eBay Arbitrage

patmat2350

patmat2350

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Doh! They skunked me again.

Looked for an ER32 collet/hex block on eBay... found a good price at $37 and change, bought it. Came in an Amazon box.
???
Then I remembered- this has happened to me before. The eBay seller uses "arbitrage" software... he finds a deal on Amazon Prime (with free shipping), posts it on eBay for a few bucks more, and crosses his fingers. If he gets a sale, on this or any of the 10,000 other things he has listed, he orders it from Amazon and drop ships it with a gift receipt to my address. Brilliant. In this case, I could have saved nine bucks, it's in his pocket now.

Moral: Shop on both eBay AND Amazon to find the lowest price.

Read all about it at : https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/278622
 
Wow! And they even have the returns covered so they still make money on returns.

I like the seller buying from the e-bay buy it now, then changing their price on amazon, before the amazon sell goes through.

"One of those people, Eric Wildermuth, who sells a line of children’s hats called Snuggleheads, came up with a particularly sneaky punishment: He bought his own hat from an eBay arbitrager for $27 -- and then, before the arbitrager could go to Amazon and make the purchase, Wildermuth changed his Amazon listing price to $199. Result: The arbitrager could either lose $172 on the sale or cancel the purchase, which would damage the arbitrager’s eBay ranking. Wildermuth repeated this about 10 times. “I got these frantic calls [from the arbitrager]. He said, ‘Please don’t do this,’” says Wildermuth. “He knew what I was doing. And I let out a string of expletives.”
 
Just picked a few of his items, Highlight part of the description, and then use that to search Google. Since he copied and pasted the description, the original Amazon add will come up. Now you can find the item at the lower price. I will have to remember that for future purchases.

I have not sold anything on E-bay. Don't they still have to pay e-bay something for the auction, even if the item does not sell?

Explains all the sellers on ebay with a big variety of items.
 
You may need to go at least one step farther when researching the cost of a specific item. Many E Bay vendors have E bay online stores, and independent online stores. Often times the prices they offer on E Bay are higher and the shipping is also higher. A few months ago I needed a set of tool holders for a new lathe. I checked E bay and several other online sources. I found what I was looking for on E Bay at Discount Machine. This is the E Bay arm of Shars. In this case the tooling was less expensive, the delivery time was quicker, and the shipping cost was lower when ordered directly from Shars
 
projectnut said:
You may need to go at least one step farther when researching the cost of a specific item. Many E Bay vendors have E bay online stores, and independent online stores. Often times the prices they offer on E Bay are higher and the shipping is also higher. A few months ago I needed a set of tool holders for a new lathe. I checked E bay and several other online sources. I found what I was looking for on E Bay at Discount Machine. This is the E Bay arm of Shars. In this case the tooling was less expensive, the delivery time was quicker, and the shipping cost was lower when ordered directly from Shars
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Yes, good point. Many times even if E-bay is a bit higher, I will still go through ebay and don't mind. I know e-bay has its fees. But you also get the ease of paying, and the buyers protections though e-bay.
 
I have never run into the Amazon drop ship on e-Bay purchases. Something to watch out for. I wonder of some of the big players are doing the same thing? Wal Mart, and Sears come to mind.

It seems that product flippers on eBay are the modern version of the third world landfill pickers.
 
Some are for sure most of the machinists tool dealers buy lots at auctions and yard sales estate sales of course. But at least there earning a wage not sponging off the rest of society. There are those who watch trash days dumpster dive behind big stores . They make YouTube videos of themselves and are proud of it.
There's to much waste in our nation as it is and it's part of the problem. I've bought a few things on eBay that came from Amazon but they were cheaper then Amazon. I checked all areas at the time. Baby gates for stairs and steps.
 
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