buying tools on Ebay

It's very common as many dealers sell on eBay. There are some crooks, so do
your reference checking before you get carried away and are sorry.

George

"TB" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> I, for the first time, was bidding on ebay last week on a Senco
> SNS45XP stapler (brand new/never been out of the box). I ended up
> losing the stapler to someone else. This week I found the exact same
> add (same stapler/same seller etc.....). Is this common? Should I be
> worried? Do you think I would receive what I am paying for? Should I
> just buy it in the store?
>
> thanks

"Lee Gordon" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> <<As I responded to Owen, after checking my records, I actually cleared
> $43/router. Is that close enough to $50 to be a valid use of my time in
> your view?>>
>
> It was until you had to invest more time doing the research to supply a
P&L
> statement to the newsgroup. <g>
>
> Lee
>
>
> --
> To e-mail, replace "bucketofspam" with "dleegordon"

LOL. I feel like a presidential candidate. Should I release my tax returns
for last year?

todd

"White Buffalo Wood" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Fly-by-Night CC <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:<onlnlowe-> <this is gonna sound harsh but it's really not intended
that way>
> >
> > I'm curious if you think you really came out ahead after the time spent
> > putting up the auction(s), dealing with collecting the payments and then
> > shipping them all out? Was $10 apiece really worth it?
>
> If I got a FREE router and $50 in my pocket after all 5 auctions fees
> and shipping were paid --
> I,personally,would be happy and think you did pretty good.

I kind of threw out the $50 from memory. I wasn't that concerned about the
accuracy since it wasn't my main point. Since everyone was so concerned, I
went back to check. I actually ended up clearing $214, which paid for a
router and put $108 in my pocket. Who'd have known I'd have to justify
getting a free router in exchange for a few hours of work.

todd

Todd Fatheree wrote:
> Well, looking at their history and the history of some of the people who
> left feedback, all I can say is that _I_ would be comfortable bidding. In
> and of itself, I don't think it's uncommon to find a seller selling the
> exact same model several times. In fact, I did something similar a while
> back. Home Depot was closing out the Porter-Cable 8529 router for $100
> (reg. $229). I bought six of them, sold five on ebay, kept one and still
> came out ahead 50 bucks or so.


You tied up $500 to make $50? Shipping charges, possible customer complaints,
etc don't seem to make that a very profitable deal for you. I can see buying
one for yourself as you did, but I think I'd need to clear about $50 per router
to go through all that trouble.




--
Mortimer Schnerd, RN

[email protected]
http://www.mortimerschnerd.com

"Fly-by-Night CC" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> In article <[email protected]>,
> "Todd Fatheree" <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > In fact, I did something similar a while
> > back. Home Depot was closing out the Porter-Cable 8529 router for $100
> > (reg. $229). I bought six of them, sold five on ebay, kept one and
still
> > came out ahead 50 bucks or so. Frankly, I wouldn't consider it improper
to
> > ask the seller how he acquired the merchandise in the first place.
>
> <this is gonna sound harsh but it's really not intended that way>
>
> I'm curious if you think you really came out ahead after the time spent
> putting up the auction(s), dealing with collecting the payments and then
> shipping them all out? Was $10 apiece really worth it?

Don't forget he also covered the cost of the router he kept for himself. so
he made about $150 profit.


--
© Jon Down ®
http://www.stores.ebay.com/jdpowertoolcanada

> I, for the first time, was bidding on ebay last week on a Senco
> SNS45XP stapler (brand new/never been out of the box). I ended up
> losing the stapler to someone else. This week I found the exact same
> add (same stapler/same seller etc.....). Is this common? Should I be
> worried? Do you think I would receive what I am paying for? Should I
> just buy it in the store?

It sounds normal, they probably sell many of the same item. Always click
"View seller's other items" to confirm, and click Seller information:
"name" (number) either one, to see if they're a trustworthy seller, upper
right of the auction page. Good luck to ya!

