This thread is so old!
I like eBay and use it a lot.
I have bought most of my clothes from eBay for a couple of years. Tops, especially. I ask for Women's tops, med and large, then ask for beads, sequins, and I will get hundreds of choices. I love it. I also look at all the gray clothes, which are hard to find. I found a vintage replacement for the Dingo boots I had 35 years ago. It was Buy it Now and way less then half the cost of new Dingos. I got a used iPad 1 for under $100 after the ipad 2's came out. I got it from an electronics store with a guarantee.
I snipe auctions and set my maximum price when I snipe, so I win or not, no bidding wars. In fact, I do not like to make a visible bid because others will compete. I like to bid on items with no bids, but have occasionally sniped when there is one bidder. When I am looking for something, I often put several examples on my "watch" list when I am hunting, then I go back and cull the ones I like less, when compared. I track many items on my watch list- sometimes for months. Sometimes they go on sale and sometimes they relist at a lower price. I track stuff I want, but also unusual or interesting pearls to see what they sell for. These are the items that get relisted for months- like the quahog pearls.
I found a copy of the $190 pearl book for about $160, but I found another non-ebay site that has it for $135. I buy Ioderal, a high dose iodine supplement, on eBay and have for years. I often buy strands of faceted beads or gemstones, or abalone shell beads on eBay. I got some LED lights from China, free postage. I figured is it doesn't work, $3.18 is no big loss. So far, all those free postage cheapies from China have been fine. I got some storage bags you can suck the air out of for 1/3 of the store prices and they work fine, too. And my favorite reading glasses are on eBay,so I can buy the same style and color for years, and have.
I do look at ratings and if there are any red ones in the last year, I read them. Some bad ratings are far worse than others, I only worry if people say the item is not as described, if there was an undisclosed flaw, or seller lied about the product. Anyway, not all bad ratings are that bad.
I like to window shop on eBay and put items I like on my watch list, even if there is less than a 50% chance I might buy it. Sometimes the attraction just wears off and I remove it from my watch list.... There is one search I saved and get daily bulletins on. It is for the pattern of the silverware my dh inherited from his mom. We have too many dinner knives and not enough salad forks, so I track to watch for great deals and also to see what I can sell the extra knives for. I recently got 6 teaspoons for about $24.00 each- a great bargain for this pattern and brand. on the other hand, there seems to be a surplus of dinner knives and they sell for less than any of the other types, the going price is under $33.00, because the ones for 33- never sell. ..
If you aren't tired of reading this so far, My dh sometimes sells rare posters from the 60's SF and some items he inherited, on eBay. It is simply the best place for his posters to be seen or googled- all other equivalent poster selling establishments take a (much) bigger cut. Selling some of My MiL's art chatchtkies, is easy to do from home- the auction houses already having high graded the best stuff... the rest gets put up on eBay one or two items at a time to supplement the retirement wages.
I like eBay.
