Are YOU one of the muppets

SteveR_100Milers

who are clueless about the value of used goods...?

I am on the bay looking to buy a used saddle, only a selle italia max flite gel flo;nothing flash its not sexy, in fact it's large, heavy, bulky and in fact It's shite. It hurts,and it screams newbie fat MAMIL.

Brand new its about £80 from chain wiggling evanses etc, sooo why on earth would you bid £60+ postage (typically £3-£5) for one that had been used for "only 100-300 miles" you know who you are, so pack it i now.

pauldavid

I too am looking for some secondhand parts on ebay and can't believe how much people are prepared to pay for secondhand parts.

Surely nobody would place a bid for used kit without checking it's new value first???????

Or maybe I'm missing the point and all these buyers know that the respective sellers are world famous Tour riders selling off old parts and buy them as memoribilia and display it on their mantlepiece.

Anyway as the guy above said can you all stop it please or I'll never get the bits I want.

HiMoz

People on ebay are stupid its a fact! Ace if your trying shift some stuff though.

paddlemyowncanoe

Long may it last! Ebay means I can try out stuff for free - I buy off the classifieds or online or from the US, and if I think I don't want to keep it, booofff, someone's taken it off my hands at no net cost to me. I love it. This way I found out about stuff I would not have tried, like 170 vs 175 cranks, oval vs round rings, tubs vs clinchers, Speedplay vs Looks, etc etc. Some I've kept, some I haven't.

snailracer

^^

Liquid market, buy high - sell high?

Some parallels with the housing market, pre-crash, no?

rick_chasey

snailracer wrote:

^^

Liquid market, buy high - sell high?

Some parallels with the housing market, pre-crash, no?

Er, by definition, if someone is buying high someone is also selling high. :?:

snailracer

^^

Only works so long as everyone has confidence they can sell on at a high price. And confidence can be lost.

rick_chasey

snailracer wrote:

^^

Only works so long as everyone has confidence they can sell on at a high price. And confidence can be lost.

I'm not sure you get me.

If I sell something at a high price, by the virute of having to have a buyer, there will be a buyer buying at that very same price, else, I wouldn't be selling, since there would be no buyer.

I.e. they're exactly the same.

El Gordo

A friend sold an Islabike on ebay for £130 despite including in the description a link to the Islabike website showing the new price as £110.

There does seem to be a whole load of idiots on ebay who assume everything there is a bargain.

weapons

Those paying above the price of a new item are the muppets.

Those who bid £60 + postage for a nearly new £80 saddle just value the £15 saving or so more than they value the difference between a new and nearly new saddle.

snailracer

Rick Chasey wrote:

snailracer wrote:

^^

Only works so long as everyone has confidence they can sell on at a high price. And confidence can be lost.

I'm not sure you get me.

If I sell something at a high price, by the virute of having to have a buyer, there will be a buyer buying at that very same price, else, I wouldn't be selling, since there would be no buyer.

I.e. they're exactly the same.

But what if you want to sell it, but can't find a buyer prepared to pay your price?

My post was in response to paddlemyowncanoes’ suggestion that it’s OK to buy at what seems to be an artificially high price because you can sell it on for a similar price.

If you bought a saddle off ebay at a similar price to new, with the expectation that, if you didn’t like it, you could sell on for a similar price, then you would be at risk of being stuck with a saddle you didn’t like, for which you overpaid, if confidence in ebay pricing was lost. Is that a good situation?

Look at the housing market now: plenty of would-be sellers stuck with overpriced houses which they are desperate to sell, and few prospective buyers. Some people consider this an undesirable situation.

paddlemyowncanoe

It's easy, don't buy on eBay unless it's at a price you want to pay. I like to pay low. Some maybe enjoy the buzz so pay a premium. Suits me...

micken

El Gordo wrote:

A friend sold an Islabike on ebay for £130 despite including in the description a link to the Islabike website showing the new price as £110.

There does seem to be a whole load of idiots on ebay who assume everything there is a bargain.

A guy rode along with me for a while last weekend, he was going to collect the car to pick up his kids who had done about 18 miles in the windy conditions and one or two of them had had enough. We got on to talking about the kid's bikes, which were all Islabikes. He told me that he had sold their previously smallest Islabike four years after purchase for £20 more than he paid for it - ebay.

Small world maybe.

turnerjohn

I've had some massive bargains as well as buying stuff and selling it on later making a nice profit ! You just need to search first to make sure your getting a good deal...lots of people dont do that...not that Im complaining at all

solsurf

ebay is a bit of a strange place, I bought a new full suspension felt for my wife for under £800 bargain and I sold my 3 year old Kona phd for £200 less than I bought if for, it was well looked after but still. So sometimes you can get bargains on there and other times its expensive.

I have to agree with the OP there is a lot of used kit that could be found for near enough the same price new! I bought a titanium mountain bike for a lot of money off Ebay and to say it was all worn out would have been kind, I lost quite a bit on that when I resold it, as I gave it an honest description.

carrock

I bought a jacket for £120 a year ago which is now too big

I found the same jacket a size smaller at £85 in a sale so bought it (RRP £120)

The original jacket is now on ebay, bid up to £51 with 2 days to go

I'll bet it sells for more than the replacement jacket cost.

Sirius631

I recently bought a broken FujiFilm S5000 for £20+, to repair my own. This was a bit high but the parts I wanted were working, I wanted it then and I couldn't be around to play tactics at the end of the auction. Other broken units have gone for approx £10, but there is one guy who keeps putting his broken unit in for £40 on a 'Buy it Now' only format. Hello! Working cameras go for that price.

Edit: Just re-read the auction, the guy actually has an opening bid of £49.99 and a 'Buy it Now' price of £59.99, plus he's asking £10 postage! Deluded or what?

orbeaorca

pauldavid wrote:

I too am looking for some secondhand parts on ebay and can't believe how much people are prepared to pay for secondhand parts.

Surely nobody would place a bid for used kit without checking it's new value first???????

Or maybe I'm missing the point and all these buyers know that the respective sellers are world famous Tour riders selling off old parts and buy them as memoribilia and display it on their mantlepiece.

Anyway as the guy above said can you all stop it please or I'll never get the bits I want.

Can remember a Team Discovery water bottle selling for somewhere in the region of £70 as the seller claimed it had been used by Lance Armstrong!

Ollieda

weapons wrote:

Those paying above the price of a new item are the muppets.

Those who bid £60 + postage for a nearly new £80 saddle just value the £15 saving or so more than they value the difference between a new and nearly new saddle.

I probably would buy it new but I can see the reverse logic.

£15 saving for something that is virtually new. If its only had a couple hundred miles and not damaged its as good as new so someone on a tight budget would have saved themselves £15.

For something like a saddle where 200 miles usage shouldn't effect it too much its an easy way to make a saving. Almost like buying a demo model / test ride model at a reduced price.