Alex

"Fly-by-Night CC" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> In article <[email protected]>,
> "Todd Fatheree" <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > In fact, I did something similar a while
> > back. Home Depot was closing out the Porter-Cable 8529 router for $100
> > (reg. $229). I bought six of them, sold five on ebay, kept one and
still
> > came out ahead 50 bucks or so. Frankly, I wouldn't consider it improper
to
> > ask the seller how he acquired the merchandise in the first place.
>
> <this is gonna sound harsh but it's really not intended that way>
>
> I'm curious if you think you really came out ahead after the time spent
> putting up the auction(s), dealing with collecting the payments and then
> shipping them all out? Was $10 apiece really worth it?
>
> --
> Owen Lowe and his Fly-by-Night Copper Company
> Offering a shim for the Porter-Cable 557 type 2 fence design.
> <http://www.flybynightcoppercompany.com>
> <http://www.easystreet.com/~onlnlowe/index.html>

I was going by memory what I got for the routers. Since everyone is so
concerned, I opened my database that I keep auction results in. On the five
routers, I ended up clearing $214.42. That covered my cost for one router
and put $108 in my pocket. Was it worth it? It was to me.

todd

"Fly-by-Night CC" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> In article <[email protected]>,
> "Todd Fatheree" <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > In fact, I did something similar a while
> > back. Home Depot was closing out the Porter-Cable 8529 router for $100
> > (reg. $229). I bought six of them, sold five on ebay, kept one and
still
> > came out ahead 50 bucks or so. Frankly, I wouldn't consider it improper
to
> > ask the seller how he acquired the merchandise in the first place.
>
> <this is gonna sound harsh but it's really not intended that way>
>
> I'm curious if you think you really came out ahead after the time spent
> putting up the auction(s), dealing with collecting the payments and then
> shipping them all out? Was $10 apiece really worth it?

just to comment on this, if you arent a very experienced ebay seller, it
really is time consuming and annoying to sell stuff. but if you get some
listing software (the free one from ebay is plenty good) spend a couple
hours up front making standard auction templates set up so all you have to
do is snap a pic and type in a new title and description. get a little
experience, and dont babysit the auction, it only takes about 10-15 minutes
of your time to list something, put it in a box, ship it, everything. and
its not hard work. multiple similiar items go even faster. 40-50 bucks for
an hours work, basically answering a couple emails and shipping 4 routers
isnt bad at all. if it takes you 3-4 hours to pull this off its
questionable. toss a free router on top of that 50 bucks and how can you
possibly go wrong.

the only real pita is if you have to go real far out of the way to do your
shipping. so dont do that <g>

randy

On 17-May-2004, "Todd Fatheree" <[email protected]> wrote:

> As I responded to Owen, after checking my records, I actually cleared
> $43/router. Is that close enough to $50 to be a valid use of my time in
> your view?

Annualized return on investment looks really good to me! You'd have
a hard time finding an investment for $500 that has a better return.

Mike

"TB" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> I, for the first time, was bidding on ebay last week on a Senco
> SNS45XP stapler (brand new/never been out of the box). I ended up
> losing the stapler to someone else. This week I found the exact same
> add (same stapler/same seller etc.....). Is this common? Should I be
> worried? Do you think I would receive what I am paying for? Should I
> just buy it in the store?
>
> thanks

Well, looking at their history and the history of some of the people who
left feedback, all I can say is that _I_ would be comfortable bidding. In
and of itself, I don't think it's uncommon to find a seller selling the
exact same model several times. In fact, I did something similar a while
back. Home Depot was closing out the Porter-Cable 8529 router for $100
(reg. $229). I bought six of them, sold five on ebay, kept one and still
came out ahead 50 bucks or so. Frankly, I wouldn't consider it improper to
ask the seller how he acquired the merchandise in the first place.

