OT - check amazon before ebay purchase

[Glug]

Ok, I got rooked, just slightly. I ordered something on ebay and was surprised the free shipping tracking said 2nd day air. Why? Because it was coming from Amazon! I know someone else posted the same experience here, fairly recently.

My item, some bike pedals (these, from Boomer's great thread http://bbs.homeshopmachinist.net/thr...al-or-whatever), were $33 on ebay but also avail on Amazon for $30. No big deal, but I felt a bit silly. Kudos to the seller. Funny part - I spent quite a bit of time comparing different variations of pedals and sellers. It can be a little tricky, since these items are often not clearly branded. It was only a few bucks more to get them domestic rather than China.

So lesson learned, check Amazon. Also, it seems Amazon's marketplace is making significant inroads on ebay, due to their fee greed.

[A.K. Boomer]

I just checked - got mine just over a year ago through e-bay and yeah i had to wait awhile for them to get to me, they were 29.99,

what totally impressed me about the e-bay add was their attention to detail with all the dimensions and stuff and i had to have that data,,, iv found amazon to be very poor sometimes in this area, but im with you why wait if you don't have too.

[754]

You didn't get rooked.
You simply bought in haste without doing your research.. sellers remorse..

[DR]

I don't know about the comparison between eBay and Amazon...... What I do know is sometimes Amazon's pricing is MSRP rather than a discount.

Now that others (Walmart and maybe others) will be offering free 2 day shipping so it might pay to do a little more shopping price-wise.

Lately I've been seeing ads for a price comparison shopping application to use before blindly ordering from Amazon (haven't tried it though).

Amazon has a killer return policy that others may not match too.

[mihit]

Isn't Amazon supposed to be a terrible company? I wouldn't do business with them.

[martik]

Amazon Canada is useless. 2-3x the price in some cases

Aliexpress is often lower priced than ebay due to the lower fees they pay and no paypal.

Also, seems that you can escape that 25% trump tariff buying on these sites.

[Mcgyver]

Amazon Canada is useless. 2-3x the price in some cases

.

I've noticed that as well....love the convenience, but always check price.

[hammernanvil]

I buy used stuff from eBay, I’m not sure
Amazon has much used stuff,

[Euph0ny]

As a corollary, I would add, before buying online, it can also be worth checking the pricing at a bricks n' mortar store. I recently bought a simple little Metabo compressor, and thought I was getting a great deal on a repackaged unit from Amazon "Warehouse" deals. A week later I saw the same unit, NIB and unopened, for 5 bucks less than the Amazon warehouse price at a hardware store.

[jdedmon91]

I use Prime Amazon. Mainly because we have family on the west coast and b day or Christmas presents are almost always shipped. We can save a good bit money just in shipping cost alone. It more than pays the prime cost.

Now to EBay. I purchase items there especially for the price point, sometimes I get items on the free shipping from EBay that is shipped through Amazon. Some sellers must be using both platforms to sell.

On either platform one does need to comparison shop, however the shipping cost for most items makes a lot of my decisions for me. If I purchase a tool item from Travers it’s always $14 UPS shipping, so if I can source it from Amazon or EBay I may pay a bit more but the shipping cost is less. This week I needed an air filter for a project, I wanted to use one that is on racing kart engines. The filter was $8 but because they only ship UPS I paid $14 for shipping. But this is something that is not available locally. I’d would have to drive an hour to get. What kills me for 1/2 the price this item could have been mailed and the same delivery.


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[Bob La Londe]

I'm not a big fan of Travers, but I do price check them. They sent me a drill index once with missing bits and broken rivets. After I returned it they cancelled the sale instead of sending me one that was complete and not broken. My time is my most valuable resource and they willfully wasted it.

[Dave C]

I can honestly say that I have had pretty good luck using Amazon. However, a couple months ago I ordered a step block clamp set there, and the wife added a case of cat food to my order. The cat food came in a few days minus the clamp set, while the tracking info said both had been delivered. I called Amazon, and eventually, got a replacement. It took a while because the item was out of stock. Actually Amazon credited my account, and I had to reorder when the item became available. I should add that the same item now had a slight price increase. Good that there was no immediate need for the clamp set.

[Paul Alciatore]

Amazon's price was better than E-Bay's? That sounds a little strange because about a year ago I was checking into the cost of selling on various sites, including Amazon and E-Bay and E-Bay's fees were hands down less. But I guess that things can change. I have to wonder just how a small seller can survive on any of them. But some do.

[johnd]

You, or rather your lack of checking both places, were taken advantage of by an "arbitrage" seller. Someone who has NOTHING to sell. What they DO have is software that copies Amazon listings and turns them into eBay listings at a higher price. They don't buy anything until they already have it sold! And instead of shipping to them it goes direct to you, (drop shipped). They make a dollar on the deal for doing nothing but having a computer running. eBay claims they don't allow it but it's rampant.