eBay prices !

One thing to watch is the make, while you can buy a bevel protractor for that sort of money a "quality" brand would cost triple that amount. There is often a healthy dose of AFS as well. You have mastered the golden rule of eBay -bid what it's worth to you, and if it goes higher leave it. I have bought some real bargains, and seen stuff sell for silly money as well -just your luck.

Regards

Kevin

I think I've overpaid for just about everything I've bought eBAY! Over paid means more than half price of new, sight unseen +p&p

I've been a constant bidder at 4 inch 4 jaw chucks and I made a really (I thought) outrageous bid in the end and still didn't win. £80 for a s/h chuck sight unseen is my definition of outrageous, when the p&p is £10+. May be I'm just tight.

eBay is good for finding the rare gadget that you are prepared to pay for, otherwise my conclusion is it's a good place to sell stuff.

Steve

Ebay is not the place to buy something if you want to save money, unless it is something that is relatively obscure and doesn't have loads of home machinists after it.

I have mentioned before that the best bargains (bargins, mate!) come from knowing local machine shops and engineering firms so you can be around when equipment is being passed to the scrap man etc.

You'll never get a real bargain in machinery items on ebay, just the chance to bid against others, that is what it is there for.

An advert on Chris Heapy's pages is far more effective, you can get people offering you what you want, not fighting everyone else for things in an auction.

Peter

-- Peter & Rita Forbes snipped-for-privacy@easynet.co.uk Engine pages for preservation info:

I bought a $1200 data acquistion card for $9.95, can't be bad, and that was with several other bidders... must have started really low...

and on the other hand on yahoo auctions you could see a companies url in the description and see they were selling the item for say £29 on their website- and it was pricey at that - some wanker would then bid and buy it for £50!!!

-- richard

I've put a few things on e-bay, usually because I have no idea what its worth, so I think its easier to let the item find its own value.

Mind you, I checked Chris's site recently for a couple of items to get an idea of price, and put them on e-bay with low start prices, net result no bids at all.

Strange though that at the end of the auction I had 7 e-mails asking if I wanted to sell the item privately.

I think that if people see a low price they won't bother bidding possible considering the item to be rubbish.

Its also quite noticeable that a lot of people never check retail outlets for current prices before bidding.

John

Hi Tom:

They have been selling those for the past 3 or 4 weeks, having as many as four on auction at the same time.

Peter

-- Peter & Rita Forbes snipped-for-privacy@easynet.co.uk Engine pages for preservation info:

I noticed this myself. Fixed my bid at £20 and nearly fell over when it finally went for £67. There is another with £50 bid so far. No thanks.

AFS. I've had to slap myself a couple of times to get back to reality and stop bidding over my set price.

'Got to have it, got to have it' SLAP - SLAP Back to earth. Wait for the next item.

Geoff Halstead Norfolk, England

(superheated - radiant at that)

with VAT and cariage the spin index from J&L will cost £ 39.83

finally >went for £67.

But there *are* bargains on E-Bay.

I just got a second hand fixed steady for my Colchester Triumph 2000. It cost me £ 45.50 ( that's 30.50 and 15 postage ).

I rang Colchester Lath to check the cost of a new one..... £ 431, + £10 carriage + £ 77.17 VAT = £ 518.18

At 8.7 % of the new cost that's got to be a bargain !

Does anyone one know a source of new anvils ( full size, 60+ kg ) ?

Old anvils on E-Bay tend to sell at about £ 100, and I'm wondering if this is good value.

-- Jonathan

Barnes's theorem; for every foolproof device there is a fool greater than the proof.

To reply remove AT

£100 seems to be about the going rate - last time I asked at the scrappie. I was then lucky to get a 15kg anvil with a reground workface from Newark autojumble for £15. I recently bought a Herbert 5/8" tangential diehead (with 24.un chasers) in almost new fettle for a tenner plus £7 postage on Ebay. Everyone else wants Coventry boxes, which is fortunate because I've heaps of chasers for the Landis tangential style dieheads.

Festina Lente

MARK

Can't resist a question from a fellow Barnes :-

(100 quid looks like good value)

I love it! a button to put a 76kg anvil into your shopping basket :-)

Mark Rand RTFM

£100 is about the going rate for an anvil, but I'd be wary about buying unseen. It's difficult to judge the quality without feeling the edges (frequently worn beyond use) and the "ring" will give a good indication of quality (poor quality anvils are duller in sound -the clearer the "ring" the better). The top surface can also be very badly dished through use. Beware re-grinds as the hard top surface is only of limited thickness, and it isn't possible to grind the beak.

Regards

Kevin

PS this is info gleaned from my dad when looking at anvils (he was a blacksmith).

PPS in response to an earlier thread he wouldn't touch a gas forge, because he's never used one that was any good (not to say they don't exist)

They always seem so tatty though, full of dings and dents, makes you wonder what they cost to buy in the first place.

The one we got from our transformer guy when he shut down was made by K&L foundires in Letchworth, and we got it in near new nick for £30, but that was exceptional, most of the stuff I have seen or heard of goes for £50 +

Peter

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