Strategies for Buying Test Equipment off Ebay

[Don Lancaster]

You can set up a bot that emails you whenever an 8444 comes up for
bid, so you don't have to keep searching yourself.

But top posters have consistantly bad luck on ebay.

John

Are you remembering that there is no such thing as an HP 8444?

Perhaps you really want an HP 8444A.


--
Many thanks,

Don Lancaster voice phone: (928)428-4073
Synergetics 3860 West First Street Box 809 Thatcher, AZ 85552
rss: http://www.tinaja.com/whtnu.xml email: [email protected]

Please visit my GURU's LAIR web site at http://www.tinaja.com

 

[Don Lancaster]

I have bought 2 items off ebay a scope and a sig gen.

The scope came and onlyworked on one channel.

The sig gen was completely dead.

Either I am unlucky or a lot of junk is sold on ebay.

What upset me most was I had to pay to send the junk back !!!!!

Use the scope to fix the signal generator.
Then use the signal generator to fix the scope, of course.


--
Many thanks,

Don Lancaster voice phone: (928)428-4073
Synergetics 3860 West First Street Box 809 Thatcher, AZ 85552
rss: http://www.tinaja.com/whtnu.xml email: [email protected]

Please visit my GURU's LAIR web site at http://www.tinaja.com

 

[RST Engineering \(jw\)]

Yes, Don, I am aware that the A needs to be there. THere never was an
unsuffixed 8444.

However, I find it interesting that ebay doesn't have a smart search
feature. If I needed a King KX170 and wasn't too concerned whether it was
an A or a B, you'd think that searching on KX170 would include the A or the
B but it just brings up the original 170 plain. Same for Cessna 170 A and B
versions. Same for ANY suffixed part.

Or am I missing something there also?

Jim

 

[D from BC]

Use the scope to fix the signal generator.
Then use the signal generator to fix the scope, of course.

I do have faith in repairing faulty test equipment.
There's only so much damage that can be done.
For example, it could only be 1% failure out of 99% functional.
It's 100% failure if you receive let's say... a pile of ashes.
Like the test equipment accidentally fell into an incinerator.

Like somebody posted..,
It can swing from stupid easy to fix.. to impossible.

You gambled on the price...just one more gamble to go and that's the
repair.

If the item is super cheap, I'd be tempted to fix it.
If the item is very expensive...I'd be more inclined to return it.
D from BC

 

[John Larkin]

Are you remembering that there is no such thing as an HP 8444?

Perhaps you really want an HP 8444A.

Don't be a fathead. Nobody likes a fathead.

John

 

[Fred Bartoli]

Le Mon, 29 Oct 2007 10:29:01 -0700, RST Engineering \(jw\) a écrit:

Yes, Don, I am aware that the A needs to be there. THere never was an
unsuffixed 8444.

However, I find it interesting that ebay doesn't have a smart search
feature. If I needed a King KX170 and wasn't too concerned whether it
was an A or a B, you'd think that searching on KX170 would include the A
or the B but it just brings up the original 170 plain. Same for Cessna
170 A and B versions. Same for ANY suffixed part.

Or am I missing something there also?

Yes. Search for KX170*, or if it gives too much hits (kx170A,kx170B) with
the parenthesis and without blanks.

RTFSH (read the f..... search help

 

[Jim Stewart]

I've read most of this thread and I must be some sort of ebaytard. I've
learned about sniping, I've learned about most of the bidding tricks, and
there must be a whole bunch of ebayheads that know a lot more than I do.

I've been trying to buy a HP 8444 for about a year now, on and off. No, I
don't have the time to make a full time job of it; that piffs off customers
who like their products delivered on time. However, I've probably made half
a dozen attempts with zero results.

Sure, I could go into one of the "surplus" test equipment shops and pay up
the gazoo for what he bought on ebay for peanuts. I may wind up doing that.

However, if anybody has a good used 8444 and wants to swap it for pictures
of old dead Presidents, I'd be happy to talk to you.

http://cgi.ebay.com/HP-MODEL-8444A-...ryZ97200QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQcmdZViewItem

$300 doesn't seem unreasonable.

 

[RST Engineering \(jw\)]

OOOh, yeah. "I'm not a tech, so I powered it up and the on light came on.
No warranty that it works; as is where is."

I've got a frikkin ROCK I'll sell you under that sort of warranty.

Try again.


Jim

 

[RST Engineering \(jw\)]

I might be a ebaytard, Bartoli, but I ain't a technotard. The * "any
character match" didn't work. Nor did the f3&k!N@ search help.

jim

 

[Tom Bruhns]

OOOh, yeah. "I'm not a tech, so I powered it up and the on light came on.
No warranty that it works; as is where is."

I've got a frikkin ROCK I'll sell you under that sort of warranty.

Try again.

Jim

Well, though I don't have an HP141T to check it out with, I did put
the appropriate signals into my HP8444A, and the right thing came out,
level controllable from the front panel. But I gotta say, you didn't
really seem very interested in it when last I mentioned it. Since I
now understand what all is inside it (a set of modules useful in their
own right), I'll probably just hang onto it to use as a signal source.

Cheers,
Tom

 

[Spehro Pefhany]

Well there's your dilemma.

You don't want to pay a broker for a tested and guarantied unit
and you don't want to gamble $300 on one that will probably
work.

I guess you're just going to have to do without....

Wait a while, keep watching, and the right one will come along.

Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany

 

[Jim Stewart]

OOOh, yeah. "I'm not a tech, so I powered it up and the on light came on.
No warranty that it works; as is where is."

I've got a frikkin ROCK I'll sell you under that sort of warranty.

Well there's your dilemma.

You don't want to pay a broker for a tested and guarantied unit
and you don't want to gamble $300 on one that will probably
work.

I guess you're just going to have to do without....

 

[Tom Del Rosso]

If so..then doing a max bid near closing should get interesting..
Gets kinda like a lottery..

Use esnipe.com. They charge 1% of your winning bids only, and they start
you with some free points, I think.

That way it's like a sealed-bid type of auction, which is perfectly honest,
and serves the buyer's interest rather than the seller's.

You bid your max, and you're not tempted to increase it.

 

[Tom Del Rosso]

One hint is to use plastic bags of plastic peanuts packed around the
item,instead of loose peanuts;with loose P-nuts,the item just
migrates to the bottom of the box and gets the full shock anytime the
box is dropped.

Most big retailers pack all their boxes with all the protection on one side.
Pisses me off when I open an expensive box and see that. Ebay sellers pack
better on average.

 

[Tom Del Rosso]

(1) I've given up on eBay auctions. If it doesn't have a "buy it now"
option, I ignore it.

(2) eBay would be much more fair, and robot-tolerant, if they extended
any auction with new bids within the last five minutes. Keep
adding five minutes until everyone's done bidding.

That would be better for sellers but I don't know why a buyer would want
that.

 

[John Hudak]

Use esnipe.com. They charge 1% of your winning bids only, and they start
you with some free points, I think.

That way it's like a sealed-bid type of auction, which is perfectly honest,
and serves the buyer's interest rather than the seller's.

You bid your max, and you're not tempted to increase it.

you may want to look at:
http://www.jbidwatcher.com/

A free sniping tool. From what I've seen, works like esnipe and no 1%
charge. You just need to keep your computer on.
-J