buying tools on Ebay

It sounds normal, they probably sell many of the same item. Always click "View seller's other items" to confirm, and click Seller information: "name" (number) either one, to see if they're a trustworthy seller, upper right of the auction page. Good luck to ya!

Alex

Well, looking at their history and the history of some of the people who left feedback, all I can say is that _I_ would be comfortable bidding. In and of itself, I don't think it's uncommon to find a seller selling the exact same model several times. In fact, I did something similar a while back. Home Depot was closing out the Porter-Cable 8529 router for $100 (reg. $229). I bought six of them, sold five on ebay, kept one and still came out ahead 50 bucks or so. Frankly, I wouldn't consider it improper to ask the seller how he acquired the merchandise in the first place.

Should you buy it in the store. For comprison, Amazon sells this tool for $290 shipped free. Your seller has sold the same stapler for between $177 and $222. Add about another $15 shipping brings it up to $195 and $237. If you could get it for $210 + $15 shipping = $225, that would be about 22% lower than Amazon. Now, if you bought it at Amazon, you would get a $50 gift certificate for a future Amazon.com purchase. If you bought something with that that you actually needed and were going to buy anyway, you might consider the effective cost of the stapler to be $240. At that point, I'd probably just go with Amazon. YMMV.

todd

I think he said he got $10 each, plus a free router, Owen.

Kevin

You tied up $500 to make $50? Shipping charges, possible customer complaints, etc don't seem to make that a very profitable deal for you. I can see buying one for yourself as you did, but I think I'd need to clear about $50 per router to go through all that trouble.

Mortimer Schnerd responds:

Not quite, at least from my reading. He tied up 500 bucks, made 50 bucks, but in the process also got a router that normally sells for $229. Even figuring his price at $100 on the router, it does definitely improve the deal.

Charlie Self "Bore, n.: A person who talks when you wish him to listen." Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary

If I got a FREE router and $50 in my pocket after all 5 auctions fees and shipping were paid -- I,personally,would be happy and think you did pretty good.

I was going by memory what I got for the routers. Since everyone is so concerned, I opened my database that I keep auction results in. On the five routers, I ended up clearing $214.42. That covered my cost for one router and put $108 in my pocket. Was it worth it? It was to me.

todd

As I responded to Owen, after checking my records, I actually cleared $43/router. Is that close enough to $50 to be a valid use of my time in your view?

todd

I didn't mean to hijack the thread with my example. I hope it calms everyone down that I actually made $214 on the five routers and not $50 as I recollected.

todd

I kind of threw out the $50 from memory. I wasn't that concerned about the accuracy since it wasn't my main point. Since everyone was so concerned, I went back to check. I actually ended up clearing $214, which paid for a router and put $108 in my pocket. Who'd have known I'd have to justify getting a free router in exchange for a few hours of work.

todd

I sell the same items week after week, if they sell & I have more stock year after year, often the item I sell is on eBay more to attract customers worldwide, for almost every item I sell or list on eBay I generally receive three or four direct inquiries for a similar item outside of eBay. It is a great way of advertising & the sale of the goods generally cover the cost of the product, listing & shipping, it can be time consuming to monitor & keep on top of but I really enjoy it as well.

for example:

My eBay items currently listed:

Don't forget he also covered the cost of the router he kept for himself. so he made about $150 profit.

Annualized return on investment looks really good to me! You'd have a hard time finding an investment for $500 that has a better return.

Mike

If I could have bought 20, I would have.

todd

Not $500 to make $50. $500 to make $150, $100 of which was taken in the form of a router, not cash.

That looks to me like 30% ROI on maybe a 30 day turnaround. Not a bad deal.

But he could have just tied up $100 and gotten the router that sells for $229. Tying up an additional $500 to make $50 just doesn't seem worth the trouble or risk. At least not to me.

You didn't hijack anything; all threads twist and wind. And I'm glad to see you made a reasonable return on the routers. $214 is more like it. That's well worth your time.

It was until you had to invest more time doing the research to supply a P&L statement to the newsgroup.

Lee