Ebay Auctions-Your Opinion

[Formerly PaMike]

You guys might remember I asked about having an ebay store or an auction for a bunch of manuals I am selling. Well, I took your advise and put them on auction. I started them very reasonable ,$15 on most repair manuals. I dont sell for a living just for fun so I wanted to give people that needed the manuals an opportunity to get what they needed at a fair price. What is happening is guys that have ebay stores are bidding the items up and buying them, just so they can put them in their ebay store at the price they want. Then when someone needs a manual RIGHT NOW, they have to buy on the ebay store for the jacked up price. I know it is capitalism at its best, but it annoys me. What do you guys think?

 

[RobMD]

that's life.

 

[Carl Marks]

There really should be a law against that; call your state legislator. I'll bet if enough of us complain, we could get it stopped.

 

[John (C-IL)]

Hey, capitalism at it's finest. I think that is a pretty good deal for you. I offered a couple of stacks of manuals to a dealer, He offered me a dollar a piece sight unseen. I kept the manuals and give them to people when they need one.

 

[Goose]

Can't complain about e-bay.

Within the last week, I bought a pair of 16 inch long 4X4 decals for the sides of a Chevy pickup box for $8.99 plus $3.01 shipping, for a total of $12 for the pair. My cost at a dealer is $29.90 EACH. I've used these before, and you can't tell them from OEM.

Last night, I was the successful bidder on a set of four clean center caps for factory rally wheels on a chevy pickup. Got all four for $4.95 total, plus $8.00 shipping. They're about $60 each new at a dealer.

You win some and you lose some. As long as you get your price when you sell, who cares what the buyer does with the item.

 

[Anonymous-0]

EBAY is absolutely no different than any other auction. The eventual buyer can do whatever he/she chooses with the items purchased. If they want to spend every last nickel an item is worth to get it, that's their perogative and the sellers dream. I go to a lot of auctions. I buy anything that I think will resell for a profit OR anything I want for my own use, so long as it sells at a price I can live with. No difference than buying on EBAY.

If you are truely interested in giving the "got to have it now" crowd a break, list your items at a low "Buy it now" price. Otherwise, SOLD TO THE HIGHEST BIDDER!

 

[Anonymous-0]

What bothers me more is when someone takes a good running tractor apart and sell the parts.

 

[chvet73]

Goose has it right. Most of my Ebay experiences have worked out very well.

 

[Anonymous-0]

That is just what we need more legislation have to much legislation from the states and national telling what to do and now

 

[Mike M]

I did the same with some older auto repair manuals. I'd loved to get $15.00 for mine no matter who bought them. I had a couple I couldn't even get a bid on and I started pretty cheap $1.99 or $4.99 ? I had a factory one for Dodge omni. I guess they are all in the scrap yard as I couldn't get a bid on it.

 

[Steven f/AZ]

Gee, that"s how I ended up making enough money to pay off my vehicles and get a down payment to start construction on my house.

Buy low and sell high is what this country seems to have been built on - Capitalism.

Be happy you got what you wanted out of them and move on with life.

 

[Anonymous-0]

sounds like everyday business to me....... you sold to them for X amount of $ but your upset that they are selling them to make some $.

I dont see a problem.

 

[[email protected]]

What do you think makes the retail world operate? People buy from suppliers (you) and resell at a higher price to make margins. When items are gone and no more can be purchased, the item goes discontinued. Everyone from car sales to boxes of kleenex make paychecks for millions of people. If you got what you desired, then you should be happy. If you feel the need to complain, then raise your price until your happy or sales fall off.

 

[1 Dollar]

Just a little FYI, Mr. Carl Marks, it's Karl Marx.

 

[Dick Lemmon]

I manufacture and sell wheelchair wheels and tires. I mainly sell to manufactures of wheelchairs. I do sell to several wheelchair parts dealers. One of my wheelchair wheels is sold by me for 6.00 and can be bought from inporters for less. Lower quality but still used by some manufactures as well as the dealers. This same wheel I manufacture is sold by the dealers for 30.00 each. The parts dealers may only sell a few pair of these wheels a year. They still have to pay the overhead and live out of what they sell. That is the reason for the amount of markup. It may seem like over kill but really is not. Some of the people that have Ebay stores have this as there job or means of income. Not as a hobby.

