I'm so tired of eBay

[z31fanatic]

I'm not sure if people are dumb enough to actually shell out money for such things

Yes there are a lot of dumb and uniformed buyers on ebay.
I see 13" classic MBPs from 2010 sell for 400-500 consistently. Or Macbook Air from 2008 or 2009 for $400.

Personally I don't have a problem with eBay. There are many good deals on computer parts and auto parts that I buy frequently.
Sometimes I have gotten lucky on Macs too. Last week bought an early 2014 Air with the i7/8/256 configuration for $750 and flipped it on CL for $900 in just two days.

I'm always looking for deals on Macs to flip them on CL. Hipsters in this area are always willing to pay a bit more.

 

[poiihy]

Yes there are a lot of dumb and uniformed buyers on ebay.
I see 13" classic MBPs from 2010 sell for 400-500 consistently. Or Macbook Air from 2008 or 2009 for $400.

I thought that's actually their value?

 

[redheeler]

Yes there are a lot of dumb and uniformed buyers on ebay.
I see 13" classic MBPs from 2010 sell for 400-500 consistently. Or Macbook Air from 2008 or 2009 for $400.

It depends on the specs, condition, etc. A mid 2009 MacBook Air 2.13 in good fully working condition is worth around $400, although I did not pay that much for my late 2008 1.6 which was advertised with a failing hard drive (it turned out to work ok, but I'm replacing it with an SSD anyway).

 

[tevion5]

I do not feel your pain. After my bargain Lombard, I bought this the other day. RAM is almost maxed out and the screen is bright and evenly lit. Long live FleaBay.

I got different G3 for the same! Perfect condition, RAM maxed out.

 

[tevion5]

I have to admit, "local pickup only" deals are the best - that's where I've had the best buys too.

Such deals are generally unreachable for those of us who live on an Atlantic island...

----------

Instead of complaining, all of you living in the USA should be happy you have a thriving market of old computers and parts at decent prices.

I live in Europe where everything is more expensive than in the US. Not only that, but in MY part of Europe the second-hand PPC Mac market is almost non-existent. The few PowerPC Macs I can find on our classifieds sites are often in a poor condition.

I do find more stuff on eBay Germany or UK but most of the sellers there don't ship outside their country. Last PPC Mac I got two months ago from Germany was a PowerMac G4 MDD 2x1.25 GHz manufactured in 2004. It was 110 Euros plus 31 Euros shipping. I don't know if that's expensive or not but the computer was (is) in a really great condition, almost like new, so I am happy with it.

eBay USA is great but now we have to pay outrageous shipping and customs fees because of their Global Shipping Program.

Damn straight! Most of the time it's CHEAPER to pay the extra tax and shipping on a US item then it is to collect it in person in my own country...

But that might change soon. The Dollar is on the rise, meanwhile the Euro remains stagnant, waiting to be overtaken. I've noticed this severely in the last year. My internal currency converter is devastated. I now see a GPU for $70 and think, "Ohh that'll be only €43~ or something! "...

...and then click it to find it's like €66!

 

[ChrisA]

I use eBay to buy electronic parts from China. So far the sellers have really good prices and when things go wrong (packages smashed in the post office, wrong count of parts inside,...) they very quickly make it right.

I also use eBay to sell. It brings decent prices and does not require much effort on my part.

I think eBay is either good or bad depending if you are buying or selling and on the specific types of items

 

[weckart]

Here's some of the the "Best Match" search results on eBay for Power Mac G4

Here are some stellar deals:

Model/Processer/RAM/HD - BIN Price + shipping
AGP/450SP/256/10 - $129 + 36
...
iMac G4/1Ghz/256/??? - $399 + Free

And that's just on the first page!

I'll give you all those and raise you this:

http://www.ebay.de/itm/DOS-PC-Kompl...Ram-Radeon-9250-ISA-Slots-36387-/111669038530

at a bargaintastic €3000.00. The seller cannot plead ignorance.

 

[Dronecatcher]

Such deals are generally unreachable for those of us who live on an Atlantic island...

The key word is "local" for me that means within 30 miles.

 

[bse5150]

Realistically, I will probably use continue using eBay to buy parts and such. Of course, not every listing is a joke. I'm just tired of sifting through the BS.

I rarely ever use eBay for this exact reason: I hate sifting through all of the garbage that results from my searches.

I've only ever bought one item from eBay and that, in my opinion, was one item too much. I don't like eBay at all.

 

[Gamer9430]

As bad as eBay is, I think Amazon is worse unless you are getting it directly from the company who is making what you're buying. It's very rare for listing to have non-stock photos, there are no user reviews, and I don't think they have buyer protection. Amazon has great sales though, but I won't use Amazon unless it's for Prime Instant Video, I'm getting something direct from the company, or if it's for my Kindle.

