EBay - Amazon Novice Buyer

Just_Passing_Bi

I'm a novice using Ebay / Amazon, however looking at "buy it now" "Brand named" designer clothing / underwear / shoes, etc., etc., seem no cheaper than places like TK Maxx / Debenhams (25% discount) etc.

Am I missing something?

hiccup123

could be a business seller selling or someone who wants to make their money back on an unwanted item. also i have paid full price for something i really wanted but couldn't find it on line anywhere

Crowqueen

Neither site are guaranteed to be cheaper than offline. People will sell for what other people are prepared to pay - if something is sought after then the value will hold its own online. There may be fewer overheads but that sometimes mean the seller will be happy to make more profit.

Just_Passing_Bi

Thanks all for the advice

Crowqueen wrote: »

Neither site are guaranteed to be cheaper than offline

I think I held the belief "Ebay / Amazon" were cheaper than High Street retailers

Crowqueen

Amazon can be a lot cheaper on some media items but on some things they are about the same as on the high street - the convenience for me lies in a 'one-stop shop' and as a seller I list stuff that will get me a lot more money than your average cheap fiction paperback. I just sold a Doctor Who book for £8.48 net of fees - I didn't check but it was quite an old book, in relatively good condition but not pristine, but my boyfriend tells me that one is sought after because it explains one of the Doctor's regenerations much better than some novels based in the universe. However, an early series of House will sell for relatively little compared to the new price, presumably because they are not terribly uncommon or sought-after.

eBay has always been a good place for people to find a market value of items which accurately reflects the state of the market. All other things being equal, items will normally reach a good price because of the significant buyer traffic (as opposed to some other sites) and ease for sellers to upload things. I came across it when I was looking for Soviet memorabilia as a researcher (and collector) and found it much easier to get such things on eBay than in junk shops at home.

However, the belief that eBay can be cheaper than the high street persists, and sometimes it's true - but for consumer durables sold new in bulk rather than for sought-after items. The lack of overheads does make some things cheaper, to the extent that I marvel that anyone will spend £10 on an 8GB USB stick in an offline shop when you can get perfectly good branded ones on Amazon for £3-£5 each.

But for a rare stamp or vintage/branded dress, I think that the traffic means that people will offer what it's worth and in fact that eBay value becomes the market price.

Just_Passing_Bi

Looking at items on Ebay from "Top rated Sellers" seems more expensive than High Street stores.

Calvin Klein underwear average price for 3 pack on Ebay / Amazon £25.00, same as TK Maxx, not sure where the competion is for "Top rated sellers"

soolin

Just_Passing_Bi wrote: »

Looking at items on Ebay from "Top rated Sellers" seems more expensive than High Street stores.

Calvin Klein underwear average price for 3 pack on Ebay / Amazon £25.00, same as TK Maxx, not sure where the competion is for "Top rated sellers"

No one needs to see how competitive they are, it is a futile exercise. Sellers wouldn't sell on ebay or anywhere if they didn't have a market and buyers for their goods.

Anyway, you are assuming an able bodied shopper living within a short distance of a town with shops. The moment you factor in the thousands of people with ebay accounts living in the remoter parts of the uK, or maybe housebound, or even in a city where public transport is expensive you begin to see why there is a market.

Like you I can walk to a TK Maxx, but that does not apply to everyone even here on MSE. If i lived a few miles further out I would have to drive in to town, costing me petrol or bus money- parking alone would add at least £2 to my purchase.

Eveyrthing I sell I make a profit on, however I make nothing and buy everything from easily accessed sources- and I suspect most other sellers do the same. With some leg work my buyers could find my sources- but they don't, they buy from me instead and long may it continue.

Crowqueen

The way I see it, some postage charges are less than the bus fare it would cost me to get to and from town. If I'm on my own for a week and my parents are away, I simply buy food online. It costs £4.70 to get to Morrisons and back and £3.50 - depending on the time of day - to order from Tesco.

There are also a lot of things - memorabilia, stamps, postcards, collectable items - you simply can't get elsewhere other than on eBay unless you live within spitting distance of a good flea market or a big city. At the moment eBay and a selection of specialist websites (e.g. Delcampe for stamp and postcard collectors and traders) are the only places to buy and sell some items.

I was very disappointed when I went to Oxford a month or two ago to try and find cheap academic books. While there was a good selection of politics books, my subject is law, and whilst some politics books give insight into legal theory and jurisprudence, the only way to get some good books on e.g. human rights is to browse eBay and Amazon. In s/h shops they had a lot of textbooks and statute books, presumably discarded by students, but no books on theory, whereas for politics there were shelves and shelves of interesting stuff. On Amazon there is much more choice.

Maybe people selling those kind of books are selling off old stock cheap or something rather than actually selling secondhand. I get the feeling politics changes so fast that people constantly need to recycle their books and buy new editions, while law changes less fast so books don't change hands so much.

However, you can't beat browsing through antiquarian bookshops. I find it less easy to find good 19th century books online, because I'm buying for the 'feel' of the book and the contents aren't readily apparent from a synopsis. I've found a couple of treasures on eBay and eBid that were relatively safe bets (an compiled yearbook of 1880s magazines and an 1870s medical almanac), but nothing like that gets sold on Amazon - it's not easy even to list pre-ISBN books - and it's difficult to browse eBay/eBid in quite the same way.