In my last post, I talked about selling on eBay. It's addicting!
Buying on eBay is the perfect way to get what you need at a decent price, if you play the game right. Depending on the item, I will either place my bid in a regular auction or choose Buy It Now.
My most recent eBay purchase was a very gently used TI-83Plus graphing calculator for my 8th grade son. I checked a few local stores (Fred Meyer, Office Depot) and it was running $99.99 ($109.49 after 9.5% sales tax). This is something that my son needs for his math class this year, and will use probably all of his high school career (and beyond). His brother who is taking calculus as a junior in high school still uses this same model of calculator. Still, why pay retail? I popped onto eBay and found one at a Buy It Now price of $65.00 with free shipping. The seller also tossed in 4 brand-new AAA batteries. Even without the batteries, that is a savings of 41%.
eBay is great for finding things that you can't find anywhere else, like my old Corelle Butterfly Gold dish pattern (which was being discontinued when I got married 22 years ago), discontinued Tupperware, etc. My boys use eBay to shop for old computer games, discontinued Magic The Gathering cards, etc.
Of course, the trick with buying on eBay (especially in a live auction) is to decide what your limit is and don't be tempted in the heat of the bidding war to go above that limit. And, of course, it goes without saying that it is best to only purchase from sellers with stellar feedback ratings.
Anyone have some great stories of eBay bargains? I'd love to hear about them.
