EEVblog Electronics Community Forum
Products => Test Equipment => Topic started by: strawberry on May 07, 2022, 10:03:14 pm
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how to fund test equipment
and how to find some for repairs
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Work 😅, as for how Dave finds good used kit I'm yet to find out. (ebay can be more expensive than new, UK at least)
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how to fund test equipment
and how to find some for repairs
This might not work everywhere or for everyone, but I found some people that sell surplus equipment on eBay and offered to do repairs for them in exchange for 'stuff'. One took me up on it, but has since moved further away. I got to fix a bunch of stuff and keep some in return. The other didn't want to be involved in that way, but I bought the stuff from them cheaply (I was their 'bottom feeder') and then fixed and sold some of it myself on eBay, of course keeping too much for myself. Unfortunately the price, at least here, of most of this stuff has just gone way, way up--so I'm not collecting much anymore. Fortunately I still have a fair backlog of relics to refurbish.
And of course, I spent some money on newer stuff too.
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seems US ebay where all good stuff, auctions are joke people throwing money at it like its new and in working order, not considering parts cost and potential time spent nor risk beyond repairs
got 33120A, not fun, just blown fuse and cracked SMD 50ohm resistor, now this company is not selling for parts/repairs anymore and others as well
34401A, a bit fun, bought it as working but later found that something was wrong with ohms range
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seems US ebay where all good stuff, auctions are joke people throwing money at it like its new and in working order, not considering parts cost and potential time spent nor risk beyond repairs
got 33120A, not fun, just blown fuse and cracked SMD 50ohm resistor, now this company is not selling for parts/repairs anymore and others as well
34401A, a bit fun, bought it as working but later found that something was wrong with ohms range
Actually the entire USA is a joke in that regard right now and people are throwing huge, stupid money at houses, cars, etc. Nobody stands back and says "Whoa! That's too much!". I'll ride the bus before I'll pay $10,000 over MSRP to a dealer for a car.
I'll admit I've sold a few things recently for over-the-top dollar. At least when I sell something, I try and make sure it is in good working order or if not, fully and accurately described. But a lot of what you see on eBay is crap sold by a seller that may not know much--or pretends not to--and has just looked up the price on eBay's fake system and that's what they ask.
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I did the same as bdunham7 only I started helping customers in surplus store.
traded time for surplus equipment and the adventure began. I now test his equipment and buy surplus computers to fund my hobby.
Receiving market prices for items as a seller is the basis of capitalism. As a seller I am never ashamed of prices people are willing to pay. Why should I be?
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Actually the entire USA is a joke in that regard
Dont worry you aint got exclusivity rights on that,here in the uk its much the same.
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As a seller I am never ashamed of prices people are willing to pay. Why should I be?
Sure I'll take the money. And in most cases I think the buyers (from me) are getting some value and they seem happy. But what has taken the wind out of the sails in the fix-and-resell area is that even the garbage is expensive so there's not much room between a fixer-upper and a finished product. One reason that my surplus seller isn't sending me much is that we discovered that fixing the stuff doesn't seem to add much value anymore.
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That's true.
You can't fix equipment and then only get a few hundred dollars more than broken.
Not worth the time unless it is something I want to keep for myself.
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I ran the finances for the last few years of test gear purchases with test gear purchases. Two things:
1. Arbitrage. Find a market with cheap gear and sell on a market with expensive gear.
2. Add value. Buy broken test gear, fix it and sell it.
Decided last year to have a few months off and a mid life crisis :-DD
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This somehow reminds me of a saying we've got about general aviation:
Here's how to make a small fortune in general aviation: Start off with a big fortune... ;)
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This might not work everywhere or for everyone, but I found some people that sell surplus equipment on eBay and offered to do repairs for them in exchange for 'stuff'. One took me up on it, but has since moved further away. I got to fix a bunch of stuff and keep some in return. The other didn't want to be involved in that way, but I bought the stuff from them cheaply (I was their 'bottom feeder') and then fixed and sold some of it myself on eBay, of course keeping too much for myself. Unfortunately the price, at least here, of most of this stuff has just gone way, way up--so I'm not collecting much anymore. Fortunately I still have a fair backlog of relics to refurbish.
I noticed the same thing, as recently as 2019 I was finding quite a few good deals on used gear and I collected a fair amount of test equipment. Then the pandemic hit and I thought with all the people getting laid off and furloughed there would be a lot of deals to be found as people change focus and sell off excess assets to raise money. Turns out that didn't happen, prices on old test equipment went up and up and up and I don't even know what's driving it. The ebay market on newer gear is just strange too, many times I have seen entry level stuff like the Rigol scopes sell for literally more than they cost brand new from Tequipment. Makes no sense to me, why would somebody pay more on ebay for a used one than it costs to get a brand new in the box one?
