To ebay or not to ebay-That is the question.

[RKC]

I am pretty sure I know what the majority here think of buying computer stuff on Ebay, but lets have a poll anyway.

I personally have purchased about %50 of my hardware on Ebay and have only had a one or two minor issues aor problem doing it. My latest rig both the MSI motherboard and Athlon 1800 cpu are from Ebay.

What are your experiences?

[Hi Ho]

I have never bought any computer parts on Ebay but I have bought other things and I have never had a problem. It depends on what part. I wouldn't buy a hard drive off Ebay but I may buy a motherboard, CPU, or video card.

[Propain]

I bought some Ram a few weeks ago but I made sure to keep it under 50$ just in case.;) If I ever was gonna buy something big off eBay id make sure it was from an ebay store or a user that has had many positive transactions in the past. Returning a big item to a casual user would be kind of a hassle IMO.

cheers

[discodanman45]

If I had to buy used compter stuff I would buy it from this forum. The people around here that post quite a bit not only can be trusted but would be able to help you with any problems you might have. Ebay and other forums with high traffic are not that trustworthy since you can't catch every crook that might be lurking.

[Vigo]

I voted for the third choice. I am not an avid buyer, but I've sold a couple things through people; and a personal friend has an Ebay store who pulls in about 3k a month. Even so- I don't buy on ebay simply because unless I can find the item for substantially cheaper I won't "chance" it. And its rather hard to get an item for that really great price when theres tons of "crooks" (low rating especially) who have friends or set up other accounts so they can raise the min. bids on their items.

Besides that- I hate proxy bidding. Yes, from a sellers stand point its great. From my point of view (he who wants to pay as little as possible) its bogus.

Can you imagine going into a sit-in auction and witnessing this?

Auctioneer: "I have a beautiful marble vase here; let's start the bidding at 25 dollars. Do I hear 25 dollars?"

Bidder: "25 dollars!"

Auctioneer: "Oh, I'm sorry. You didn't meet the minimum bid. Lets try again. Now... Do I hear 30 dollars?"

I completely understand how and why this system works... but I still think its a little silly. Helps sellers, Hurts buyers. Proxy bbidding... imagine going into a retail store and asking the price on an item, to recieve: "Guess!" ;)

[james8547]

It all depends on the price for me. I always check eBay for parts. But the part has to have a low price compared to Newegg as compensation for the extra risk that I am taking. High feedback doesn't guarantee that I won't have any problems with the item.