Strategies for Buying Test Equipment on E*bay Part 2

[D from BC]

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
(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

 

[artie]

My words of advice, worth what you've paid for them...

Know what you're looking for -- no only price, but rarity, usual flaws,
that kind of stuff. Know how much you're willing to spend.

My usual practice when I see something I'm interested in is to place a
nominal bid on it right away.

My next step is to set up a snipe for the last few seconds of the
auction at my max price. Gixen.com is my current friend for snipes,
and is free.

How much I'm willing to pay is a function of many variables, including
how often I've seen the thing of interest come up for auction, and what
I've seen them going for, as well as how much do I *really *want* this
thing?

For some things, I track prices to see what folks are getting. That
helps me recalibrate my price range, sustain my price range, or decide
that the lot of 'em are nuts and to look at something else.

Look for misidentification and misspellings -- yeah, everyone is
looking for the seller who doesn't know what they've got, and they're
letting it go for a pittance. But sometimes they do know, and they
know it's dixie fried. Examples -- Bird wattmeter slugs can be damaged
by dropping them. HP 848X power sensors have no sense of humor
whatsoever when it comes to high power levels. You undoubtedly know of
similar items you wouldn't bid on or by without some guarantee they
work.

Be patient. It took me a number of auctions and a number of months to
get one piece of gear for the price I was willing to pay.

 

[John Larkin]

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
(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

 

[Winfield]

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

eBay has dramatically raised flea market prices.

 

[Paul Mathews]

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

 

[John Larkin]

eBay has dramatically raised flea market prices.

It has mostly taken the good stuff out of the flea markets. And it has
undercut thieves like Tucker and Metric big-time.

John

 

[David L. Jones]

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.

Not really.
As a seller you can't see who the "watcher" is, and I've found the
number of people watching the items bares absolutely no correlation
with the number of bids. It's not uncommon for me to get 20 people
watching something but no bids in the end. Or no people watching and
then there is a bidding frenzy at the end.

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
(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 had no idea anyone but the seller had access to the watch data, I
guess not...
That changes the ball game a bit.

Dave.

 

[Joel Koltner]

eBay has dramatically raised flea market prices.

Yes, although buying through eBay gets you a somewhat better idea of whether
or not you can trust the seller, since most test equipment sellers on eBay
have plenty of history available to examine. Plus the availability is much
better -- flea markets are always hit or miss, of course.

Granted, the guy who was fully prepaid to repair some old boat anchor -- if
need be -- and hence was willing to take a chance on $50 flea market special
that would go for $250 if known to be working and calibrated has lost a lot of
his advantage.

In terms of performance per inflation-adjusted-dollar, test equipment is as
cheap as ever, I think.

 

[Spehro Pefhany]

Yes, although buying through eBay gets you a somewhat better idea of whether
or not you can trust the seller, since most test equipment sellers on eBay
have plenty of history available to examine. Plus the availability is much
better -- flea markets are always hit or miss, of course.

Granted, the guy who was fully prepaid to repair some old boat anchor -- if
need be -- and hence was willing to take a chance on $50 flea market special
that would go for $250 if known to be working and calibrated has lost a lot of
his advantage.

In terms of performance per inflation-adjusted-dollar, test equipment is as
cheap as ever, I think.

It's raised purchase prices for people with product and lowered them
for buyers-- and the middlemen lost out. Practically the definition of
a more efficient market.



Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany

 

[John Larkin]

Yes, although buying through eBay gets you a somewhat better idea of whether
or not you can trust the seller, since most test equipment sellers on eBay
have plenty of history available to examine. Plus the availability is much
better -- flea markets are always hit or miss, of course.

Granted, the guy who was fully prepaid to repair some old boat anchor -- if
need be -- and hence was willing to take a chance on $50 flea market special
that would go for $250 if known to be working and calibrated has lost a lot of
his advantage.

In terms of performance per inflation-adjusted-dollar, test equipment is as
cheap as ever, I think.

In, say, 1965, a Tek 545 with a CA dual-trace plugin was about $1500,
the price of a basic Chevrolet. 30 MHz, 70 pounds, maybe 500 watts.
Now a Tek TDS2012, color, storage, averaging, FFT, 100 MHz, 20 watts/5
pounds maybe, is about $1500, a tenth the price of a cheap car.

DVMs are a lot more radical than that... $40 now versus $4000 then.

