Average Spending on EBAY

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Enuff2Eat

Full time employment: Posting here.
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Oct 27, 2005
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Lately, I spent several thousands dollars on Ebay. Most are "good buys" , some are wasteful. It's kindly of nice and convenience to have the stuffs delivered to the door, at the same time, it's kindly of dangerous because purchase can be made out of boredom.

What's your average spending on ebay? Do you sell nothing or buy a lot? Any recommendation for useful and necessary items that I can purchase on ebay is appreciated. Please share your "expertise" about ebay. Last, do you feel ebay help or hurt you financially. Thanks all.

enuff
 
I have never bought anything on Ebay, so my average is $0.

I do buy things online. I have purchased from Costco, B&H Video, Adorama, Sears and other retailers. My spouse seems to get stuff from LandsEnd and Amazon.
 
I buy basically nothing except food and gas so I have nothing to sell therefore i've never used Ebay.
 
I've bought a few things on Ebay -- mostly old stuff with some tie to family history, like my Mother's high school yearbook and items related to a dairy my Grandfather had. And a desktop cigarette lighter like the one Sam Spade had in The Maltese Falcon. I'd guess my average purchase is probably around $10 and I may have spent $200 or $300 total. I've never sold on Ebay.

Coach
 
Mercedes, goldwing, real estate... also for business i sometimes buy software packages but a few end up in dispute being fake, not for resale or academic versions.
 
I used to spend a lot of time on eBay. I bought clothes and costume jewelry. Finally came to the conclusion that I need to try things on before buying them.

I have also bought a couple of digital cameras and a camera, a voice recorder, some books, a huge area rug, a fireplace mantel, etc. I find it handy for buying refurbished electronics and used books.

The danger is I often bid when browsing in the middle of the night, when my LBYM alarm is turned off. Sometimes I bid on things on a whim, things that I would not have even thought of buying during the day. Overall though, I found eBay to be a good resource.

The average purchase is probably $30. Since I've over 100 feedbacks on eBay, I am guessing I've spent over $4,000 there over the last 8 years. :nonono:
 
I have never bought (or sold) on ebay. I do buy online but usually from amazon, pet supply stores, llbean, etc. I have sold books on amazon and often use craigslist and a local online bulletin board that is free to post sale items.
 
My scariest purchase was a beautiful ladies Rolex from Singapore. Diamond dial and diamond bezel. Bid and got it for $2800 and paid through PayPal. Three weeks later we still hadn't heard anything about delivery. I was starting to get worried and one day I found a small box sitting on our front porch. Can you believe it was delivered by FedEx and didn't have to sign for it or any kind of proof of delivery. Just put it on the front porch. Took it to a jeweler friend and he valued it at $8500. I think we lucked out.
 
My late husband used to spend (over spend) on Ebay, buying world fair memorabilia. He also used to sell a few things in order to partially offset what he purchased. He enjoyed collecting and buying things...his hobby, I guess. In my opinion though...not such a good "investment". I spent soooo many hours getting all of that stuff ready for an auction after his death. The funny thing is in going through all that stuff, there was some stuff that he hadn't even opened after getting it in the mail.

My husband and I used to go to auctions and I know part of the "fun" was the bidding. A person just gets caught up in the bidding...competition. I think Ebay is like that too. Do you REALLY need the stuff you bid on or is it just the lure of the hunt.
 
I have never bought (or sold) anything on E-Bay.

I doubt I ever will, but it is always possible.
 
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I have bought and sold items on EBay over the past several years and it's been a generally decent experience. Not sure what the average price would be, but probably not more than $50. I've been pretty inactive on it lately as I've realized that I've rarely actually bought anything I needed - just things I'd like to have. The exceptions have been some cosmetic products for my wife that are very expensive locally.

It can be fun, but it sure takes a lot of time and due diligence. Lots more scammers out there now as well as professional stores - not just people doing one on one buying and selling.

I prefer Craigslist for local stuff.
 
I buy and sell on ebay . I do a lot more selling than buying . It is a great way to rid the house of excess everything . I sold a lot of my old china , old jewelry , dresses that I wore once for weddings or parties , and my SO's comic book collection . I currently sell new women's clothes and it supplies me with mad money . I have bought mostly Vera Bradley purses , little Souls dolls and an occasional JJill item . I've never spent more than $100 on an item . I do most of my shopping on line at Amazon , Lands End and JJill .
 
I've been very happy with my EBay purchases. That is, they've saved me money, and I haven't bought anything I didn't need. In the last year I purchased:

Parts for Yakima rack
Road atlas (for recent driving trip around country)
Quicken 2009
Bicycle part (high-rise stem)
Bicycle computer (i.e. speedometer)
 
Never have used EBAY. I won't rule out ever using it.
 
