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Post by Mfitz804 on Jan 9, 2020 21:57:01 GMT -5
We bought our house 15 years ago and bought a set of matching hardware for our bathroom. Towel ring, garbage can, toilet paper holder, mirror & shower curtain rings.
The shower curtain rings lasted a long time because the bathroom was used primarily for my daughter as a baby, so baths instead of showers. But the got crusty as they do, so it was time to replace them.
So I went on eBay out of curiosity to see if I could find them. And there they were, brand new in the box, at a price cheaper than what we originally paid.
At least the 4th or 5th time I have used eBay as much source to replace something that was out of production and otherwise unavailable.
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Post by budg on Jan 9, 2020 22:04:34 GMT -5
We have an antique oil lamp with a reflector that hangs on the wall. During renovation someone lost the bracket that mounts to the wall. Checked eBay and sure enough , found what I needed.
Also replaced my technics 5 disc CD player from the 90s with one that was almost identical for 35 bucks.
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Post by De ville on Jan 9, 2020 22:08:00 GMT -5
Yes, eBay is great for that with out a doubt. That's why I have spent way too much money collecting toy trucks from my youth.
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Post by Ragtop on Jan 10, 2020 7:37:27 GMT -5
I needed a new belt for my Pioneer turntable. Thought I'd have a tough time finding one.
Jumped on eBay, and found 20 of them. Cheap enough, too.
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Post by Seldom Seen on Jan 10, 2020 8:59:49 GMT -5
Ebay is still the first place I look for what I'm looking for; even gear related stuff.
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Post by Peegoo 🏁 on Jan 10, 2020 9:26:10 GMT -5
I agree! A while back the handpiece (removable spray head) on the Moen kitchen sink faucet developed a crack, and it was unrepairable. The model was no longer made, and there were no replacement handpieces that would fit or even match the color and finish. I was looking at spending $100+ on a whole new faucet and 30 minutes of my life twisted up in the under-sink cabinet. Then I looked on fleabay, and BINGO I found the identical Moen handpiece in the same finish and color, new in box, for less than $20 shipped. A week later I took less than a minute to swap the old one for the new one. That makes me a happy person!  |
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Post by LM on Jan 10, 2020 9:49:40 GMT -5
Like some have said, I use eBay for stuff I can't find anywhere else. I also peruse it occasionally for lefty guitars. I do find the pricing on used stuff to be kinda high.
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Post by hushnel on Jan 10, 2020 10:15:48 GMT -5
I’m always looking for old stuff. A few years back I was picking up old lighting from the 1800s and came across this piece being offered as an oil lamp. I paid around $15.00 with shipping as the highest bidder. It’s not an oil lamp, it’s an alcohol lamp similar to what Paul Revere may have used in his finer silver smithing. I could be wrong but there are few other things it could be, it could have been used in a chemistry lab too. But not recently “o)  |
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Ryder
Wholenote
Butterscotch Blues
Posts: 859
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Post by Ryder on Jan 10, 2020 10:34:28 GMT -5
I used to have a real old Rockwell drill press I had inherited. It did not come with a cover for the pulleys on top.
i checked ebay and sure enough. I contacted the seller, sent him pictures. He promised it would fit, and said he would pay the shipping back if it didn’t. It fit like it was made for this drillpress. It probably was!
And I was certainly happy.
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Post by dadzmad on Jan 10, 2020 16:43:58 GMT -5
I buy on ebay, almost always from merchants or dealers in china and have had very few problems over the years. What I like about Ebay is that the shipping cost is listed up front (unlike Amazon) and I can use Paypal. Surprisingly I've had good luck with music stuff from pawn shops - good descriptions and photos - not giving anything away but items were priced to sell. I have gotten some great deals on "open box" or "shop worn display" items.
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Post by jonnyblooz on Jan 10, 2020 17:14:16 GMT -5
Being left handed, I had to rely heavily on Ebay for guitars for years.