I once visited a shop that had an entire wall, like 4 full racks, of
old GR gear that was, bottom line, a 40 MHz frequency counter. Crystal
sources, analog frequency meters, precision generators, Lissajous
display scopes, interpolation oscillators.

John


John

 

[Nico Coesel]

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.

Don't forget about China. I've had some excellent deals from there
recently. Checking feedback is always important.

 

[D from BC]

On Mon, 3 Dec 2007 17:38:26 -0800 (PST), Paul Mathews

[snip]

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

I'm suspicious of the "watching items" feature because E*bay makes
money from sellers and resellers.
I think it's in E*bays best interest to provide resellers with buying
tools(1). The more the resellers buy and resell, the more money E*bay
makes.
These tools can help resellers buy hot items to flip for more.
If E*bay resellers are get granted access to detailed reports of "most
watched" or "most searched" or "most viewed" then that spoils me from
getting a good price on test equipment because I'm being "tracked" on
the E*bay site.

(1) Most watched item reports, most common keywords searched reports,
hit counter reports.


D from BC

 

[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

Same here... The 'watch item' feature in E*bay is useful and I use it
myself.
However, I am wondering about the exposure.
It's not a concern for let's say 100 people watching the same item..
If I watch the item...100 to 101 won't make a difference.
Likewise, bidding on an item with say 12 bids...if I'm the 13th
bid...I don't think it'll attract more flies.


D from BC

 

[Rich Grise, Plainclothes Hippie]

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..

I think you need to stay off ebay while you're stoned. ;-)

Cheers!
Rich

 

[D from BC]

I think you need to stay off ebay while you're stoned. ;-)

Cheers!
Rich

lol Maybe a few smd transistors accidently feel into my morning
cereal...

Yeah...I'm showing a bit of E*bay paranoia but if E*bay wanted to make
more money, they could sell information such as most "watched items",
popular search keywords and page hit lists to resellers.
This results in more sales to make E*bay even more money..

If resellers have that information, buyers lead them to a hot item,
then the resellers snipe.
This way, resellers don't look for hot items...resellers look for
people looking for hot items. A reseller can then let the people do
the searching, sit back, snipe it and then resell it higher
Who cares what it is...as long as everybody wants it.

But...all speculation..


D from BC

 

[Robert Adsett]

lol Maybe a few smd transistors accidently feel into my morning
cereal...

Yeah...I'm showing a bit of E*bay paranoia but if E*bay wanted to make
more money, they could sell information such as most "watched items",
popular search keywords and page hit lists to resellers.
This results in more sales to make E*bay even more money..

If resellers have that information, buyers lead them to a hot item,
then the resellers snipe.

Surely that would ensure they paid more than the group of willing buyers
was willing to pay?

They would have to add some sort of value before even making their money
back. You may be over thinking things.

Robert

 

[D from BC]

Surely that would ensure they paid more than the group of willing buyers
was willing to pay?

They would have to add some sort of value before even making their money
back. You may be over thinking things.

Robert

Yup..A reseller (tipped off by E*bay that it's a hot item) would have
to bid as high as possible to beat a group of bidders for a hot item.
Once a reseller owns the hot item, it's very probable that they can
resell it for a profit. It's a 'hot' item... Everybody wants it and
even fools will pay extra for it.
It's a gambling game.


D from BC

 

[Ecnerwal]

Yup..A reseller (tipped off by E*bay that it's a hot item) would have
to bid as high as possible to beat a group of bidders for a hot item.
Once a reseller owns the hot item, it's very probable that they can
resell it for a profit. It's a 'hot' item... Everybody wants it and
even fools will pay extra for it.
It's a gambling game.

You're really going off the deep end here. Have a chat with your mental
health professional about paranoia. Hot items also have the effect of
turning out closet-searchers, estate sale and real auction trollers, etc
- bringing a greater supply. While any person with adequately deep
pockets can drive up the price of any given item by simply bidding high
on all of them, that action spread over a wide range or number of items
will soon exhaust funds.

