Author Topic: EEVblog #498 - How to get a $50 Oscilloscope on Ebay  (Read 83986 times)

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Offline Herr R aus B

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Re: EEVblog #498 - How to get a $50 Oscilloscope on Ebay
« Reply #50 on: July 26, 2013, 07:50:04 am »
Great - I simply laughed my ass off! I think, these rants are the absolute essence of the entire eevblog stuff. Love it! You get another photo calendar next year - that's for sure :-)

Regards

Axel

PS: I just checked it out for Germany - Phillips, Hameg, of course Voltcraft (cheap stuff) and even one Tektroinix dual channel, 50MHz went off for under 50€ :-) That's some 70 AUD - unfortunately also in Germany this kinda stuff is rather expensive (compared to the U.S. at least - but also you have to take into account our generally higher living costs and avarage salaries)

PPS: More rants plz! :-)
 

Offline EEVblogTopic starter

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Re: EEVblog #498 - How to get a $50 Oscilloscope on Ebay
« Reply #51 on: July 26, 2013, 11:05:05 am »
PPS: More rants plz! :-)

I have a new segment coming soon that will do just that.
 

Offline tinhead

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Re: EEVblog #498 - How to get a $50 Oscilloscope on Ebay
« Reply #52 on: July 26, 2013, 12:00:26 pm »
PPS: More rants plz! :-)

I have a new segment coming soon that will do just that.

yeah, good idea. There are much more than enought things to got a rant.
I don't want to be human! I want to see gamma rays, I want to hear X-rays, and I want to smell dark matter ...
I want to reach out with something other than these prehensile paws and feel the solar wind of a supernova flowing over me.
 

Offline dentaku

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Re: EEVblog #498 - How to get a $50 Oscilloscope on Ebay
« Reply #53 on: July 26, 2013, 12:13:07 pm »
OK. That's logical. I guess it would only be a partial test so I guess it would at least be good for testing if it's not dead.

Plus I know it won't do anything bad to my MP3 player because I just watched this video http://www.eevblog.com/2012/05/18/eevblog-279-how-not-to-blow-up-your-oscilloscope/ :)

I'm looking for an oscilloscope for working with audio (oscillators/filters and all things synth related) so I won't need anything terribly high frequency which means any old analog oscilloscope will probably do as long as it works and triggers correctly.

Sure, it'll work, but it's not a stable signal, so it'll do jack shit for testing the trigger, which you should do.
« Last Edit: July 26, 2013, 01:46:44 pm by dentaku »
 

Offline Sigmoid

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Re: EEVblog #498 - How to get a $50 Oscilloscope on Ebay
« Reply #54 on: July 26, 2013, 01:36:37 pm »
but I grew up in Hungary (for the geographically challenged, that is Eastern Europe).
:-DD :-DD
You made my afternoon!

If Hungary invaded and conquered Turkey, would the resulting country be named "Full" ?

...aaactually, Turkey did invade Hungary in the XVI. century...  :-DD
 

Offline Herr R aus B

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Re: EEVblog #498 - How to get a $50 Oscilloscope on Ebay
« Reply #55 on: July 26, 2013, 01:45:15 pm »
PPS: More rants plz! :-)

I have a new segment coming soon that will do just that.

Sorry for being off topic - but also planning for tutorials on effective ranting? ;-)
« Last Edit: July 26, 2013, 01:47:59 pm by Herr R aus B »
 

Offline Terabyte2007

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Re: EEVblog #498 - How to get a $50 Oscilloscope on Ebay
« Reply #56 on: July 26, 2013, 01:50:41 pm »
Dave, I agree with you. I found this gem a few years back for about 50.00 bucks. A Tektronix 2246 100MHz 4 channel like new! I also got a box of probes and several brand new unopened Tektronix probes.

Eric Haney, MCSE, EE, DMC-D
Electronics Designer, Prototype Builder
 

Offline EEVblogTopic starter

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Re: EEVblog #498 - How to get a $50 Oscilloscope on Ebay
« Reply #57 on: July 26, 2013, 01:53:25 pm »
Dave, I agree with you. I found this gem a few years back for about 50.00 bucks. A Tektronix 2246 100MHz 4 channel like new! I also got a box of probes and several brand new unopened Tektronix probes.

Wow, you got that on ebay at that price?
 

