# What is going on on eBay??



## danst96 (22 Mar 2021)

I saw a Scheppach TS82 sell for £900 on eBay at the weekend, that saw is around £600 when bought new. Granted it's out of stock everywhere, but £900 for a second hand £600 saw??


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## bp122 (22 Mar 2021)

Seller's market?


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## LJM (22 Mar 2021)

Conversely, I recently bought from the bay, a bandsaw for £60. Ive seen the same model listed for as much as £2000. Go figure


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## danst96 (22 Mar 2021)

bp122 said:


> Seller's market?


I guess so, but that example is just ridiculous. I guess its a combination of sellers market and people bidding and buying who don't know what they are doing. I speak carefully because I did spend on TS recently that needed a fair bit of cleaning up but not without research and knowing its resale value after it was cleaned up.

It is so random though because there are a few Kity 1619's for sale with sliding carriages which go for around £600 as far as I can see. Not sure why people felt the need to bid considerably more for a smaller bladed, Chinese made machine?


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## danst96 (22 Mar 2021)

LJM said:


> Conversely, I recently bought from the bay, a bandsaw for £60. Ive seen the same model listed for as much as £2000. Go figure


Good catch! Thats the random thing about it, so hit and miss.


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## Geoff_S (22 Mar 2021)

Rowing machine list at £860, selling used on eBay for £1250+. It's not eBay's fault. They're out of stock and I'm on a 15 week waiting list.


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## bp122 (22 Mar 2021)

danst96 said:


> I guess so, but that example is just ridiculous. I guess its a combination of sellers market and people bidding and buying who don't know what they are doing. I speak carefully because I did spend on TS recently that needed a fair bit of cleaning up but not without research and knowing its resale value after it was cleaned up.
> 
> It is so random though because there are a few Kity 1619's for sale with sliding carriages which go for around £600 as far as I can see. Not sure why people felt the need to bid considerably more for a smaller bladed, Chinese made machine?


Sometimes it is just a combination of insufficient knowledge and the bidding fever where ego takes over common sense.


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## artie (22 Mar 2021)

Makes me think of the man who knew the price of everything and the value of nothing.


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## Terry - Somerset (22 Mar 2021)

Perhaps pricing on ebay is all part of a strategic game played for different reasons:

price competitively, small margins, need to sell a lot to make a profit, lots of admin
price high, exploit product shortages, get the odd sale at high margin
price low, turn excess stock into cash
price high in the hope that the one born every minutes comes along
simple mistake in listing


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## thetyreman (22 Mar 2021)

the weirdest thing about lockdown for me was expecting another massive recession and prices to drop, but they just keep going up.


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## MARK.B. (22 Mar 2021)

To be fair Ebay and other auction sites have always had cases like that, " Auction fever" my dad used to call it when we went to local auctions to get timber. Some people get carried away and they have to have it (doesent matter what it is ) if only to stop another from getting it. The Auctioneers activly encourage this daft behaviour because it means more cash to them.


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## D_W (22 Mar 2021)

Ebay is a universal secondary market for anything instantaneously in demand. 

Sometimes when you're a seller, you sell stuff poorly because there's no roving online market for it, and sometimes the opposite happens. Earlier this year, I still had 2 LN planes left. A LN 62 that I purchased just to test the unicorn sharpening method as I figured it would work better than a flat facet (it does), and then sold after testing. 

I guess I got lucky getting the plane in the first place, but it was about $270 and I expected to eat about $70 net of fees. I woke up after selling it on a straight auction and some guy in france bought it for $360. I was shocked and figured it might be a scam. I had improved the plane while having it and listed that (it was within LN's spec but hollow in its length to a noticeable amount, and I flattened it to anything a starrett edge would let light through). I also expected to eat it over that because LN's typical new customer doesn't know much about things like that and I would've avoided anything non factory early on. The payment came through, The guy got the plane and was super pleased with it (apparently, nothing has been going to continental europe from LN for a while). 

I had a bronze 4 that I pondered selling with a modified stock and cap iron to be able to use LN irons but also stanley thickness irons. Same fear (describing those details maybe ends up doing you no favors because it confuses some newer buyers). I was just hoping for market value after the france fluke. I sold it on a straight up auction starting at a penny and it sold for $550 (they're $375 or something from LN). I pondered giving the buyer some refund, but he was so happy to get one (and from california of all places - he said LN wasn't going to make more until at least a month later and he wasn't waiting). That plane was my user plane and wasn't short of handling marks on it, either. Unlike the 62, it was dead flat from the factory. 