At this point in your carp I've gotten my test equipment needs pretty
adequately fulfilled even as you carped along, with a two pronged
strategy of bidding the opening bid on some items that sat unbid-upon,
and sometimes nobody else bids - done - and occasionally placing a bid
in the the last 30 seconds - sometimes winning, sometimes losing to
someone with a higher valuation than I placed on the object, and just
waiting for the next one. There's virtually always a next one - and if
there isn't a next one, then the object has value, independent of any
mythical reseller. Some items that were "hot" in a given week were
facing a glutted market the next week. But perhaps you're under the
delusion that if a scope that's selling every day for $350 has a
starting bid of 99 cents, you ought to be able to pick it up for $5. If
that's the case, you'll never be happy and should close your *B*y
account. The 99 cent opener keeps the lister's fees down, and they fully
expect to see it go for $325 to $375.

....as for HP stuff being most watched - HP stuff is also the most common
stuff in test equipment, particularly test equipment of a certain age
(the affordable yet still useful one). But stick to LeCroy if you like -
they made some nice stuff, as I recall, but I doubt it's anywhere near
as easy to find parts and manuals for and maintain as most HP stuff.

Philips will also find you some stuff, and Phillips will find you the
same stuff from ignorant or sloppy sellers. I'm pretty happy with my
non-*B*y Philips analog scope. I went a few days under the impression
that I might pick up a severely mis-described one for a song, but other
people also noticed it, and the price went out of my range - so it goes.
I don't suspect some cabal of scope dealers...and I didn't really need
it. If I had needed it, it would have been worth more, to me.

You should perhaps dig out some useless pice of crap and sell it on *B*y
to clear up your delusions about seller info (oh, but it would only be
for special sellers, not you...spare me).

 

[D from BC]

You're really going off the deep end here. Have a chat with your mental
health professional about paranoia. Hot items also have the effect of
turning out closet-searchers, estate sale and real auction trollers, etc
- bringing a greater supply. While any person with adequately deep
pockets can drive up the price of any given item by simply bidding high
on all of them, that action spread over a wide range or number of items
will soon exhaust funds.

Ohhh ...a little paranoia can't hurt..This is probably my only
quasipseudoconspiracy post.
The E*bay situation I'm imagining is like insider trading in the stock
market.

At this point in your carp I've gotten my test equipment needs pretty
adequately fulfilled even as you carped along, with a two pronged
strategy of bidding the opening bid on some items that sat unbid-upon,
and sometimes nobody else bids - done - and occasionally placing a bid
in the the last 30 seconds - sometimes winning, sometimes losing to
someone with a higher valuation than I placed on the object, and just
waiting for the next one. There's virtually always a next one - and if
there isn't a next one, then the object has value, independent of any
mythical reseller. Some items that were "hot" in a given week were
facing a glutted market the next week. But perhaps you're under the
delusion that if a scope that's selling every day for $350 has a
starting bid of 99 cents, you ought to be able to pick it up for $5. If
that's the case, you'll never be happy and should close your *B*y
account. The 99 cent opener keeps the lister's fees down, and they fully
expect to see it go for $325 to $375.

Soooo. that's why I see ridiculously low starting bids.
I've wondered about that.
I guessed it was to attract attention..
If only I could get that brand new 2007 Tektronix scope for $10.00.

...as for HP stuff being most watched - HP stuff is also the most common
stuff in test equipment, particularly test equipment of a certain age
(the affordable yet still useful one). But stick to LeCroy if you like -
they made some nice stuff, as I recall, but I doubt it's anywhere near
as easy to find parts and manuals for and maintain as most HP stuff.

I didn't know many people that actually use test equipment look for HP
equipment.

Philips will also find you some stuff, and Phillips will find you the
same stuff from ignorant or sloppy sellers. I'm pretty happy with my
non-*B*y Philips analog scope. I went a few days under the impression
that I might pick up a severely mis-described one for a song, but other
people also noticed it, and the price went out of my range - so it goes.
I don't suspect some cabal of scope dealers...and I didn't really need
it. If I had needed it, it would have been worth more, to me.

You should perhaps dig out some useless pice of crap and sell it on *B*y
to clear up your delusions about seller info (oh, but it would only be
for special sellers, not you...spare me).

Ok...


D from BC

 

[[email protected]]

Surely that would ensure they paid more than the group of willing buyers
was willing to pay?

They would have to add some sort of value before even making their money
back. You may be over thinking things.

Robert

The resellers add value by telling tall tales about the item. For
instance, saying it was pulled from a working lab, where in reality it
was bought from ebay. If you are one person, pretend you are a real
company, i.e. refer to yourself in the plural. Also, buy under one
name and sell under another name.