 

[Stinky Cheese]

Yes capitalism really annoys me too, that's why I'm a abundant socialist. ROFLMAO

 

[Jim.UT]

I do the same thing sometimes and I don't even have an ebay store. If I see something selling for way under value, I buy it, wait a couple of weeks (or months...sometimes I forget I have it), then relist and make a little money.

Example: I saw a Ford 801 grille set selling cheap on ebay so I put in my last second low-ball bid and won it. I got the upper and lower pieces as a set for $50 - $60. I just sat on those parts for a few months, then a guy on the Ford board mentions he needs the lower part. I sent him a photo and a price. He bought it. Later I put the upper part on ebay and sold it for slightly less than the two pieces originally cost me. That's how I finance my tractor habit. Now the wife doesn't complain when I buy manuals and tractor trinkets for myself.

 

[kyplowboy]

I don't really see anything wrong with it. Alot of people make thier live'n on ebay and auctions in general. There are alot of people who make a live'n jocky'n old tractors. Same deal. I go to alot of auctions in the winter. Alot of things sell cheap now and are worth alot more in spring and summer. Make a little on the side spending money like this.

 

[jimNCal]

That used to bug me too until I realized that the scattering of one will put many more back into service. At least they aren't going to scrap. I just bought a badly needed block from a 'tractor parter' and I'm glad to know that "the tractor ran fine but we make more $ selling parts than selling it whole". For MYself tho, I only part out a tractor as a last resort. Feels kinda crummy to let one of MINE end up like that.

 

[Tradititonal Farmer]

You could have educated yourself on the true value of the manuals before listing them for sale. And why are you upset with the Highest bidder? What about those that didn't bid as much?

 

[Mark - IN.]

I guess that I don't understand Ebay so well, except for "Buy it now". A couple of years ago ran across an 1130 Massey out of Ohio, looked it up on Mapquest, not too awfully far away. Didn't see anything about having a reserve, and saw high bid was like $2,500. I emailed the guy, told him was working out of town, asked if won bidding and paid for it immediately, would it be ok to leave it set a week, maybe two until I could come pick it up. He said no problem. Great, seemed like a nice tractor. I put in a higher bid, but was beat. Hmm? So, I put in another higher bid, but was topped again. Hmm? So I walked away until a couple of hours before bidding ended, then came back and tried again. Bid...beat, bid...beat, bid..beat. Got up to about $6,000 with bid...beat, and I got tired of going through the process of bid...beat, and walked away. After that I pretty much don't go back except to look, and don't bother unless I really need something that says "Buy it now" and is reasonable priced. Bid...beat, bid...beat? Naw...

 

[Tradititonal Farmer]

The person who had the highest bid when you started bidding had a higher limit than you did.
The high bid was 2500 but the guy may have had a
$10,000 limit he would go to.ebay automatically raises his bid each time someone else bid until they top his limit.In other words you have to bid
over $10,000 to get the item.No one knows what your limit is when you bid,not the seller,not other buyers.

 

[Tradititonal Farmer]

And you only get get parts from good tractors not wornout pieces of junk

 

[Anonymous-0]

everybody had the same chance to bid on your item, even the ones that needed it right now,

everybody that wanted it today bid on it today,,, you sold it to the high bidder, whats the difference if he has a store or not, you sold them because you didnt need them and wanted to make a buck, the "store" bought them because he needed them and wants to make a buck,,,

you got your money?? you got rid of the item you were selling,, I dont see the problem,,, you have cash in your pocket, he has stock to sell, maybe he sits on for alittle while before he regains his investment,, that is what makes the world go around, no different than you buying a tractor and selling it , then it ends up on a dealers lot for more money than you sold it for,,the great world of paying bills,, money goes around and around.. just my 2 cents,pat

 

[Anonymous-0]

The fact of the matter is, these ebay sellers are, for the most part, still selling the manuals to the farmer for less than dealer price.

You made money, the next guy made money and the end user saved money.