I offered to make him an O1 iron fitted to the plane since LN doesn't make those and then he could have both types, and he was super pleased with that, too. 

got plenty of complaints from people who tried to send messages to take the listing down early and sell for new plane price, a couple accusing me of being a shill bidder. The final buyer blew them away (I don't shill bid with anyone - ever. It's not even illegal in all states here, but I don't care if it is or isn't, it's horrid). I sent messages to the guys who pounded me about shill bids about maybe keeping things to themselves until they see the feedback from the legitimate sale. One was apologetic, the other one was just being infantile all the way to the end. 

Long story short, when you really want something and it's not available, going to ebay isn't a great place to go unless you have a saved search on a fixed price item. The other ones, people will go nuts. Apparently listing something at auction these days without reserve is so uncommon that people think you're a scammer. The reason that I like to do it is that it takes it out of your hands worrying about when something will sell or how much. You list it, it sells. You can wring your hands about bad (low finish price) sales if you want, but it all evens out in the end. 

It takes a month or two for prices on the ground here to catch up with ebay. going rate for a nice stanley four has doubled in the last 5 years but at swap meets and such, prices closer to the older prices aren't that uncommon.


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## Retired (22 Mar 2021)

Hi,

A few years ago I noticed on eBay a Burgess Sprayit SR122 paint spraying kit that I really fancied it having a starting bid of £20 on it. I used to borrow my friends Sprayit about 50 years ago and even sprayed my then VW classic split screen camper with it; I liked this little compressor unit a great deal and just out of nostalgia I wanted one.







I contacted the seller offering £100 which was way higher than it was worth but the seller replied the sprayer was attracting lots of attention so the auction was allowed to run. I was doing a lot of work indoors and needed a sprayer to spray emulsion so I bought an Apollo sprayer for the job; funds weren't a problem but out of curiosity I checked the Sprayit at auction end and it hadn't attracted a buyer at the starting bid; how strange to receive an email from the Sprayit owner saying I could now have the Sprayit for £100. I politely replied saying that as my initial offer had been rejected by him I'd already bought a much more expensive Apollo and thanked him for his email.

The Sprayit was once again put on eBay auction with a starting bid of £20 so I decided to watch it; within the last ten seconds of auction end I placed a £30 bid and got the Sprayit for it's starting bid of £20 with no other bidder.

My wife and I enjoyed a summer's morning drive over to Cheshire to collect the Sprayit which I still have and will never part with it. The seller was obviously unhappy as I handed over the £20 cash but I did save him the expense of PayPal.

I love stories with an happy ending.

Kind regards, Colin.


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## Lonsdale73 (22 Mar 2021)

I find when I want to buy someting, the seller wants at least the price of new plus as much more as he can get on top of that yet when I'm selling, potential 'buyers' want me to give it away.


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## sneggysteve (22 Mar 2021)

Many years ago I saw 12 pine kitchen cupboard doors for sale about 5 miles from me with a starting price of 1p.

I felt sorry for the guy when I handed him the 1p but hey ho.


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## Regex (22 Mar 2021)

I find the best prices for tools are when you buy locally in joblots. My first lot included a Stanley No 4 plane, a Sandvik hacksaw, heavy metal hammer, 2 stanley screwdrivers, various masonry chisels and pry bars, a 20m and 30m tape measure and a manual push lawnmower all for the princely sum of around £30!

Edit 20m and 30m, not 50m! They're quite nice I've used them a couple of times already. The 20m is a Rabone Chesterman made in England and the 30m one a Lufkin Rule Co made in Canada of all places.


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## flh801978 (22 Mar 2021)

As few weeks ago i bought something collect only on eBay went to collect all ok.he also had a nice dust extractor sitting there.he said thats for sale ...i offered £50 he seemed most offended and said no not at all not even saying well £15O or so
It was on eBay last week sold for £40


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## KingAether (22 Mar 2021)

Ebays a funny place.. in the last year i "brought" a Wadkin BGS 12, well maintained but barely ever used for £300 but i regularly see items sitting there far over-priced for months, if not the last two years but i imagine they must sell or they wouldn't operate like that. 
I did have the thought recently though that it seems something is up; watching multiple AGS 10s in ok condition but parts missing, needing rewiring, 3ph, etc, go for £100's more than far better options that have been sat on other common online markets for months


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## davin (23 Mar 2021)

I can't seem to find woodworking machinery so easily on ebay nowadays. I used to just search for used woodworking machinery, and lots of different types of machinery came up. What has changed, and how should I search?
Also, chap in the unit next to me deals in used woodworking machinery, not the big stuff, but single phase saws. bandsaws planers etc. He reckons prices have shot up. he can charge 40% more than a few years ago?