Offline Terabyte2007

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Re: EEVblog #498 - How to get a $50 Oscilloscope on Ebay
« Reply #58 on: July 26, 2013, 01:59:11 pm »
Sure did! And it was local pickup too! I love this scope! I may buy a new one soon, but I will keep this one in service...
Eric Haney, MCSE, EE, DMC-D
Electronics Designer, Prototype Builder
 

Offline senso

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Re: EEVblog #498 - How to get a $50 Oscilloscope on Ebay
« Reply #59 on: July 26, 2013, 02:01:57 pm »
Great - I simply laughed my ass off! I think, these rants are the absolute essence of the entire eevblog stuff. Love it! You get another photo calendar next year - that's for sure :-)

Regards

Axel

PS: I just checked it out for Germany - Phillips, Hameg, of course Voltcraft (cheap stuff) and even one Tektroinix dual channel, 50MHz went off for under 50€ :-) That's some 70 AUD - unfortunately also in Germany this kinda stuff is rather expensive (compared to the U.S. at least - but also you have to take into account our generally higher living costs and avarage salaries)

PPS: More rants plz! :-)

There are so many great deals in ebay.de, but for some reason almost no one wants to ship to anywhere outside Germany, and they always say they don't ship overseas, didn't know that Portugal was overseas, I don't  really understand what is the problem to ship the items :(
 

Offline EEVblogTopic starter

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Re: EEVblog #498 - How to get a $50 Oscilloscope on Ebay
« Reply #60 on: July 26, 2013, 02:10:31 pm »
Sure did! And it was local pickup too!

Local pickup only? Those usually go a lot less than ones that offer postage.
You could have instantly flipped that for 3-4 times that price.
 

Offline Terabyte2007

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Re: EEVblog #498 - How to get a $50 Oscilloscope on Ebay
« Reply #61 on: July 26, 2013, 02:18:24 pm »
Sure did! And it was local pickup too!

Local pickup only? Those usually go a lot less than ones that offer postage.
You could have instantly flipped that for 3-4 times that price.

I know, but the functionality at that price was far to cool to part with! I looked up the probes, they cost more than I paid for the scope! The deals are there, you just have to spend a little time to look.
Eric Haney, MCSE, EE, DMC-D
Electronics Designer, Prototype Builder
 

Offline Sigmoid

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Re: EEVblog #498 - How to get a $50 Oscilloscope on Ebay
« Reply #62 on: July 26, 2013, 02:22:05 pm »
There are so many great deals in ebay.de, but for some reason almost no one wants to ship to anywhere outside Germany, and they always say they don't ship overseas, didn't know that Portugal was overseas, I don't  really understand what is the problem to ship the items :(

Germans are like that. It's not simply they don't want to ship abroad, they don't want to ship, PERIOD! Also, they don't use Paypal. If you're checking ebay.de, be prepared to get in the car, go to Germany, pick the thing up, and pay in cash!

By the way, I'd be more than interested in a blog episode about choosing a cost-effective function generator for n00bs... I mean having a scope without a good function generator is borderline meaningless. XD
 

Offline staxquad

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Re: EEVblog #498 - How to get a $50 Oscilloscope on Ebay
« Reply #63 on: July 26, 2013, 02:40:38 pm »
PPS: More rants plz! :-)

I have a new segment coming soon that will do just that.

New segment will be called Whinging Wednesdays?
"TEPCO Fukushima you long time"
You say Vegemite, I say Yosemite. (Ve-gem-mit-tee, Yo-zey-might)  
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Offline Herr R aus B

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Re: EEVblog #498 - How to get a $50 Oscilloscope on Ebay
« Reply #64 on: July 26, 2013, 02:41:28 pm »

Germans are like that. It's not simply they don't want to ship abroad, they don't want to ship, PERIOD! Also, they don't use Paypal. If you're checking ebay.de, be prepared to get in the car, go to Germany, pick the thing up, and pay in cash!

I really love these global statements... All Germans wear leather trousers, dance "Schuhplattler", drink beer - and of course, they don't like to ship items... You bet!

 :(

I do ship items - as long as the other side pays for it. I also use PayPal whenever I can. Maybe I am not german...

At least that's for sure: I am not hungarian - saves me from dancing czardas all day long...

Oh man...
 