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Years ago in Germany it was easy to find broken test gear for cheap and repair it.
These days I see broken test equipment go sometimes for more than working gear, especially when it has the name Keithley.
So, you have to have deep pockets for your addiction.
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I don't think deep pockets are required. Realistic expectations are however.
As james_s says though, there are some bad deals out there. A 15 year old TDS scope will go for 75% of the value of a brand new Siglent with far better specifications. That's a very very very poor investment but people are still making it.
Honestly the best thing now is if you have lots of old rancid kit that is past or near end of life and you want some new stuff quick before it blows up. Good time to be alive for those folk!
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I don't think deep pockets are required. Realistic expectations are however.
As james_s says though, there are some bad deals out there. A 15 year old TDS scope will go for 75% of the value of a brand new Siglent with far better specifications. That's a very very very poor investment but people are still making it.
Honestly the best thing now is if you have lots of old rancid kit that is past or near end of life and you want some new stuff quick before it blows up. Good time to be alive for those folk!
I would take the TDS scope over the Siglent even if the price was the same, but a significant part of that is I have a fair number of probes including a couple of HV differential probes that have the Tekprobe interface and I'm familiar with and like the Tek user interface. I also really dislike the non-square graticule segments Siglent uses. The high prices on gear extend well beyond that though, *everything* is inflated.
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I don't think deep pockets are required. Realistic expectations are however.
As james_s says though, there are some bad deals out there. A 15 year old TDS scope will go for 75% of the value of a brand new Siglent with far better specifications. That's a very very very poor investment but people are still making it.
Honestly the best thing now is if you have lots of old rancid kit that is past or near end of life and you want some new stuff quick before it blows up. Good time to be alive for those folk!
I would take the TDS scope over the Siglent even if the price was the same, but a significant part of that is I have a fair number of probes including a couple of HV differential probes that have the Tekprobe interface and I'm familiar with and like the Tek user interface. I also really dislike the non-square graticule segments Siglent uses. The high prices on gear extend well beyond that though, *everything* is inflated.
That's a fair enough justification. Same approach as camera bodies and lenses.
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Yes, it seems to be getting harder and harder to find a test equipment "bargain" on eBay. Part of the problem is that once a piece sells for $X.XX, then every potential seller thinks it is worth $X.XX and prices their listing accordingly.
What I've been doing to fund my test equipment addiction is to look around my house for things that I haven't used for a long time (or forgotten I've even had). Sell them and use the funds to buy test equipment.
I had an old vintage AM/FM/Stereo receiver that I would have thought was worth $100, or maybe even $200. It went for over $1,400 in the auction!
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how to fund test equipment
and how to find some for repairs
Certainly harder than it used to be although there is some higher value stuff for repairs around if your skillset is up to it. Seek out local stuff first and on any local online sellers where you might find better bargains. Keep your eyes out for stuff wrongly and/or poorly advertised which you might just get for a song.
Once some skill and knowledge is gained approach a TE manufacturer with a view to selling their stuff locally and if successful in a short time profits might allow you to accumulate an array of demo units that you can use for your personal needs.......unless your new TE business steals all your once spare time ! :o :horse:
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And always look for misspelled items on ebay, still some great deals from time to time.
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I hate to the rain on the whoa is me parade, but you have to understand how you contribute to a problem.
I would suggest the problem here is patience. I've generally had no issue getting test gear at fair prices.
The solution to your problems is simply not to pay the price you think is too high and wait for something that is. I assure you, they are there.
Second suggestion, send appropriate offers even if you think its ridiculous. Sellers do learn, and they do price adjust.
Lastly, the issue is compounded now because sellers are willing to pay more for the gear they get so are now stuck in higher. The market will adjust IF you don't contribute to it.
Only pay what is fair and the problem solves itself. If you have people overpaying, let the market flush them out. I just paid $340 for something advertised for 800. Don't be limp males - make hard nosed offers and write the sellers.
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Yes, it seems to be getting harder and harder to find a test equipment "bargain" on eBay. Part of the problem is that once a piece sells for $X.XX, then every potential seller thinks it is worth $X.XX and prices their listing accordingly.
What I've been doing to fund my test equipment addiction is to look around my house for things that I haven't used for a long time (or forgotten I've even had). Sell them and use the funds to buy test equipment.
