eBay Prices

paul williams

paul williams

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Basically, are there really that many people buying second-hand kit who have no idea of the 'new' price?

A little while ago the only lens I had developed a fault, so I’ve sent it back to Sigma for repair. Now although I’m not what you might call a dedicated photographer (more just a happy snapper) it was instantly missed, especially as I was part way though a sequence of photographs to illustrate a thread on another forum. So I set about getting a cheap and cheerful replacement, started by going to my local shop, nothing of interest to me there, so next up, good old eBay. Whilst I was at it I thought I might as well look into getting another, longer zoom as well. The Sigma (that’s in for repair) is a 18-125mm, the stand-in to keep me going was a nice, but very old 35-70mm, so I started looking at those 70-300’s that everyone seems to be punting out these days – I say these days as this is the first time I’ve even considered looking ‘camera’ gear in years. The thing that struck me was, why were people buying second-hand Sigma & Tamron lenses for a few pounds less than new ones could be sourced, indeed in many instances, the new ones came with free delivery, making the second-hand ones more costly? Add into this equation that Sigma will give a 3 year and Tamron a 5 year warranty (genuine UK ones) and it didn’t make any sense at all. Me I had a brief get together with a Tamron, but 5 year warranty or not, I had no confidence in its staying power, so in the end got a second-hand Canon 100-300mm with a 3 month warranty. Well at the most it can only be 20 years old!

Way before 'confusedgocomparethemoneysupermarket.com' there have been consumer price comparison sites to point you in the right direction for a 'good deal' but people still haven't cottoned onto the fact that in general, eBay is, in the main, no longer the place to go for a bargain.

Paul
 
Perusing ebay is like looking through a porthole in to a different world. It's not only the buyers who don't have a finger on the pulse of current prices. Sellers are just as bad.

Over the past month I've been looking at used printers, specifically to print on to discs. The Canon model I have in mind can be bought off Amazon for £67, new, inc post. There are several 'dealers' selling - or trying to - the same one for £77 or more, + post. One even tries for £110. They go unsold, and get relisted over and over. I expect they sell the odd one now and again.

Ovens - same thing. Say for example, one in Currys is £200, then an ebay dealer will be selling it for £180 - plus £30 or more shipping.
 
I used ebay religously a few years back, seeing the prices on there these days really puts me off. I only buy cheap or hard to find things on there these days but amazon and mymemory get most of my custom these days. Too many robbing b******s on ebay for me to carry on using it. Of course ill still sell on there every now and again but i prefer to use these forums to sell my camera gear.

Good post though fella, winds me up the amount of daft people out there that dont realise searching for bargains takes seconds and theres no need to stay in one place all the time.

Si
 
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There are bargains to be had on there but you've got to search carefully. I always check elsewhere as well. I was looking for lighting stands for off camera flash and they were cheaper at WEX than e-blag.
 
It's the same with golf clubs. There are sellers there selling used clubs for 5 to 10 times their true market value! Makes me chuckle.
 
I believe there are items that are deliberately bumped up by 'friends' of the seller . . . I know for sure of one item that was artificially over priced by a couple of 'friends' false bidding . . . if it happens to one item, ods on, it happens to others:|

If I have to resort to fleBay, I set myself a price I will pay and stick to it!!! or see if the seller will negotiate on a 'by it now' . . . 'the Bay' is becoming . . . has become, a less attractive place IMHO, frequent with caution.

Dont you find this sort of thing going on all round these days . . . boot jumbles are another, 'buyer beware' these days . . . 'rip off Britain', is a phrase that comes to mind . . . ?

CJS
 
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Well there are a few things that eBay is useful for - just bought a couple of genuine Canon lens hoods 99p & £2.75 and it is useful for getting obscure items from time to time. I also have change all my old lens caps to the 'centre pinch' types as they are only 99p each (delivered).

Paul
 
I long since stopped buying mainstream items on Ebay, like previous poster noted, Amazon etc can and often do turn out cheaper (though Amazon Marketplace is becoming a dangerous place to buy due to prices asked and dubious products being offered, and yes I have been stung, especially for "original Epson cartridges" charged at near normal prices ending being the starter catridges sold with new printers with little ink in them....)