Offline Neganur

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Re: EEVblog #498 - How to get a $50 Oscilloscope on Ebay
« Reply #65 on: July 26, 2013, 02:55:19 pm »
Germans are like that. It's not simply they don't want to ship abroad, they don't want to ship, PERIOD! Also, they don't use Paypal. If you're checking ebay.de, be prepared to get in the car, go to Germany, pick the thing up, and pay in cash!

Paypal had a poor reputation in Germany. Also, the majority that does not accept paypal is either tired of paying all kinds of fees on stuff they sell or prefer cash/bank transfer simply due to the buyer/seller's protection. There are strict rules regarding how the seller has to ship items to be eligible for seller's protection (tracking number for example) and tracking is not available to quite a few countries.

On top of that, shipping abroad is really expensive once an item surpasses 5-10 kg and some are just really tired of the buyer moaning about shipping.

Also, some German fellas on ebay (who sell oscilloscopes and the like) are older folks who don't like the idea of having yet another online account since the online banking service in Germany works well enough for them. Others embrace paypal.

I've had no problems with German sellers so far, sometimes I've even asked if I may send them an email with a DHL postage pdf that will be sufficient for mailing things abroad, even though the auction was restricted as "shipping only to Germany". It's usually just the default way the auction form suggests it for them and never even imagined that somebody from abroad could be interested.

There is a lot of fraud and shady stuff too, and some may simply refuse to take any risk at all.
 

Offline ElectroIrradiator

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Re: EEVblog #498 - How to get a $50 Oscilloscope on Ebay
« Reply #66 on: July 26, 2013, 03:09:02 pm »
Germans are like that. It's not simply they don't want to ship abroad, they don't want to ship, PERIOD! Also, they don't use Paypal. If you're checking ebay.de, be prepared to get in the car, go to Germany, pick the thing up, and pay in cash!

Germans rarely use PayPal for private transactions within their country, and neither does the Danes. The reason is that both countries have perfectly good and free(!) national wire transfer services in place, to which absolutely everybody is connected. In Denmark this is mandated by law. Here you *have* to be able to both send and receive funds online using this system, and it is against the law to dictate otherwise.

This makes PayPal a superfluous leech in any personal, economic transaction. It is also the reason why you see all the funny verbal legwork on eBay.de, trying to get clueless people to pay for something, PayPal's services, which is essentially free, Überweisung. Additionally, as a seller you frequently earn less when selling stuff out of the country, as you have to take PayPal's cut into consideration when receiving the payment.

That said, quite a few sellers on ebay.de do sell out of the country.
 

Offline iva

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Re: EEVblog #498 - How to get a $50 Oscilloscope on Ebay
« Reply #67 on: July 26, 2013, 03:19:39 pm »
I've been living in Germany for more than 10 years, bought a lot of stuff on ebay.de since then and I had only a few cases when I needed to "überweisen" via the bank because the seller didn't accept paypal.

Here shipping for small/medium sized packages is not that expensive and the normal post works like a charm (at least comparing to the Italian or US ones), in 2 working days you usually get the stuff, when buying on amazon it's almost pointless to get "prime".

So I've more than happy about buying stuff on ebay in Germany.

The only "shady" episode I can remember was with my Rigol scope, ebay called me over to see if I had been scammed by the guy as apparently he disappeared without leaving a trace and had lots of stuff pending - luckily I got my scope and it worked OK.
... but this happened on ebay UK  ::)
 

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Re: EEVblog #498 - How to get a $50 Oscilloscope on Ebay
« Reply #68 on: July 26, 2013, 03:25:10 pm »
Germans rarely use PayPal for private transactions within their country, and neither does the Danes. The reason is that both countries have perfectly good and free(!) national wire transfer services in place, to which absolutely everybody is connected.
In this system, do the buyers have any recourse if the seller decides not to ship anything or something not meeting the description (eg. a brick instead of a scope)?
 

Offline Aldobrandi

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Re: EEVblog #498 - How to get a $50 Oscilloscope on Ebay
« Reply #69 on: July 26, 2013, 03:30:17 pm »
I thought I would chime in with my one time experience with govliquidations.com
I got a fully functional tek 475 (they must have been selling over 20 of these on the same event) for $60. The catch is yes shipping was about $70. Still as far as I'm concerned $130 is a decent price for a good ole' 200MHz scope :) I'd say it's worth having a look and subscribe for their newsletters. They had a bunch of Frequency standards, calibrators and interesting bits of equipment that were sold on their own (not in a lot with 30 other pieces) that would have made someone willing to spend $200 happy.
Just my 2 cents.