I had an old vintage AM/FM/Stereo receiver that I would have thought was worth $100, or maybe even $200. It went for over $1,400 in the auction!
This is an excellent suggestion. I don't know anyone that can't flip stuff in their own house for $1000 or more. Just in tools you dont use.
What brand amp was it?
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Only pay what is fair and the problem solves itself. If you have people overpaying, let the market flush them out. I just paid $340 for something advertised for 800. Don't be limp males - make hard nosed offers and write the sellers.
I've never paid $340 for any used equipment ever. I don't want to pay a 'fair' price, I want to pay next to nothing. Then again, I do have a prescription for Cialis.
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I've never paid $340 for any used equipment ever. I don't want to pay a 'fair' price, I want to pay next to nothing. Then again, I do have a prescription for Cialis.
That clarifies things.
On the bright side, I do see a lot of items go expired with no bids, that has an effect. I think whoever said it earlier is on the nose: the beer flu has created a lot of newly bored people buying things they normally never would.
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On the bright side, I do see a lot of items go expired with no bids, that has an effect.
For the most part, selling on bids is usually a huge mistake selling TE and used electronics. I bought 6 or so things from one seller at their minimum bids, and a some others for not much more. They stopped doing that. Nice condition Tek 2221 and 2245 for $49 and $29 respectively, things like that.
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On the bright side, I do see a lot of items go expired with no bids, that has an effect.
For the most part, selling on bids is usually a huge mistake selling TE and used electronics. I bought 6 or so things from one seller at their minimum bids, and a some others for not much more. They stopped doing that. Nice condition Tek 2221 and 2245 for $49 and $29 respectively, things like that.
Depends what it is. Sniping idiots listing buy it nows is a winner sometimes:
Scored these for £120 each and sold them almost immediately for £250 each :-DD
(https://imgur.com/52VcjKU.jpg)
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when someone get things for free is not helping either
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Well, I am strictly a "bottom feeder" when it comes to eBay test equipment. And I do have patience. But it seems that eBay is filled up with overpriced stuff and my patience is getting a little thin.
Many times I have seen auctions for vintage pieces with some ridiculous starting price like $1,000. When one checks the "completed/sold" listings, one sees that the same model sold a few times in the previous months for around $50. I've often wanted to e-mail the seller and ask him if he/her was on drugs or something. Don't they bother to look at the sold listings before they price their own?
On the other hand, a few times I've seen very low prices on a piece that was advertised as broken or for repair. From the eBay pictures, it was clear to me what was wrong. A good example is a frequency counter with an error on the display because the internal/external oscillator switch on the rear panel was set to external. Just for fun, I have e-mailed those sellers and suggested they remedy the situation and relist the piece as functional with a higher price. Never once did any of the sellers respond to my suggestion.
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Probably they dont want to deal with ebay warranty when item turns to customer broken, sold as is/no returns ... .
some devices and faults, too risky to take especially for asked price (broken complicated or expensive custom part) (no schematics )
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Probably they dont want to deal with ebay warranty when item turns to customer broken, sold as is/no returns ... .
some devices and faults, too risky to take especially for asked price (broken complicated or expensive custom part) (no schematics )
I've sold brand new things as "Parts not working" and they always sell for more than if i'd listed them as new :-//
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Makes no sense to me, why would somebody pay more on ebay for a used one than it costs to get a brand new in the box one?
Maybe because the person on eBay actually has one for sale, and the new item seller does not actually have any at the advertised price?
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Makes no sense to me, why would somebody pay more on ebay for a used one than it costs to get a brand new in the box one?
Maybe because the person on eBay actually has one for sale, and the new item seller does not actually have any at the advertised price?
But that isn't the case here. Tequipment has plenty of Rigol scopes in stock, or did at the time I saw this, a friend of mine bought one from them. It's not a one-off occurrence either, I've seen a handful of them actually sell for as much or more than the price of a new one. In most cases I would expect a used item even if only lightly used to sell for significantly less than brand new.
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Makes no sense to me, why would somebody pay more on ebay for a used one than it costs to get a brand new in the box one?
Maybe because the person on eBay actually has one for sale, and the new item seller does not actually have any at the advertised price?
But that isn't the case here. Tequipment has plenty of Rigol scopes in stock, or did at the time I saw this, a friend of mine bought one from them. It's not a one-off occurrence either, I've seen a handful of them actually sell for as much or more than the price of a new one. In most cases I would expect a used item even if only lightly used to sell for significantly less than brand new.
