Making Electronic purchases on EBay

[MJ]

Before I return to Thailand, I planned to buy a MP3 player and a Western Digital Passport portable 120G or 160G disk drive. I already bought my new Dell D630.
Shopping around, I found the eBay prices on new and NON-refurbs quite cheap, unless the sellers are lying about the condition of the item. Without a lot of ego bidders, some of these may go for 30% to 40% off the cheapest prices I have found on the internet.

How can the sellers sell these item so cheaply? These are not older models either.

MJ

 

[ziggy29]

Could be gray-market items or recently discontinued models being blown out to a discount reseller -- assuming these are new items that the sellers actually deliver on, anyway.

 

[Peaceful_Warrior]

Also, many of the items start lower because the sellers know that by having a low starting place, they get bidders interested, hooked on the "discount", and ultimately end up driving the price up enough to sell it for a profit (since they also probably bought in bulk, and make have bought discontinued as mentioned).

A good way to figure out what you can realistically get it for on ebay is to search for all the completed listings of identical items.

 

[Nords]

How can the sellers sell these item so cheaply? These are not older models either.

Here's one example. BestBuy ditches their customer's returns to wholesalers who turn them around on eBay. So it's possible to get a set of headphones that aren't working, are missing parts or batteries, or lack the instruction manual. The better eBay sellers will use terms like "opened box" or "returned/refurbished" or similar wording.

Unscrupulous resellers build up an unsatisfactory rating pretty quickly, so pay attention to the neutral/negative customer feedback. And if you're spending over $200 then I'd highly recommend a credit-card transaction through PayPal. PayPal/eBay will support you to their limits but the credit card company will kick in above those two.

 

[chinaco]

If it sounds too good to be true!!!

 

[farmerEd]

One time I purchased a high end IBM server (raid, redundant power supplies, redundant network cards etc weighs like 150lbs and comes on pallet) from a different online auction (UBid). Advertised as "New in the Box" and full warranty, but it was a discontinued (older) model.

Machine shows up and I unpackaged it and man-handled down to my cellar office, only to find out that not only was it not "Intel Inside", there was "Nothing Inside"...no CPU's, no memory chips, no disk drives, no raid controllers, no video cards, no brains at all.....just a really big and heavy case and 3 powersupplies.

I called up UBid and was told "Sorry thats a warranty issue, not our problem - call the manufacturer...." grrrrrrrr....

Long story short and after basically being told the same thing for almost a month from a variety of customer service reps and managers, I, tracked down the CEO of the company AT HIS HOUSE(used SEC filings), on his personal phone line and told him I was going to call him every day until he had the charges reversed on my credit card(I already put a hold on it) and he had someone come and package this palleted server back up and hauled it out of my office. Two guys showed up 3 days later.

That was the last time I purchased anything from UBid.

At least on eBay, if you look for someone with very high rating, and few complaints, you are probably dealing with a legit seller.

 

[travelover]

Long story short and after basically being told the same thing for almost a month from a variety of customer service reps and managers, I, tracked down the CEO of the company AT HIS HOUSE(used SEC filings), on his personal phone line and told him I was going to call him every day until he had the charges reversed on my credit card(I already put a hold on it) and he had someone come and package this palleted server back up and hauled it out of my office. Two guys showed up 3 days later.

Wow, A+ for perseverance.

 

[Moemg]

I bought a digital camera that was advertised as brand new .It turned out to be refurbished. I had to threaten the seller to get any action. I learned my lesson .I will only by electronics from reliable sources such as Beach cameras .

 

[SC]

I've had too many problems with misrepresented computer components on Ebay. As a general rule I won't buy anything electronic or fragile on Ebay unless the seller has a truly outstanding feedback rating with hundreds of happy customers for that particular type of item. Too many of the small sellers are pushing "refurbished" (e.g. used, but we cleaned it up a little), defective, damaged, or older model electronic items to make it worth my while. And fragile items are seldom packed well enough to survive the shipping process.

Now I just go to NewEgg for most of my electronics purchases.

 

[MJ]

Thanks for the replies.
I'll keep looking for a bargain at either the local office stores here in Tucson or in NYC when I return in November.

 

[CuppaJoe]

I'm very pleased with a toaster oven purchase, less than Macy's lowest sale price, delivered. I assume it was fenced.

 

[Bigritchie]

Might wanna check out Pricewatch.com I have bought alot of stuff from them when I build my own computers and they are generally very cheap and good quality stuff. They may have what you are looking for.