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Post by Mfitz804 on Jan 10, 2020 18:04:27 GMT -5
I buy on ebay, almost always from merchants or dealers in china and have had very few problems over the years. What I like about Ebay is that the shipping cost is listed up front (unlike Amazon) and I can use Paypal. Surprisingly I've had good luck with music stuff from pawn shops - good descriptions and photos - not giving anything away but items were priced to sell. I have gotten some great deals on "open box" or "shop worn display" items. I don’t understand what you mean about Amazon. And whenever I buy something, it tells me exactly what the shipping cost is. It’s usually right there on the first page, unless it’s a third-party seller in which case it’s on the second page |
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Post by Peegoo 🏁 on Jan 10, 2020 19:40:58 GMT -5
I’m always looking for old stuff. A few years back I was picking up old lighting from the 1800s and came across this piece being offered as an oil lamp. I paid around $15.00 with shipping as the highest bidder. It’s not an oil lamp, it’s an alcohol lamp similar to what Paul Revere may have used in his finer silver smithing. I could be wrong but there are few other things it could be, it could have been used in a chemistry lab too. But not recently “o) hushnel, that's a copper alcohol *blow torch*. A leather or rubber tube with a mouthpiece, similar to that on a hookah, was connected to the bottom of that S-shaped copper pipe and placed in the mouth to blow heat from the alcohol flame onto the work. It was used by artisans for jewelry, etc. That's where the name "blow torch" came from: you blow into a tube to make it work. PS: don't inhale  |
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Post by LTB on Jan 10, 2020 19:59:32 GMT -5
I buy on ebay, almost always from merchants or dealers in china and have had very few problems over the years. What I like about Ebay is that the shipping cost is listed up front (unlike Amazon) and I can use Paypal. Surprisingly I've had good luck with music stuff from pawn shops - good descriptions and photos - not giving anything away but items were priced to sell. I have gotten some great deals on "open box" or "shop worn display" items. I have had very few problems. Only once I ordered a “sony microphone” for internal acoustic guitar amp normally $25. Very cheap $3.00 from China but when I tried it it was dead. Contacted them through Ebay email. They said they sent another but they did not (at least I never received it). I learned a lesson “If too good to be true it probably is” |
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Post by hushnel on Jan 10, 2020 20:24:35 GMT -5
Yep, I knew that as soon as I saw it, we used a similar one in High-school Chemistry, thus the reference to Paul Revere the silver smith “o) It’s actually pretty amazing how much heat you can get from alcohol and airflow. The guy selling it had no clue. I shouldn't have called it a lamp though.
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Post by Mfitz804 on Jan 10, 2020 20:26:05 GMT -5
Yep, I knew that as soon as I saw it, we used a similar one in High-school Chemistry, I shouldn't have called it a lamp though, thus the reference to Paul Revere the silver smith “o) It’s actually pretty amazing how much heat you can get from alcohol and airflow. The guy selling it had no clue. This reminds me of that FDP thread where people would post weird old items they had obtained and everyone would guess what it was. |
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Post by Peegoo 🏁 on Jan 10, 2020 20:42:10 GMT -5
Don't get us started!!!
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Post by Mfitz804 on Jan 10, 2020 20:43:23 GMT -5
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Post by davey28 on Jan 10, 2020 21:35:46 GMT -5
in 1980, I bought a GE radio/alarm clock. It died yesterday. Found a used one on ebay this morning and it will be here Tuesday. Same model, long discontinued but in excellent shape. Kinda cool.
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Post by archiestone on Jan 10, 2020 21:41:49 GMT -5
I often look up & research a new item on amazon, then find & buy it cheaper on ebay.