 

[MisterKeeks]

As bad as eBay is, I think Amazon is worse unless you are getting it directly from the company who is making what you're buying. It's very rare for listing to have non-stock photos, there are no user reviews, and I don't think they have buyer protection. Amazon has great sales though, but I won't use Amazon unless it's for Prime Instant Video, I'm getting something direct from the company, or if it's for my Kindle.

Amazon and eBay's buyer protection is roughly the same, as in the buyer has much more power than the seller. I would feel safe buying from either. Also amazon does have seller reviews.

 

[poiihy]

As bad as eBay is, I think Amazon is worse unless you are getting it directly from the company who is making what you're buying. It's very rare for listing to have non-stock photos, there are no user reviews, and I don't think they have buyer protection. Amazon has great sales though, but I won't use Amazon unless it's for Prime Instant Video, I'm getting something direct from the company, or if it's for my Kindle.

I've heard that working for Amazon is the most stressful and strict job, and it is the job with the conditions closest to slavery or something like that.

 

[bunnspecial]

I've heard that working for Amazon is the most stressful and strict job, and it is the job with the conditions closest to slavery or something like that.

We have a family friend who worked at the Amazon warehouse in Lexington, KY for about two weeks around Christmas a few years ago.

From his description "close to slavery" is not exactly a fair assessment. They are strict-they expect timeliness and don't allow things like cell phones on the warehouse floor. He was let go for tardiness(you have to admit that three tardies in two weeks is a bit much) as well as for working too slowly. He said it himself that if he'd been in charge, he'd have fired himself.

Yes, their expectations are high, but not atypical for any other warehouse/shipping job. The thing is when you're doing the volume of business they do and have people lining up for jobs, you can't afford to have a worker who doesn't show up on time or who is slow on the floor.

 

[Gamer9430]

Amazon and eBay's buyer protection is roughly the same, as in the buyer has much more power than the seller. I would feel safe buying from either. Also amazon does have seller reviews.

That just goes to show how long it's been since I last used Amazon, because when I did, I don't recall either of those, or at least no seller reviews.

 

[eyoungren]

As bad as eBay is, I think Amazon is worse unless you are getting it directly from the company who is making what you're buying. It's very rare for listing to have non-stock photos, there are no user reviews, and I don't think they have buyer protection. Amazon has great sales though, but I won't use Amazon unless it's for Prime Instant Video, I'm getting something direct from the company, or if it's for my Kindle.

I have to disagree.

Amazon has been pretty good for us (my wife and I). We use it rarely, but I've never had a bad experience.

The ONE Mac branded video card that I have in my Mac (9800 Pro) that WORKS in my Quicksilver came from Amazon. A flashed 9800 Pro that I was gifted and two FireGL X3s bought off eBay do not.

That said, I would not buy from that seller on Amazon again. It took him a week to actually ship my card.

 

[tampasteve]

Ebay has become pretty terrible, from a seller's view too. I have stopped selling on ebay, for the most part. The buyer is ALWAYS in the right, even if you have ebay messages to show otherwise. 75% of buyers don't pay for their win and the only recourse you have it to re-list the item. I have had multiple people win an auction and either never reply to why they are not paying or reply "I don't want it any more". Returns are rampant, I just processed a refund because "my husband bought one too so I don't need yours".

 

[eyoungren]

We have a family friend who worked at the Amazon warehouse in Lexington, KY for about two weeks around Christmas a few years ago.

From his description "close to slavery" is not exactly a fair assessment. They are strict-they expect timeliness and don't allow things like cell phones on the warehouse floor. He was let go for tardiness(you have to admit that three tardies in two weeks is a bit much) as well as for working too slowly. He said it himself that if he'd been in charge, he'd have fired himself.

Yes, their expectations are high, but not atypical for any other warehouse/shipping job. The thing is when you're doing the volume of business they do and have people lining up for jobs, you can't afford to have a worker who doesn't show up on time or who is slow on the floor.

I've always seen their operation (this is from a complete outsider) as similar to that of UPS, or at least the UPS I worked for from 1992 to 1999.

Tardiness was not tolerated at UPS either (although you could work the system if you were there long enough to realize there was one), especially if you were a new worker in your probationary period.

Surviving the probationary period was the thing though. You got treated badly by management until you passed. Once you passed though you had the union behind you and that's usually when it started dawning on you just how badly you'd been treated.

I worked in the Ontario, Calif. hub for seven years as a bulk driver, delivering large, boxy or irregular items (car parts, 5 gallon buckets full of paint or nuts and bolts, coolers, wood boxes, poles, just about anything not in a box) to our load side. We used electric carts with six long steel trains full of this heavy stuff.

We had one guy one Christmas who tried to take a full bulk train out by dragging it because he had no cart but didn't want management to think he wasn't working.

 

[gooser]

the last 10 macs i've bought have come from e-bay and i've been real lucky. all have worked and i've still got 7 of them. lately i've been buying a bunch of used dvd's off e-bay.

 

[Gamer9430]

the last 10 macs i've bought have come from e-bay and i've been real lucky. all have worked and i've still got 7 of them. lately i've been buying a bunch of used dvd's off e-bay.