On the other hand, I am amazed at what I put on Ebay and what people will end up in a biding frenzy for - why don't people just look around and see that fixed price items end up going for less. OK, my tat seems to be somebody else's gold!
 
MisterE said:
Perusing ebay is like looking through a porthole in to a different world. It's not only the buyers who don't have a finger on the pulse of current prices. Sellers are just as bad.

Over the past month I've been looking at used printers, specifically to print on to discs. The Canon model I have in mind can be bought off Amazon for £67, new, inc post. There are several 'dealers' selling - or trying to - the same one for £77 or more, + post. One even tries for £110. They go unsold, and get relisted over and over. I expect they sell the odd one now and again.

Ovens - same thing. Say for example, one in Currys is £200, then an ebay dealer will be selling it for £180 - plus £30 or more shipping.
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A lot of this is because ebay has racked up it's fees in recent years. When I started selling on there paypal was not owned by ebay and you had something called ebay payments, which was basically the same but was free and faster than paypal. You'd be lucky to pay more than £1 total fees for an item back them, now you pay them a listing fee for anything Buy it now plus 10% of the final price, plus you pay 3% fee again if you're paid by paypal (which all goes into ebay's pocket!).

Books was another good one, for ages you had to specify free P&P, which made selling secondhand books totally uneconomic, if you listed at 99p and sold for 99p, after fees and actual postage you'd end up paying people to tke your book away! :thumbsdown:
 
Alan Clogwyn said:
A lot of this is because ebay has racked up it's fees in recent years. When I started selling on there paypal was not owned by ebay and you had something called ebay payments, which was basically the same but was free and faster than paypal. You'd be lucky to pay more than £1 total fees for an item back them, now you pay them a listing fee for anything Buy it now plus 10% of the final price, plus you pay 3% fee again if you're paid by paypal (which all goes into ebay's pocket!).

Books was another good one, for ages you had to specify free P&P, which made selling secondhand books totally uneconomic, if you listed at 99p and sold for 99p, after fees and actual postage you'd end up paying people to tke your book away! :thumbsdown:
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This.

Ive been an ebay seller since 2002, and its scary how much the fees have risen.

I am a powerseller selling very low cost items in relitvely small volumes, Im talking no more than £1.50 items, maybe 5 or 6 a day.

The items cost me 40p a time to list on ebay in bulk, then 16p every time one sells, then another 16p paypal fee.

So an item I sell for £1.32 costs me 72p just on ebay fees alone, leaving me 60p to pay for a 2nd class stamp and an enevelope. 2nd class stamps cost 32p and the envelopes I buy in bulk, but a probably a few pence each leaving me with under 20p left. This isnt entirely accurate, as the 40p listing fee is for up to 200 items, not every single one, but still even without that, we are talking pence left over after each sale.

I think my profit on each item sold is something like 2p at the lowest to 16p for the highest.
Hardly worth the hassle TBH.
 
About all I order on eBay now is stuff from china. I also am finding that other sellers are often cheaper not to mention have more confidence in a company trading under own banner than an eBay shop.

quick example:
Konig Light stand on amazon £10.07 delivered cheapest eBay equivalent is £11.95 delivered.
 
There are still bargains to be had on eBay, I got a pretty mint Nikon F5 for £135 (worse condition copies were often going for more than twice that).

If you are patient you often find bargains, sellers will often not put many/good photos which lowers the bidding, and others miss label their stuff.
 
'A fool & his money...........' I always check Ebay for prices, but I don't automatically buy from there. A friend bought a DVD off Ebay that was shipped straight from Play at the same price. (Vendor charged £2 post on top of Play price though). Bargains to be had from Ebay shops & 2nd hand vendors, but some things are bid to silly prices. Buyer beware!
 