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## Stanleymonkey (23 Mar 2021)

I often see the same stuff on for months and months at silly prices. You can put it on at whatever starting price you like. Doesn't mean it will sell. I've seen things worth £30 on ebay at £300 for half a year before they give up.


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## LJM (23 Mar 2021)

There’s an Elu router on there for £550 at the moment


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## powertools (23 Mar 2021)

You need to be careful how you use ebay just this week I have purchased a buy it now rear light for my van the best price locally I could find was £86 for a Hella and £54 for an unbranded and the one I bought from a ebay seller was £20.75 delivered and was a perfect fit. Any auction can go crazy depending on how many people are interested.


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## LJM (23 Mar 2021)

Why anyone bids before the dying seconds of a timed auction is beyond me!


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## Stan (23 Mar 2021)

LJM said:


> Why anyone bids before the dying seconds of a timed auction is beyond me!




I agree. It forces up the price.

The only time I now do this is when I wont be near a computer at the time the bid finishes. At least this way I might have a chance, but usually not.


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## LJM (23 Mar 2021)

Stan said:


> I agree. It forces up the price.
> 
> The only time I now do this is when I wont be near a computer at the time the bid finishes. At least this way I might have a chance, but usually not.



you can get an app to bid for you


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## Rockolababy (23 Mar 2021)

ebay reflects what's going on in this strange world. Currently dealers cannot get stocks and that has pushed consumer demand for anything that the public think they must have ! At the low end anything made in China is almost impossible to buy new and many of the major brands such as Bosch Makita Dewalt source parts from the far east which they cannot get. Hence dealers connot stock new kit - the Perfect Storm ! 
The good news is there gonna be a hell of a lot of nearly new kit on ebay going very cheap for those who don't go with the herd.


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## G S Haydon (23 Mar 2021)

It's a good place to sell but not to buy. I like sifting through the chaos of Facebook sales. It's like going through old junk shops.


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## bp122 (23 Mar 2021)

LJM said:


> There’s an Elu router on there for £550 at the moment


I can beat that, there was a brand new Triton JOF router for over £1200! 
Unless the collet is milled out of solid gold, it makes me think it might be a "cash cleaning" business!


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## bp122 (23 Mar 2021)

powertools said:


> You need to be careful how you use ebay just this week I have purchased a buy it now rear light for my van the best price locally I could find was £86 for a Hella and £54 for an unbranded and the one I bought from a ebay seller was £20.75 delivered and was a perfect fit. Any auction can go crazy depending on how many people are interested.


Trick is to look for auctions that end at wired or ungodly hours. Very few people will be in the fever, so one can get a decent price.


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## MARK.B. (24 Mar 2021)

To avoid paying relisting fees, i have heard that sellers simply put wacky high prices on stuff they no longer have in stock,when new stock arrives they simply alter the price in the listing. If in the meantime someone is daft enough to snap up a item for 20 times its worth then thats just a nice little bonus.


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## alanpo68 (24 Mar 2021)

MARK.B. said:


> To avoid paying relisting fees, i have heard that sellers simply put wacky high prices on stuff they no longer have in stock,when new stock arrives they simply alter the price in the listing. If in the meantime someone is daft enough to snap up a item for 20 times its worth then thats just a nice little bonus.



It is more about acting as a placeholder for the search engine.


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## Spectric (24 Mar 2021)

Ebay is not what it used to be, I wanted some structural timber screws and after looking on Ebay I contacted the company directly for price and delivery and saved 35%. The reason given was that people just buy on Ebay and think it is the cheapest place to go so many trades just put their stock om there and any sales are a bonus.


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## Phil Pascoe (24 Mar 2021)

I've bought a few things lately that have been cheaper using ebay than they have been direct from the company - that doesn't always follow, it pays to look.


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## artie (24 Mar 2021)

There doesn't seem to be any consistency.

Sometimes ebay is cheaper than amazon, sometimes other way around sometimes somebody else is cheapest.

A couple of times the local hardware was cheapest, before it closed. 

It would be too simple and boring if the same place was always best.

A number of years ago I was searching around for a used lawnmower.

I guess my daughter was getting fed up with me talking about it so she said " Why don't you just buy a new one then you will know what you have?"

"You can afford it"

My response was "What would be the fun in that"


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## Retired (26 Mar 2021)

Hi,

Years ago I gave away free to a friend a "Sound Sales" vintage valve radio I'd bought previously for only a tenner but decided not to restore it because it was like an industrial type with a cube shaped metal cabinet and little appeal also it needed connecting to speakers.