This happens a lot with ham radio equipment in the UK and I can't get my head around it, lots of current items selling for more used than it does new. I can only think some people don't like buying from certain ham radio emporiums or just convenience of eBay. Bizarre whatever the reason.
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Yes, Ebay lately has been a real shit show. No, inflation and silly gas prices do not affect the prices of used TE but sellers seem to think so. The key is patience, patience, and more patience. Know what you want and what you're willing pay. And accept you may have to fix it. Don't discount local options like Craig's List and Facebook Marketplace. I have found TE dirt cheap on both. One of my best scores was on Facebook Marketplace. A thrift shop was selling two Type 547's, five 500 series plug-in's, and two scope carts for $200. It certainly was worth the 6 hour round trip drive.
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Yes, Ebay lately has been a real shit show. No, inflation and silly gas prices do not affect the prices of used TE but sellers seem to think so. The key is patience, patience, and more patience. Know what you want and what you're willing pay. And accept you may have to fix it. Don't discount local options like Craig's List and Facebook Marketplace. I have found TE dirt cheap on both. One of my best scores was on Facebook Marketplace. A thrift shop was selling two Type 547's, five 500 series plug-in's, and two scope carts for $200. It certainly was worth the 6 hour round trip drive.
Beyond any doubt, ebay's absolute worst policies are reserved for their sellers. Somewhere along the line, about 10 years ago they started to lose the plot with how they toyed with metrics to assess seller performance. In summary, they have crafted a set of parameters so convoluted, that it's pretty impossible to climb out of when you go below standard.
You wallow in this below standard crapola for months and months and months on end, at any point their idiotic suspension routines get you and goodbye. But if not, you listings are de-emphasized badly and your sales begin to suffer. Unfortunately, the lack of sales takes away the very thing you need to beat back these ratings, which is more positive ratings to bring you back to this magical "above standard" semi-perfection.
All the while a seller is below standard, their fees are way higher.
If you wanted to craft a stupider way to assure seller performance, you couldn't work as hard as Ebay has.
Ebay then sends you these stupid seller updates and it details, every time, how they are going to make it even harder on you. No matter how well you perform, 2 or 3 random transactions can go badly and thats it. There is a good seller forum called askpin where people have guerilla'd the hell out of selling platforms to bypass all these suspensions.
Meanwhile the Chinese sellers get a free pass on all their lost shipping, everything. And they pay less to ship from the redland to the US than we do intra-country.
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As a somewhat regular eBay seller you have to really fuck up to go below standard. I had one defect in ~500 transactions of which about 200+ were test gear. The defect was a bloody fleece I sold and it didn’t fit and the buyer was a retard.
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As a somewhat regular eBay seller you have to really fuck up to go below standard. I had one defect in ~500 transactions of which about 200+ were test gear. The defect was a bloody fleece I sold and it didn’t fit and the buyer was a retard.
That's a naive statement, and you should listen to others more often.
As an extensive seller with multiple accounts and tens of thousands of transactions within each of those multiple accounts, I have done this a touch more than you.
As a stable business, it's not viable. I quit a while ago.
The types of items you sell, price, category, etc all make a big difference in these seller ratings. In fact, with volume selling, let me explain how easy it is to lose it:
You can have 1 shipping bin go missing on 1 day and you are hosed. You may do 500 bins a year, so what. A bin usually has 40 or 60 packages. Try letting a problem like that get swallowed up by ebay's algorithms - no change. It's virtually impossible to survive it.
Who lost the bin? Who knows. Policy is policy. If you don't catch the problem fast enough, goodbye!
Another good way to eventually get banned is too many international shipments because they get lost. If you don't manage every single one perfectly, then bink... below standard. And they goodbye.
As a casual seller you don't notice because you don't deal in volume.
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Fair points on volume. Agree there. I wouldn't start a volume business on eBay though despite having the opportunity to do so many times. I prefer niche high profit stuff i.e. limited market, high interest. I can make 100 volume transactions of profit on a couple of sales :-//
(mostly because I hate having wall to wall packaging everywhere :-DD)
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This happens a lot with ham radio equipment in the UK and I can't get my head around it, lots of current items selling for more used than it does new. I can only think some people don't like buying from certain ham radio emporiums or just convenience of eBay. Bizarre whatever the reason.
I guess it's handy if you're the type that likes to play with gear for a bit then gets bored. Buy one, play around with it, sell it for at least what you paid and move on. Doesn't make any sense to me but whatever.