Edit: if you happen to be lucky enough to live near Lockbourne, OH, a sizable portion of the stuff govliquidations sells comes from there, so no shipping cost :)
« Last Edit: July 26, 2013, 03:35:55 pm by Aldobrandi »
 

Offline Herr R aus B

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Re: EEVblog #498 - How to get a $50 Oscilloscope on Ebay
« Reply #70 on: July 26, 2013, 03:33:48 pm »
Germans rarely use PayPal for private transactions within their country, and neither does the Danes. The reason is that both countries

---- 8< ----

consideration when receiving the payment.


Tak før forklaringen og hilsen til Danmark :-)

I looked up the current pricing of DHL (= German Post) - given the fact, that such an old scope might be considered being heavy, I looked up the range from 20 - 31,5kg. 40€ within EU, 55€ for european countries out of the EU, 87€ for say western coutnries out of the EU, 121€ to the rest of the world.

Now - would you be willing to pay this shipping? Honestly, I wouldn't be. Neither would I rely on other parcel services and in my case I strictly refuse sending or receiving items via UPS whenever possible. Anyways - the are not significantly cheaper compared to DHL if it is about shiping to locations out of Germany - if they offer intl. shipping at all.
« Last Edit: July 26, 2013, 03:52:54 pm by Herr R aus B »
 

Offline ElectroIrradiator

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Re: EEVblog #498 - How to get a $50 Oscilloscope on Ebay
« Reply #71 on: July 26, 2013, 04:12:40 pm »
In this system, do the buyers have any recourse if the seller decides not to ship anything or something not meeting the description (eg. a brick instead of a scope)?

Transactions can be reversed in case of fraud or mistakes/errors. Not sure how frequently this happens, or how easy it is, as I have yet had the need to do so. Actually, come to think of it, I have once had an erroneous deposit backed out of an account, though I didn't have to do anything myself to fix the problem.

Occasionally people do actually try to abuse the system the way you describe, sometimes systematically, yet that must be considered a fairly stupid thing to do. Both parties in a transaction are uniquely identified as particular persons, and transactions are traceable going very far back in time. So if people cheat, they will get caught.
 

Offline Sigmoid

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Re: EEVblog #498 - How to get a $50 Oscilloscope on Ebay
« Reply #72 on: July 26, 2013, 04:25:38 pm »

Germans are like that. It's not simply they don't want to ship abroad, they don't want to ship, PERIOD! Also, they don't use Paypal. If you're checking ebay.de, be prepared to get in the car, go to Germany, pick the thing up, and pay in cash!

I really love these global statements... All Germans wear leather trousers, dance "Schuhplattler", drink beer - and of course, they don't like to ship items... You bet!

Sorry man, no harm intended at all. Please take that comment with tongue in cheek - in fact half my family is German and I absolutely love Germany.

That was my general experience with ebay.de. I know it's not all-encompassing, but it's quite prevalent - of course I'm aware of the reasons, like the good banking system for the lack of paypal option, but that doesn't help you if you live abroad.
 

Offline Herr R aus B

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Re: EEVblog #498 - How to get a $50 Oscilloscope on Ebay
« Reply #73 on: July 26, 2013, 05:58:59 pm »
Sorry man, no harm intended at all. Please take that comment with tongue in cheek - in fact half my family is German [...]

OK  ;D

Hey - why don't you just order the stuff to their place and then ask them to bring it on the next visit?  ;) That's exactly what I did with all the stuff from Element14 and adafruit. I let it ship to friends in Boston and took it home with me when returning from my world trip. Well, OK - I had to handle german customs, which sucks, but what the heck - all went very well and I saved a lot of money - especially on the raspberry pis I got... 10 bucks on each... such things are ridiculously expensive here - especially when taking into account, that the pi comes from the UK and the UK is in the EU and just one flight hour from here...
 

Offline dentaku

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Re: EEVblog #498 - How to get a $50 Oscilloscope on Ebay
« Reply #74 on: July 26, 2013, 07:40:19 pm »
Gordon Mah Ung http://www.maximumpc.com/tags/gordon_mah_ung at Maximum PC does his rant of the week at the end of their podcast every TWO weeks. (but it's still called rant of THE WEEK)

PPS: More rants plz! :-)

I have a new segment coming soon that will do just that.
« Last Edit: July 27, 2013, 01:50:11 pm by dentaku »
 


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