Re: Strategies for Buying Test Equipment on E*bay Part 2

On Dec 3, 5:21 pm, John Larkin
<jjlar...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Mon, 03 Dec 2007 15:38:33 -0800, D from BC





<myrealaddr...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Strategies for Buying Test Equipment on E*bay Part 2
----------------------------------------------------

I'm still learning about E*bay...
I have my suspicions about the "watching items" feature in E*bay.

Watching items??? I suspect this is more like a "I'm watching you
watch items" feature..
Like jackals that follow lions to scavenge their kills.
Resellers are thinking:
"The more people interested in it, the more probability it can flipped
for more ."
It's a play on supply and demand...The more "apparent" demand on an
item, the more resellers take an interest.

One can see a short list of most watched items on test equipment on
the pulse e*bay page.
http://pulse.ebay.com/
Example:
http://pulse.ebay.com/Test-Equipment_W0QQsacatZ4676
Also a list of popular searches for test equipment.

No wonder HP items are so jacked up in price.. It's the #1 searched
item..It's probably a great reseller flipping item too.
I believe it unlikely to get an awesome deal on HP equipment.

#2 is fluke
#3 is tektronix <<No wonder I can't get an awesome price!

Ahhhh..no Lecroy on the list. :)
Shhhh ...Nobody is looking. Better deal on a Lecroy. :)

For "watched items"...here's a hot item:
Item 290186232968
It's a Sencore LC102 LC Analyzer..
It's got a ridiculous hit count of 1119!! <<<Sniper showdown!
And the bid is not over yet :P
(Well..it will be for anyone reading this old post..)

Am I attracting jackals using the search and watch features in E*bay?

Do E*bay resellers get detailed user information on "watched items"
and searches to pick in-demand items to flip for profit?

Would it help if I took a stealthy approach to E*bay and not use
keywords for searches and not use the "watch item" feature and not
load a page until the last moment?
Can I lose the jackels?.. :)
D from BC

I use the "watch" thing when I'm in the market for something. I saves
a huge amount of time.

If you really want/need it, bid high. If not, bid low and sooner or
later you may get lucky. There's a lot of variance on closing prices
for identical items. I sometimes set a watch for something and bid low
at every opportunity, for weeks or months, and eventually get a real
bargain.

I suspect that ebay has net reduced the price of used test gear, even
the biggies like HP and Tek.

My experience with ebay has been overwhelmingly good. Just buy from
sellers with a few years on record and with good feedback. These
people really don't want nfb, so will usually do what they say.

I don't think searching or registering for a "watch" exposes you to
anything bad.

John- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Ways to improve your success rate at getting great deals:

1) Look for badly titled and/or badly described items that don't get
picked up by the usual search strings. I'm not going to give you any
of my real secrets here, except for these
a) If you're looking/watching for a toroid core, for example, search
on tor*oid instead of 'toroid', because the word is often misspelled.
Similarly, use Phil*ips instead of 'Philips' for their test gear. Even
'Tektronix' and 'oscilloscope' are often misspelled. The title for my
TDS5034B auction was "DIGITAL OSCILOSCOPE"...nothing more.
b)

2) Take special care to look for auctions that end at 'bad' times such
as holidays, during major sports events, in the middle of the night.

3) Take a chance on purchasing from Hong Kong, Singapore, Canada. Many
buyers rule out purchases from such locations. Unless the item is
especially heavy, you can come out way ahead.

4) What do you care how much the seller is making? Get over it. Bid
the price you're willing to pay and don't look back.

A final word: don't be do dang suspicious. I've done over 1000 ebay
transactions and only lost out a couple of times. Normal caution about
seller ratings, too good to be true offers, etc, will usually suffice
to prevent problems. The most important thing for test gear is to get
the seller to pack it properly.

Paul Mathews
.

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