A good rule is never go on ebay while drinking wine . You may end up with a few strange purchases .
 
When I first discovered ebay, it was fun and I bought many
useful treasured things... also many things I didn't need.

But the fun wears off after awhile. Now I hardly ever go there.

Garage sales more fun... you never know what you will find,
prices are cheap, you can haggle over price, no one outbids
you and no extra shipping and handling charges.


~
 
I have never bought or sold on Ebay, but I would like to see if I might find some nice niche to sell there.

During the past 5 years I have spent about $275/yr on Amazon. Some is groceries.

I have also sold a number of books on Amazon, but smaller $$ than what I have bought.

I have bought shoes online from Footwearetc.com, an excellent retailer. The rest of my clothes I buy locally. I almost never buy a book locally except occasionally from a used book store. Usually I get books from the library, but if I can't find a book I often buy used and occasionally new on Amazon.

Going into Money to find the data for this post I noticed where my money goes. Taxes, rent, medical including insurance, groceries, auto other than depreciation in that order, or alternately reversing rent and taxes. Earlier in my life it was taxes, fun, and then all the rest. Bad trend going on here.

Ha
 
I have done quite a bit of selling on eBay, almost since the day it started (well over 10 years ago). When I first started, it was an incredible way to de-clutter the house and make more money than I expected. There used to be fewer sellers and the bidding would get pretty heated, even over ordinary stuff that I never thought would sell. Now, with so many more sellers, and buyers becoming more savvy (IMO), I find the selling to be less profitable/enjoyable. I still occasionally sell something I just want to get rid of.

The biggest benefits for me were clearing the house out, and seeing first hand the affect of depreciation on assorted stuff. I was never much of a collector, but this experience really makes me re-think anything I might want to buy now.

I do still occasionally shop on eBay for something I need - when I compare prices for something, I look at eBay as just another option. Most of the time my purchases are in the $10-20 range, including shipping. You have to make sure you look at the shipping cost before bidding - I think many sellers are trying to recoup their eBay and PayPal fees by padding the shipping cost.
 
I have only sold one item on ebay, a $2,300 Gibson guitar. It works O.K. but the ebay fees and the Paypal fees add up.

I have purchased many items of ebay, DVDs, GPS, car parts, guitar parts to name a few.

I have used Craig's list quite successfully to sell household items that we no longer need. It works much better than ebay and you can sell for more than you can get for the items at a garage sale.
 
Usually small electronics or electronics accessories. In the last year I got a refurbished Eee PC and a brand new Dell quad core desktop. Also 2x mp3 player covers (his and hers for DW and I). A refurbished mp3 player for 1/10 the price of an Ipod that can do some awesome stuff. Replacement laptop power supply for 1/6 the price of the "refurb" unit from dell.

Usually stuff I buy on ebay is stuff that is way cheaper on there. I have only had one major issue out of many dozens of purchases and it was eventually resolved and was only a dispute over missing $20 worth of accessories that were promised to be included with the item for something that cost $300 new and I got for $100 lightly used. So I got the cash and then bought the replacement parts that I probably would have bought anyway due to hygenic reasons.

In the past, college textbooks, old rare books, electronic parts. Ebay is just another place I go to comparison shop if I want something. And it is an excellent place to get a good quick estimate of fair value for something (ie if I want to figure out what to list something for on Craigslist or sell something to a friend at a "fair" price).
 
I buy and sell about $500/year on ebay. Great way to rid house of stuff.

What makes me angry is Paypal and fees. I sell a lot of books and cheap stuff for under $10 -- the damn Paypal fees for merchant account are over a buck.

When you add ebay fee and shipping - it is a "near waste of time" - but gets books in hands of people that want them
 
Delawaredave5 said:
I buy and sell about $500/year on ebay. Great way to rid house of stuff.

What makes me angry is Paypal and fees. I sell a lot of books and cheap stuff for under $10 -- the damn Paypal fees for merchant account are over a buck.
Click to expand...
There's no question that eBay, which was founded on letting the "little guy" sell stuff in their garage for a few bucks, no longer cares about that segment of its customer base. They are now only concerned about the big-time seller with huge volume and "storefronts".
 
ziggy29 said:
There's no question that eBay, which was founded on letting the "little guy" sell stuff in their garage for a few bucks, no longer cares about that segment of its customer base. They are now only concerned about the big-time seller with huge volume and "storefronts".
Click to expand...


Ebay was definitely headed that way but I think it is starting to see the error
of this way of thinking . The thing that made ebay was all the little sellers selling unique items and they were heading towards becoming anything but that . They lost tons of buyers and sellers so they are now backtracking and trying to be more friendly to the small sellers .
 
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