Did you resell them on eBay? If so, how hard is it to do?

 

[gooser]

Did you resell them on eBay? If so, how hard is it to do?

yes i did and i had no problem doing it. now this was a few years ago when i was selling off some of my stuff because i needed the money. in fact some of these dvd's i'm buying now are replacements for some i used to own. i suppose we all have up and down points in our lives.

 

[happyfrappy]

Used technology is a mixed bag once items hit vintage status, eBay sparked the sharp change of why suffer nosebleed yard sale efforts(Portlandia) of people who endlessly low-ball everything to a few cents and flip it onto eBay for a profit or use the items for a throw-back dotcom era cafe. There are reasonable sellers on eBay and some shady sellers, your mileage varies wildly and some sellers pull shill bid items from friends to boost their "star/status" rating too. (a local guy at a nearby pub was famous for paying customers $3 to buy his fleabay $1 items to pump his rating)

Personally I've gotten nice deals via "Buy It Now", auction side too many times sellers don't know/want to pack anything well so it gets banged up in USPS 3 week flat-rate shipping hell. In my experience "BIN" sellers usually know how to pack items, auction sellers are busy taking advantage of charging higher shipping or bulk shipping discount with postage scale & print services.

Yes there are a lot of dumb and uniformed buyers on ebay.
I see 13" classic MBPs from 2010 sell for 400-500 consistently. Or Macbook Air from 2008 or 2009 for $400.

I thought that's actually their value?

Best Buy's "CowBoom" actually sells 13" MBP/Air(2010) for $375(varying degrees of dents/scratches) to $400-500 with minimal/light wear... unibody plastic 2010 MacBook seems to sit at $350-385. 2011 13" MBPs are easily bought for $400-450 but the downside is SandyBridge IGP blows if you're using anything that benefits from CUDA acceleration--which is why 2010 Core 2 Duo based MB/MBP/Air/mini still retain a crazy premium in comparison(Mavericks/Yosemite support is just gravy on top). Plenty of eBay sellers enjoy the 2010 demand factor.

...eBay has been a hoot for mid-2012 cMBPs, as the market of like-new 15" have dried up like Apple's refurb store they've been increasing in value to $1400-1500--price wise if the seller pre-installs an optical bay HDD it would be reasonable but very few listings were modded. Final iPod Classic has leveled off at a still extreme fleabay price

 

[Brian Y]

Instead of complaining, all of you living in the USA should be happy you have a thriving market of old computers and parts at decent prices.

I live in Europe where everything is more expensive than in the US. Not only that, but in MY part of Europe the second-hand PPC Mac market is almost non-existent. The few PowerPC Macs I can find on our classifieds sites are often in a poor condition.

I do find more stuff on eBay Germany or UK but most of the sellers there don't ship outside their country. Last PPC Mac I got two months ago from Germany was a PowerMac G4 MDD 2x1.25 GHz manufactured in 2004. It was 110 Euros plus 31 Euros shipping. I don't know if that's expensive or not but the computer was (is) in a really great condition, almost like new, so I am happy with it.

eBay USA is great but now we have to pay outrageous shipping and customs fees because of their Global Shipping Program.

In the UK you will always struggle. People here have had it hammered into them that when it comes to eBay, Eastern Europe = scams. It sucks for the genuine people like yourself, but there's just so many scammers in that area of the world people refuse to ship there.

I don't know if the USA has the same impression, though.

 

[brdeveloper]

I'm so tired of using eBay...
- Not because the last 3 items I have purchased have taken routes all over the US thanks to shipment through USPS

I hate USPS for clearing tracking logs soon after something goes wrong. They simply replace the tracking history with something meaningless like "your item was disposed due to its perishable nature". Come on, how can a computer part be considered perishable?

And, yes, Ebay is too overpriced these days. As I live in Brazil, it's way cheaper buying stuff from China (aliexpress).

 

[eyoungren]

I hate USPS for clearing tracking logs soon after something goes wrong. They simply replace the tracking history with something meaningless like "your item was disposed due to its perishable nature". Come on, how can a computer part be considered perishable?

And, yes, Ebay is too overpriced these days. As I live in Brazil, it's way cheaper buying stuff from China (aliexpress).

I have to agree with this.

I was tracking an item a few weeks ago and USPS said delivery on day X. It soon became apparent that USPS was not EVER going to meet that delivery day and so it showed up in their system as 'Delayed'. A couple of hours later, the delivery date had been reset to day Y and the status set to 'On Time'.

 

[A.Goldberg]

I have to agree with this.

I was tracking an item a few weeks ago and USPS said delivery on day X. It soon became apparent that USPS was not EVER going to meet that delivery day and so it showed up in their system as 'Delayed'. A couple of hours later, the delivery date had been reset to day Y and the status set to 'On Time'.

Anyone remember my PowerBook that went from California to Hawaii to Boston. It only took 11 days if I remember correctly. 2-3 day shipping my @**, USPS. Do I get a refund for that?