I am a blundering idiot

Today we have many choices . Different dealers , different qualities in tools , up and down prices , Ebay , Facebook , craigslist , yard sales etc . The internet has changed the game . It's simple to purchase what you want these days , it's a world wide market place . Back in the late 70s and thru the 80s , my choices were limited . Myself being a job shop owner , I had the choice between MSC , Borroughs and Walt Chapman's down on Harford Rd . I guarenteed same day or 1 day turn around on jobs . MSC had red label shipping for 7 bucks that guaranteed my tool would be at my door by 9am the next day , or I had to truck it to Walts . The influx of Chinese tools and their suppliers is filling the gap that society has created as tool purchasers .

As a seller of tools these days , Ebay is by far the easiest way to sell items no longer needed . Load the pictures and sit back , either as an Auction or as a Buy it Now format .

I have a place right up the road from me that wants to sell my tooling , and take 50% . Right . I am perfectly able to list it on Ebay myself and save their fee . :rolleyes:

Very good on you. It seems I can only accumulate, not dissipate. Certainly ebay has made it so hobbyists like myself have a chance at nice older stuff for an affordable price. It's a two edged sword in that some old machine tools are worth more in pieces than together. So its nice to see parts for long ago discontinued machines but meanwhile I keep seeing machines with crucial parts missing. So how many machines were parted out because the person didn't know the parts that fetch so much(like the original Atlas 7b vise, tool holder, ratchet box and belt guards)? And the advent of folks who seem to be making a living hocking stuff they have no clue about on ebay. Often they misspell or miss label something which makes it impossible to find as a buyer. But sometimes when you stumble across it, it can be a bargain. You are right, the net has changed everything.
 
I've had to quit even looking at EBay auction items and filter to only see buy it now. I just get too invested and feel like I've been ripped off when I lose. I used to watch something for a week before it closed and always pass if there was another bid. Then 1min out with no other bids make my max bid only to be sniped by 1c at the last second. Whatever dude, no more.

My have to do list is triaged to several years out so I'm staging projects materials and necessary tools all the time. I still get good deals off eBay on small stuff but locally you just never know what crazy deal will pop up on CL. Then it's always the two little voices in my head warring. One is the voice of reason, the other is the crazy hoarder. This is further complicated by cheap cool restorable projects and rare restored expensive "ooooh I've always wanted one of those" deals. Sometimes I wish I had Bob Korves pragmatic restraint. Right now purposely having no place to put something is my governor.

I use Esnipe for auctions, I put in the amount that I'm willing to pay and forget about the auction. The one thing you don't know about the ones you get outbid on is the amount of the other persons max bid. You may have been outbid by a dollar, but don't let that get to you, as their actual max bid could have been $100 or $1000 dollars more than you were willing to pay. One thing I've found about Ebay is that if you are patient enough, you can get most anything you want for the price you want. It's taken years for me on some items, but I've gotten them.
 
One thing I've found about Ebay is that if you are patient enough, you can get most anything you want for the price you want. It's taken years for me on some items, but I've gotten them.
Amen brutha. Patience is the key. My problem is I only wade into eBay when I need something and usually I need it right now. But getting a search together and checking CL and eBay for a week or two I find what I want for the price I want to pay.
 
I never played the sniping game, when I do an eBay auction, I just put in my max bid and I get it or I don’t. What most folks don’t get is eBay is like an live auction with one difference. The bids have time limits but the same rules apply, you need to bid your max and don’t worry about what someone else does. The folks who play the snipe game are actually trying to games the system instead of just bidding their price.


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I never played the sniping game, when I do an eBay auction, I just put in my max bid and I get it or I don’t. What most folks don’t get is eBay is like an live auction with one difference. The bids have time limits but the same rules apply, you need to bid your max and don’t worry about what someone else does. The folks who play the snipe game are actually trying to games the system instead of just bidding their price.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
That's how I plan on playing from now on. I thought that I was being all stealthy and smart. All that I did was screw up and not win an item that I really wanted.
 
weekends are definitely prime real estate time wise for the best deals - all the competition is out doing errands etc - best to set up bids on a sniping engine though
 
Another good one is cjtoombs is bidsniper, has worked for me in the past..
 
You're using flawed logic in order to feel bad about yourself...
You have no idea how high the winning bidder would have gone. The reason it stopped at $41 is because a third bidder had a maximum bid price of $40. For all you know, the winner may have been prepared to go to $200, and you'd have still lost if your max bid was less.

The point is, you pick a max price and walk away; if you win, great, if not, get on with things.
Here's something fun to think about when using Ebay. When you win, you are the only person in the entire world who thinks it's worth that much. Every other person in the entire world would not pay what you did, and you did! Or maybe no one was paying attention and you got a great deal, yeah, that's it.
 
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