Should you buy it in the store. For comprison, Amazon sells this tool for
$290 shipped free. Your seller has sold the same stapler for between $177
and $222. Add about another $15 shipping brings it up to $195 and $237. If
you could get it for $210 + $15 shipping = $225, that would be about 22%
lower than Amazon. Now, if you bought it at Amazon, you would get a $50
gift certificate for a future Amazon.com purchase. If you bought something
with that that you actually needed and were going to buy anyway, you might
consider the effective cost of the stapler to be $240. At that point, I'd
probably just go with Amazon. YMMV.

todd

strictly from a business standpoint:

thats a 10% roi in a very short period of time. lets say it took a month.
if nothing went wrong, you would more than double your money every year.
even if 5% of the deals go completely bad and you lose the cost of the
router + shipping thats still around 4% roi in a month. not too bad
really...

lets compare that with having the money in the stock market. much less roi
there. 30% in a year would be about the best you could get and 10% is the
average. per year, not per month.

or you could let it sit in a savings account and do absolutely nothing...
just like sitting on the couch and doing nothing instead of making a few
bucks off routers. the time investment would be low. even less if you dont
get emotionally attatched to your auctions.

i dont think its really such a bad deal. people have their own ideas about
what their time is worth and how much effort they want to put into ebay, so
really i think the deciding factor is how much of a pain it is to run the
auctions.

not to mention it actually turned out to be a free router and 100 bucks.

randy

> You tied up $500 to make $50? Shipping charges, possible customer
complaints,
> etc don't seem to make that a very profitable deal for you. I can see
buying
> one for yourself as you did, but I think I'd need to clear about $50 per
router
> to go through all that trouble.
>
>
>
>
> --
> Mortimer Schnerd, RN
>
> [email protected]
> http://www.mortimerschnerd.com
>
>

"TB" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> I, for the first time, was bidding on ebay last week on a Senco
> SNS45XP stapler (brand new/never been out of the box). I ended up
> losing the stapler to someone else. This week I found the exact same
> add (same stapler/same seller etc.....). Is this common? Should I be
> worried? Do you think I would receive what I am paying for? Should I
> just buy it in the store?
>
> thanks

I sell the same items week after week, if they sell & I have more stock year
after year, often the item I sell is on eBay more to attract customers
worldwide, for almost every item I sell or list on eBay I generally receive
three or four direct inquiries for a similar item outside of eBay. It is a
great way of advertising & the sale of the goods generally cover the cost of
the product, listing & shipping, it can be time consuming to monitor & keep
on top of but I really enjoy it as well.

for example:

My eBay items currently listed:
http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewSellersOtherItems&userid=lamblies&include=0&since=-1&sort=3&rows=25

Jon~

"Michael Daly" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> On 17-May-2004, "Todd Fatheree" <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > As I responded to Owen, after checking my records, I actually cleared
> > $43/router. Is that close enough to $50 to be a valid use of my time in
> > your view?
>
> Annualized return on investment looks really good to me! You'd have
> a hard time finding an investment for $500 that has a better return.
>
> Mike

If I could have bought 20, I would have.

todd

In article <[email protected]>,
J. Clarke <[email protected]> wrote:
>Mortimer Schnerd, RN wrote:
>
>> Todd Fatheree wrote:
>>> Well, looking at their history and the history of some of the people who
>>> left feedback, all I can say is that _I_ would be comfortable bidding.
>>> In and of itself, I don't think it's uncommon to find a seller selling
>>> the
>>> exact same model several times. In fact, I did something similar a while
>>> back. Home Depot was closing out the Porter-Cable 8529 router for $100
>>> (reg. $229). I bought six of them, sold five on ebay, kept one and still
>>> came out ahead 50 bucks or so.
>>
>>
>> You tied up $500 to make $50? Shipping charges,
>> possible customer
>> complaints,
>> etc don't seem to make that a very profitable deal for you. I can see
>> buying one for yourself as you did, but I think I'd need to clear about
>> $50 per router to go through all that trouble.
>
>Not $500 to make $50. $500 to make $150, $100 of which was taken in the
>form of a router, not cash.
>
>That looks to me like 30% ROI on maybe a 30 day turnaround. Not a bad deal.

