ebay. What would life be like w/o ebay? I don't even ebay that much (my # is <100), but I find it valuable.
First, it gives an idea of how much people will pay for something. I have this system where, as I find stuff I don't want anymore and that's still in decent condition, I mark a price on it and put it in a box for some future tag sale. My prices are very reasonable; for the most part, I just want to move the stuff on to someone who can use it. E.g., I got some no name bath stuff as a token thank you gift; it probably cost $7.99 at WalMart (and it may well have been a re-gift and there's nothing wrong with that); it's now marked 50 cents for the whole basket.
Sometimes I wonder if something is worth more. I'll look on ebay to see what people are willing to pay for it or something like it. That item I'll mark with a higher price; still a price less than what people are paying on ebay just to make sure it goes.
Second, it gives an idea of what people are asking and paying for something, even if I expect to buy it at a brick & mortar store.
Third, it gives an idea of what's available ito brands, quality, availability, older but funner models, etc.
Fourth, and finally, it's obvs a different way to buy stuff and often cheaper. A couple of recent examples.
Sheet Sets - Sheet sets are ridiculously expensive. It is not uncommon for a queen deep pocket sheet set to be on sale at $75. As they say over at Cute Overload, that's just redonkulous. I don't want fancy sheets; I just want simple, 100% cotton sheets. For starters, with 6 cats there are certain items for which we've learned to not pay a lot. E.g., carpeting and rugs. We had some wall to wall installed, but soon learned that bare floors with inexpensive rugs are a better option bc the cats just end up yakking (among other things) on it. In fact, Kevin got some old Persian rugs on ebay really inexpensively; I think the shipping was more than the price of the rugs. I don't feel so bad trying some harsh cleaner on or hosing down a room-size rug that cost <$100. Also: go for darker, multi-colored patterns!
Enough about how to best camouflage cat yak against one's decor. So I wanted some new sheets, but did not want to pay $75 on sale for them. Nosey's just going to sneeze on them, I'm just going to get cracker crumbs and diet Coke or a nice cuppa tea on them, Kevin's just going to sweat up a storm on them (hence no flannel sheets are allowed chez nous), I'm just going to launder the stuffing out of them due to aforementioned affronts against textiles, etc. So I noodle around ebay, checking out the bedclothes (I love that word; it sounds so medieval). I eventually bid $24.99 (incl. shipping) on a plain white, queen size, deep-pocket, 400TC, 100% cotton sheet set with two extra pillowcases (so 4 in total). Okay, white is a bit boring, even for me, but what the heck. Now yes, I'm taking a chance bc the sheets might feel like sandpaper. And actually, I took a double chance bc I bid on a second set w/o first winning, receiving and trying out one set.
Things worked out well. I've laundered and am currently using the first set I won (the white set) and I like them. I especially like the extra pillowcases bc Nosey sleeps between the pillows and gets his black fur (and I guess his white fur) all over them. So I can change the pillowcases before I'd change the sheets. I'll use the second, green set next and since they're the exact same thing except for the color, I expect I'll like them as well. Here's the picture from ebay; I got the white set at the top of the left stack and the green set third down on the right stack.
Pinking Shears - I had a pair of pinking shears that were probably ~25 yo, but practically brand new bc I hardly ever used them and kept them well. I recently needed them, but could not find them. I imagine I put them in some safe place which means they'll be found by whoever ends up handling my estate. Fortunately, my MIL loaned me a pair to use until I finish my current project and/or find my own pair, whichever comes first and who knows if either will happen.
I looked and looked and still didn't find my shears. Kevin suggested I go out and buy a new pair since that will most likely cause my old pair to turn up. Though true enough dat, I didn't really want to buy a brand new pair of pinking shears. Good quality sewing shears are expensive; I don't need two pairs (albeit one missing pair) of expensive pinking shears. So ebay it is.
Now, one thing about ebay that is similar to shopping in person is that it's possible to end up buying stuff you don't truly need and weren't even looking for in the first place until you saw them on ebay and decided, Hey! I want that! And, I admit, so it was with me. I was looking for a the usual size pinking shears, 7"-9" or so, but OMG there was the cutest little pinking shears evar up for auction! 5-1/4" total length with 3" blades. So I bid on and won those. Fortunately, the whole sordid affair only cost $4.99 ($2.99 + $2 shipping). I have received those:
They're a little stiff and a good cleaning and sharpening wouldn't hurt them, although they do work as is, but it's nothing a quick visit to the hardware store won't fix and did I ask you aren't they the cutest thing?
I did also bid on and win a larger 9" pair, but haven't received those yet. The total cost of those was ~$10.
Again, you're almost always taking a chance of some size when bidding on ebay stuff. I try to mitigatge the chance by only bidding on sellers with excellent feedback ratings. You might think that a rating of anywhere in the 90%s is good, bc that would be an A in school ! but not in ebay. I never bid on anything sold by a seller with a less than 99% feedback rating. The sheet seller had 99.7%, which is great considering that he's had 57,000 ebay transactions. The scissor sellers (2 different sellers) had between 1,800 - 4,000 ebay transactions and both had 100% feedback ratings. Sure, there are reasons why a seller might have <99% feedback rating, but someone else can figure that out and give them the benefit of the doubt. There are enough sellers and things for auction that it's easy to stick with sellers with >=99% ratings.
Another thing that might derail the thrift of ebay shopping is getting caught up in the bidding. I was the only bidder for the sheet sets and the small shears, so I got those things for the minimum bid. There were 5 bids in total for the larger shears: me, some other bidder, me again, some other other bidder, then me again for the win. I did what's known as sniping. That's when you wait until seconds left in the auction then place a bid that you hope will outbid the current high bidder. I usually don't snipe bc I don't pay that much attention to what's going on with my auctions, the items are generally not must-have items for me, etc., but this time I happened to be around when the auction was closing so I sniped and did so successfully.
IIUC, the powers that be at ebay discourage sniping, but oh well for them. Kevin uses ebay a lot. He's kinda off his stamp collecting at the moment, but he got a ton o' stamps from ebay. He's currently on his coin collecting and wins several auctions/week. He's pretty much done with U.S. coins bc he's got most of the ones he can afford. He's moved on to foreign coins, mostly German and German-state coins. He does a lot of sniping and, I must admit, usually successfully. His motto is, 'You live by the snipe, you die by the snipe.' Tough talk, nu?
So. As you can see, I've used ebay a bit and had some luck with it. I am by no means an expert on finding bargains on ebay so I'd love to hear readers' stories and tips around using ebay. And now, my frugal friends, that's all for today's edition of Thursday Thrift. See you next time!
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