers! Rich

lol :) Maybe a few smd transistors accidently feel into my morning cereal...

Yeah...I'm showing a bit of E*bay paranoia but if E*bay wanted to make more money, they could sell information such as most "watched items", popular search keywords and page hit lists to resellers. This results in more sales to make E*bay even more money..

If resellers have that information, buyers lead them to a hot item, then the resellers snipe. This way, resellers don't look for hot items...resellers look for people looking for hot items. A reseller can then let the people do the searching, sit back, snipe it and then resell it higher :P Who cares what it is...as long as everybody wants it. :P

But...all speculation..

D from BC

Surely that would ensure they paid more than the group of willing buyers was willing to pay?

They would have to add some sort of value before even making their money back. You may be over thinking things.

Robert

Yup..A reseller (tipped off by E*bay that it's a hot item) would have to bid as high as possible to beat a group of bidders for a hot item. Once a reseller owns the hot item, it's very probable that they can resell it for a profit. It's a 'hot' item... Everybody wants it and even fools will pay extra for it. :P It's a gambling game.

D from BC

The resellers add value by telling tall tales about the item. For instance, saying it was pulled from a working lab, where in reality it was bought from ebay. If you are one person, pretend you are a real company, i.e. refer to yourself in the plural. Also, buy under one name and sell under another name.

Seems possible. I've yet to see a page that goes like this on E*bay:

Tektronix Oscilloscope TDS220

------------------------------- Starting Bid: $3000.00 I won it with a ridiculously high sniper bid after finding out that 50 people were bidding on this and the page hits were 1190 and everybody searches for Tektronix... I don't know what it is or what it does. Sold as is. Still in box. Happy Bidding

... :P

By the way, I write E*bay with the * to possibly prevent automated spamming to SED. (Yah yah..could be seen as more paranoia.. :) )

D from BC

You probably spend more on lattes in a year than you did for your oscilloscope. Think it over and stop being so tight. Paul Mathews

Geez...Not that tight. :) They strategy I'm thinking about is recognizing flipped oscilloscopes. Flipped oscilloscopes can have the highest prices. So high at times, I'd rather buy a brand new asian oscilloscope.

I'd rather buy a scope from someone liquidating a tech company or from an individual that's upgrading or a company that's upgrading. Not from an E*bay flipper (reseller) that buys scopes off E*bay and resells them on E*bay. E*bay resellers are too high up on the food chain. I like to be closer to the source for a better price on test equipment.

D from BC