ROI is usually expressed in 'annualized' terms; assuming a 30-day turnaround,
it's an annualized rate in excess of 2200% If the turn-over period was
shorter, the annualized rate is even higher. Definitely not something to
sneeze at. :)

Mortimer Schnerd, RN wrote:

> Todd Fatheree wrote:
>> Well, looking at their history and the history of some of the people who
>> left feedback, all I can say is that _I_ would be comfortable bidding.
>> In and of itself, I don't think it's uncommon to find a seller selling
>> the
>> exact same model several times. In fact, I did something similar a while
>> back. Home Depot was closing out the Porter-Cable 8529 router for $100
>> (reg. $229). I bought six of them, sold five on ebay, kept one and still
>> came out ahead 50 bucks or so.
>
>
> You tied up $500 to make $50? Shipping charges,
> possible customer
> complaints,
> etc don't seem to make that a very profitable deal for you. I can see
> buying one for yourself as you did, but I think I'd need to clear about
> $50 per router to go through all that trouble.

Not $500 to make $50. $500 to make $150, $100 of which was taken in the
form of a router, not cash.

That looks to me like 30% ROI on maybe a 30 day turnaround. Not a bad deal.




--
--John
Reply to jclarke at ae tee tee global dot net
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)

Fly-by-Night CC <[email protected]> wrote in message news:<onlnlowe-> <this is gonna sound harsh but it's really not intended that way>
>
> I'm curious if you think you really came out ahead after the time spent
> putting up the auction(s), dealing with collecting the payments and then
> shipping them all out? Was $10 apiece really worth it?

If I got a FREE router and $50 in my pocket after all 5 auctions fees
and shipping were paid --
I,personally,would be happy and think you did pretty good.

<<As I responded to Owen, after checking my records, I actually cleared
$43/router. Is that close enough to $50 to be a valid use of my time in
your view?>>

It was until you had to invest more time doing the research to supply a P&L
statement to the newsgroup. <g>

Lee


--
To e-mail, replace "bucketofspam" with "dleegordon"

"Mortimer Schnerd, RN" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Todd Fatheree wrote:
> > Well, looking at their history and the history of some of the people who
> > left feedback, all I can say is that _I_ would be comfortable bidding.
In
> > and of itself, I don't think it's uncommon to find a seller selling the
> > exact same model several times. In fact, I did something similar a
while
> > back. Home Depot was closing out the Porter-Cable 8529 router for $100
> > (reg. $229). I bought six of them, sold five on ebay, kept one and
still
> > came out ahead 50 bucks or so.
>
>
> You tied up $500 to make $50? Shipping charges, possible customer
complaints,
> etc don't seem to make that a very profitable deal for you. I can see
buying
> one for yourself as you did, but I think I'd need to clear about $50 per
router
> to go through all that trouble.
>
> Mortimer Schnerd, RN

As I responded to Owen, after checking my records, I actually cleared
$43/router. Is that close enough to $50 to be a valid use of my time in
your view?

todd

In article <[email protected]>,
[email protected] (TB) wrote:

> I, for the first time, was bidding on ebay last week on a Senco
> SNS45XP stapler (brand new/never been out of the box). I ended up
> losing the stapler to someone else. This week I found the exact same
> add (same stapler/same seller etc.....). Is this common? Should I be
> worried? Do you think I would receive what I am paying for? Should I
> just buy it in the store?

Another angle, I don't believe, anyone has mentioned is that if a
previous auction falls through (buyer backs out) then many sellers just
relist the item and it appears identical to the previous auction just
with new dates.

If in doubt, consider the seller's positive *and* negative feedback
ratings and read the feedback.

--
Owen Lowe and his Fly-by-Night Copper Company
Offering a shim for the Porter-Cable 557 type 2 fence design.
<http://www.flybynightcoppercompany.com>
<http://www.easystreet.com/~onlnlowe/index.html>

In article <[email protected]>,
"Todd Fatheree" <[email protected]> wrote:

> I was going by memory what I got for the routers. Since everyone is so
> concerned, I opened my database that I keep auction results in. On the five
> routers, I ended up clearing $214.42. That covered my cost for one router
> and put $108 in my pocket. Was it worth it? It was to me.