STOWITBELOW said:
A friend bought a DVD off Ebay that was shipped straight from Play at the same price. (Vendor charged £2 post on top of Play price though).
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I had that with a PS3 game a few years ago :lol:

I got home one night and there was this 'Play' package on my mat. I wasn't expecting anything but it had mt name on it so I opened it and it was the game I 'won' on ebay :lol:
 
It is possible, as others have said, to still get bargains on ebay. Recently I have seen items end without being bid on which have then been relisted and pulled good prices.

Unfortunately too many idiots who are obviously unaware of new prices pay over the odds.
 
Hejikibob said:
I had that with a PS3 game a few years ago :lol:

I got home one night and there was this 'Play' package on my mat. I wasn't expecting anything but it had mt name on it so I opened it and it was the game I 'won' on ebay :lol:
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This would have been sent from the channel islands I guess. It has happened to me with dvd's in the past.


I use eBay every now and then. I got a multi purpose card reader, SD, MMC, CF etc.. Cost me 99p delivered. Still works now a year on!

Bargain I think.

In all fairness, and imo, if they get away with it and make a good profit, good on them!
 
My favourite ebay bargain was my 1p XD card reader, still going strong and my OM10 camera - I paid £12 inc postage and it came with 2 lenses and a flash. I sold 1 of the lenses for £30 straight off on ebay and got the OM10 working for a couple of months before it finally gave up. The other lens I still have and use reguarly!
 
Personaly I love eBay. With care, knowing your rights, comparing prices arond the net, then there are loads of bargains to be had.

Wether its camera stuff or other shopping needs then search with care and spend time then you will find the bargains.

Look for badly listed items. I resently seen 2 identical lenses sell hundreds or pounds appart because one seller could not be bothered describing properly, which included the title.

However I am amazed at how much somethings sell for. Why don't people do there research, well then the seller gets a great price for there items.
 
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salacalvet said:
Personaly I love eBay. With care, knowing your rights, comparing prices arond the net, then there are loads of bargains to be had.

Wether its camera stuff or other shopping needs then search with care and spend time then you will find the bargains.

Look for badly listed items. I resently seen 2 identical lenses sell hundreds or pounds appart because one seller could not be bothered describing properly, which included the title.
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Indeed but it is getting to be hard work - somethng I'm not good at ;)

Paul
 
I probably will give up even looking there. There is so much scam out there, and the prices have gone up disproportionately. It was a completely different picture just a couple years ago. This must be the recession. Try 100mm Macro L for example. They sell cheaper in the shops than the used ones on ebay. Same with 24-70, etc.
 
MisterE said:
The Canon model I have in mind can be bought off Amazon for £67, new, inc post. There are several 'dealers' selling - or trying to - the same one for £77 or more, + post. One even tries for £110.
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It's probably not that the eBay dealers are making a massive margin. Amazon can and do get huge discounts on their buy price.

I've been talking with one of my regular IT suppliers about purchasing a BluRay player for one of the meeting rooms in our office. Amazon's retail price is 20% below my supplier's wholesale price, so his (very honest) advice to me was to buy it from Amazon [stuff like this is why I keep going back to him :)].

He's not going to be moving the volumes of stock that Amazon are, but very few companies will.
 
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Yea ebay prices or some buyers aren't wise, I am looking for a Nikon 35mm 1.8G lens and on amazon they sell brand new for approx £160, I was watching one on ebay that went for £145 + £3.99 delivery and it was 2nd hand! I don't know how it didn't make sense to the buyer that for an extra £11 they could have had a brand new one from amazon!
 
you should give www.baycrazy.com a try (if you've got a spare 3 days to trawl through it).

it is a handy little site though - put your postcode in and it will search for stuff that hasn't been bid on within a specified distance from your house.

last year, i got 150 handbags for £40 from a guy who lived less than a mile from me - no reserve, so i got it with the only bid. Sold them all individually for about £600 in total.
 
leftcurl said:
you should give www.baycrazy.com a try (if you've got a spare 3 days to trawl through it).
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The site is well worth a look, even if most of it can be done through ebay itself. I may get some random stuff after this :cuckoo:
 
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