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Post by Lefty Rev on Jan 11, 2020 0:11:26 GMT -5
Being left handed, I had to rely heavily on Ebay for guitars for years. Same here. Nowadays, it's Reverb, but before Reverb, e-bay was the place. I found my favorite lefty electric (that isn't a Warmoth that I built) in Japan - an all original 1982 lefty Yamaha SA1000 (335 copy) in excellent condition - this guitar is a Gibby 335 killer; it's amazing. And it was only around $1,000 shipped to my door from Japan. Best value ever.    |
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Dave
Halfnote
Posts: 56
Formerly Known As: Belgarath
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Post by Dave on Jan 12, 2020 23:23:19 GMT -5
I have a 20 year old Murray lawn tractor that still works well thanks to all sorts of parts sourced from ebay. I've bought all kinds of parts on ebay to fix everything from small engines, cars and trucks, guitars, guns, plumbing, bath fans, and a ton of other stuff I can't think of at the moment.
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Post by guildx700 on Jan 12, 2020 23:29:31 GMT -5
I've been buying and selling on E Bay for 21 years.
I have 100% 646 positive feedbacks, that being said I've not sold anything in about 4 years.
These days I hear rumors/horror stories abut sellers now getting treated poorly. Truth?
I have a large number of things I'd like to sell in the next 2 years, but the return/horror stories now have me wondering.
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Post by modbus on Jan 13, 2020 21:50:22 GMT -5
"I have a 20 year old Murray lawn tractor that still works well thanks to all sorts of parts sourced from ebay."
My son and I do some small engine repair because he likes doing it and it's something we can do together. Ebay is great for finding weird parts for old motors.
I always think how hard it would have been to fix something in my Dad's day with no access to the internet. I imagine he had to just take whatever part it was to the local shop and hoped they ordered him the right thing.
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gbfun
Wholenote
I eat cookies to provide you with the best possible experience.
Posts: 464
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Post by gbfun on Jan 14, 2020 20:27:10 GMT -5
Well, for the first 8 years I bought all sorts of new and used stuff on ebay with an insignificant problem percentage(<2%). The last 4 years this has risen to around 20%. Ebay has been standing by me as a buyer...so far...but it's getting dicey and they may not this time. This time I took a month before I complained and that might be the problem. However, after I discovered more and more bugs and a major flaw, I looked inside and found the circuit board was stamped 2016 on this "new" device ! The seller checked with their supplier who admitted that the 2016 stamped circuit board was a pre-consumer research and development board. As a buyer I expect "new" devices to have fairly recent dates on them, but I suppose if it all worked well, I wouldn't care that much. In this case, the device was a mess. I feel defrauded as I paid for a new device. Normally ebay would back me but they said I'm not covered. For a fraud like this ?
I did get a device from China that worked, and then I got a device that had a non-US plug AND it was damaged. It took a lot of time and writing but I finally got my money back for that. This thing is, one would think sellers that make a mistake and send the wrong version, or a clearly bad device with an old non-production circuit board and a bunch of bugs would instantly make amends. But they don't.
So sadly, I'm finding too many sellers playing fast and loose nowadays. If ebay doesn't back me on this fraud/counterfeit or whatever it is, I'm going to pull back my ebay purchases. Also, I'm tired of people playing games with high prices and trying to corner the market on gear, and the sky high shipping costs. Also, my state now taxes all internet purchases so I'm out another 10%. But it is what it is. But there sure are a lot of people dumping crap on it. I've gotten amps with half the options not working, devices with battery corrosion on the chips so bad only half of it works, and a dozen other tricky scams here and there that wasn't revealed. But there are the occasional bargains to make up for it, and ebay usually backs the buyers on a bad deal if pushed.
But ebay is NOT very user friendly to navigate/contact, and their seller fees are turning away some sellers. Ebay could stand to have some new and better management I think. Maybe Mfitz will buy ebay and rearrange it a bit, call it MoeBay. I'd want to be in charge of the internet screen design. The first thing I'd do is prepare the deck to fire most of the programming and design staff unless they could convince me they weren't totally clueless about what "user-friendly" coding and design really means. But that's my own pet peeve about ebay. Other than that, I guess ebay is ok. But reverb and aliexpress are coming after ebay, and maybe others. Still, if shipping costs stay high and keep rising, the golden days of ebay may be over.
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