My apologies - I misread/misinterpreted - I thought you only came out
$50 ahead of what you shelled out for the 5 you sold; didn't realize you
effectively got the one you kept for "free".

--
Owen Lowe and his Fly-by-Night Copper Company
Offering a shim for the Porter-Cable 557 type 2 fence design.
<http://www.flybynightcoppercompany.com>
<http://www.easystreet.com/~onlnlowe/index.html>

In article <[email protected]>,
"Todd Fatheree" <[email protected]> wrote:

> In fact, I did something similar a while
> back. Home Depot was closing out the Porter-Cable 8529 router for $100
> (reg. $229). I bought six of them, sold five on ebay, kept one and still
> came out ahead 50 bucks or so. Frankly, I wouldn't consider it improper to
> ask the seller how he acquired the merchandise in the first place.

<this is gonna sound harsh but it's really not intended that way>

I'm curious if you think you really came out ahead after the time spent
putting up the auction(s), dealing with collecting the payments and then
shipping them all out? Was $10 apiece really worth it?

--
Owen Lowe and his Fly-by-Night Copper Company
Offering a shim for the Porter-Cable 557 type 2 fence design.
<http://www.flybynightcoppercompany.com>
<http://www.easystreet.com/~onlnlowe/index.html>

"Fly-by-Night CC" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> In article <[email protected]>,
> "Todd Fatheree" <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > I was going by memory what I got for the routers. Since everyone is so
> > concerned, I opened my database that I keep auction results in. On the
five
> > routers, I ended up clearing $214.42. That covered my cost for one
router
> > and put $108 in my pocket. Was it worth it? It was to me.
>
> My apologies - I misread/misinterpreted - I thought you only came out
> $50 ahead of what you shelled out for the 5 you sold; didn't realize you
> effectively got the one you kept for "free".
>
> --
> Owen Lowe and his Fly-by-Night Copper Company
> Offering a shim for the Porter-Cable 557 type 2 fence design.
> <http://www.flybynightcoppercompany.com>
> <http://www.easystreet.com/~onlnlowe/index.html>

Well, I'll admit it might have been ambiguous on the first post, which is
why I looked up the actual numbers to clarify and stated it a bit more
clearly. Even clearing $50 plus a free router would have been worth it, in
my book. In the end, I cleared about double that plus the router. Which,
by the way, I just mounted in a table to try some router table work for the
first time.

todd

I think he said he got $10 each, plus a free router, Owen.

Kevin
--
=====
Where are those Iraqi WMDs, NOW?


"Fly-by-Night CC" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> In article <[email protected]>,
> "Todd Fatheree" <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > In fact, I did something similar a while
> > back. Home Depot was closing out the Porter-Cable 8529 router for $100
> > (reg. $229). I bought six of them, sold five on ebay, kept one and
still
> > came out ahead 50 bucks or so. Frankly, I wouldn't consider it improper
to
> > ask the seller how he acquired the merchandise in the first place.
>
> <this is gonna sound harsh but it's really not intended that way>
>
> I'm curious if you think you really came out ahead after the time spent
> putting up the auction(s), dealing with collecting the payments and then
> shipping them all out? Was $10 apiece really worth it?
>
> --
> Owen Lowe and his Fly-by-Night Copper Company
> Offering a shim for the Porter-Cable 557 type 2 fence design.
> <http://www.flybynightcoppercompany.com>
> <http://www.easystreet.com/~onlnlowe/index.html>

In article <[email protected]>, "Todd Fatheree" <[email protected]> wrote:

>LOL. I feel like a presidential candidate. Should I release my tax returns
>for last year?
>
Medical records too, and military records if applicable.

--
Regards,
Doug Miller (alphageek-at-milmac-dot-com)

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