My friend placed this radio on eBay and it sold for £200. A week later a clone of this radio sold on eBay for £800. I wasn't in the least bothered after all it only cost me a tenner but shows how erratic eBay prices can be.

Kind regards, Colin.


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## Terrytpot (26 Mar 2021)

A few years back I parted company with a small 12v microwave that I’d got to use in my truck at work which never really got used as trucks are 24v and voltage droppers didn’t behave very well with it...anyhoo,even though it hadn’t had much use it sat around for quite a while and did look quite used when I threw it on eBay to get rid of it..and at 3 years old I got more for it than it cost me brand new.


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## ian33a (26 Mar 2021)

Sometimes, it is possible to do well on eBay. Many private sellers are frustrated with buyers who make promises and then fail to meet their obligations either by not showing up to collect or insisting on haggling upon collection.

There are a few old school sellers left who form an opinion about a buyer based upon communication and not just upon feedback. Far better for a buyer to turn up, pay what they agreed and be delighted than to agree a higher price and be screwed over or intimidated upon meeting the wideboy seller.

I bought a lovely hand made router table and DW 625 router (hardly used) for a very decent price even though others had come along later and offered the moon. How? by being honest and turning up when I said I would and agreeing to not haggle before travelling (and I didn't try to renegotiate)

Also, commercial trader prices need to be watched. It's often cheaper to go directly to their website and buy the same stuff for less than on eBay as there is no commission charge and eBay only services as a wider hosted market place for those who want convenience and are willing to pay for it.


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## sawdust1 (28 Mar 2021)

I listed a Biomass Boiler about 2 months ago, and so far have had 629 views and 7 on watch list, and still no offers or questions. Surely their's not this many people after one so why view it, can't make it out.


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## John Brown (28 Mar 2021)

bp122 said:


> Seller's market?


Sellers mentions it, price soars on eBay...


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## Garno (28 Mar 2021)

sawdust1 said:


> I listed a Biomass Boiler about 2 months ago, and so far have had 629 views and 7 on watch list, and still no offers or questions. Surely their's not this many people after one so why view it, can't make it out.



It will be 630 after I have a peep at it.
I just can't help myself, someone mentions something (anything at all) that is for sale somewhere online and I have to have a nosey.
No intentions of buying anything but still have to look


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## artie (28 Mar 2021)

James Gregory ( American comedian) does a stand up routine about going to Lowes on a Sunday afternoon with his Dad.

Explaining about how they would go to "look around" never buying anything. He does it very well and brought back memories of me and my son going to B&Q on Sunday afternoon and seldom buying anything.

My son still talks about, he's almost 40 now.

In fact a few years ago I flew over to Glasgow where he met me and we drove up to Maybole to get suits for my daughters wedding. 

On the way back he pointed over to a B&Q and we had a walk round, and of course bought nothing.

I think browsing ebay and of course buying nothing is the 21st century version of pwowling Lowes / B&Q


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## chrisdt (28 Mar 2021)

At least with Ebay you know exactly what your paying and if its not as described you can issue a request to return it and get your money back. Auction houses in general are crooks pushing the price up (by taking bids off the wall) and making it very difficult if not impossible to return anything. I bought an Omega watch in
a local auction house and when I got home I realised the movement was not Omega at all. Had a hell of a job to get a refund and had to resort to the threat of legal action. Plus the comission charges at auction houses have rocketed over recent years to around 25%. 5% more if you register to bid on line. Still cheaper on Ebay.


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## Jelly (29 Mar 2021)

There's often a market size aspect to consider.

I have bought almost all of my clothes on eBay for the best part of a decade because it offers excellent value for money, I needed to replace some jeans recently, and managed to get 3 pairs of Levi 501's in immaculate condition for starting bids priced at the £5-£10 mark, bargain!

This infuriates my missus who can never ever seem to find a bargain on clothes on eBay, despite there being a much bigger second hand market for almost new womens clothing.

What's the difference between us? At 6'4" with a 36" inside leg, and 50" chest, I'm well outside the average, so there's just not much competition for the stuff I'm buying; meanwhile at 5'4" and a size 10-12 she's pretty much bang on the average size of a british woman and has huge amounts of competition for the stuff she wants to buy.


Translate that back to machines, and it explains why small, portable, single phase machines often sell above what you'd consider to be market value, whilst really excellent industrial equipment usually sells for pennies on the pound to what a reasonable dealer price would be... There's more people who want it, than there are machines available.


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