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As a somewhat regular eBay seller you have to really fuck up to go below standard. I had one defect in ~500 transactions of which about 200+ were test gear. The defect was a bloody fleece I sold and it didn’t fit and the buyer was a retard.
It only takes a few buyers like that to spoil the whole barrel. I sold on ebay for ~20 years before I ran into a buyer that truly pissed me off. I had something posted for a BIN "or best offer" and I got a message from this wanker asking "What is your lowest price?" WTF? My asking price is clearly listed, there is no "lowest price", money talks, make me an offer, whether I take it depends on whether I like you, how tired I am of stepping over the thing, etc. I ignore him and later he contacts me again asking if I'll take a certain amount so I said sure, just submit it as an offer. Well he says he's used up all his offers (lowballing below my auto-reject price) so I said fine, I'll relist it so he can buy it at that price. So I did and he bought it but then he sent me a message moaning about the sales tax that was being added and I told him I don't add tax, ebay does, and he says if he'd known about that he would have just bought local so I said fine, buy local then. Then he messages me yet again wanting me to jump through some hoops to list it in a way that he won't get charged the tax and at this point I'm so ticked off with the guy I just blocked him. Mind you my original asking price was under $200 and I don't even care about the money, it's the time wasting and incredible cheapness that pisses me off. I'd rather give the thing away to someone who will just take it and not dicker over $15 or whatever in sales tax. What an idiot.
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Another good way to eventually get banned is too many international shipments because they get lost. If you don't manage every single one perfectly, then bink... below standard. And they goodbye.
As a casual seller you don't notice because you don't deal in volume.
I don't do international shipments on ebay items, even as a casual seller it's too much hassle and risk, and since ebay charges fees on postage cost the more expensive the postage, the more I pay in fees. It just isn't worth it.
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I don't do international shipments on ebay items, even as a casual seller it's too much hassle and risk, and since ebay charges fees on postage cost the more expensive the postage, the more I pay in fees. It just isn't worth it.
Those are simple decisions someone in your position can make. In the positions I was in, international had be offered. Why? Mainly 30 messages a day "doooof do u ship to canada or what?" until you relent and offer it.
It's also numbers. You can't toss 10/20/30 perc of your revenue stream away because you dont want the bother. You'll fail.
That's the part ebay the socially responsible monstrosity has no conception of - they could have an ecosystem of stable sellers which could plan an operate their businesses without this idiotic sword of damocles hanging over them.
I've never seen an industry evolve such a body of control freaks as silicon valley has. It must be related to their social status, which is pathetically weak without this tech they squeeze the life out of.
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It's somewhat germane to this thread, so a word of warning to the community about buying gear since it tends to be higher priced than low dollar items that are not as easily scammable.
PayPal has an ugly loophole that is being used, the mechanics of I do not understand exactly.
From the other side, someone scams you to buy an item via paypal and their "protection" policies.
PayPal's "protection" policies are poor, and its being leveraged for scamming.
Once the scammer gets you to buy via paypal, they disappear, or various variations. Then paypal sends the BUYER down a long winded rabbit hole of "filing a claim" and escalation, and wait for the buyer, and its our policy and wadda wadda wait like the little inkling of a person you are for PAYPALICUS MAXIMUS to save you!
Anywhere from 1 to 3 months you get your money back.
You have to do a bunch of BS to get there.
The scammer is long gone and almost certainly has the money.
Paypal can suspend or reverse transactions instantly within well understood time periods. It never does unless you are Ebay, or a big player. They show the public one wall of inflexible policy, but behind that wall they have a full suite of administration tools that are designed specifically to unwind transactions.
This is PAYPAL protection, everyone. They have the tools to fix stuff immediately, but its labor intensive. So they don't. Because you are small and meaningless to a big data monster like this. And they have insurance. And you have been taught to pay more fees.
My lesson for you is to be careful because they give you as little protection as you will put up with.
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It's somewhat germane to this thread, so a word of warning to the community about buying gear since it tends to be higher priced than low dollar items that are not as easily scammable.
PayPal has an ugly loophole that is being used, the mechanics of I do not understand exactly.
From the other side, someone scams you to buy an item via paypal and their "protection" policies.
PayPal's "protection" policies are poor, and its being leveraged for scamming.
Once the scammer gets you to buy via paypal, they disappear, or various variations. Then paypal sends the BUYER down a long winded rabbit hole of "filing a claim" and escalation, and wait for the buyer, and its our policy and wadda wadda wait like the little inkling of a person you are for PAYPALICUS MAXIMUS to save you!
Anywhere from 1 to 3 months you get your money back.
You have to do a bunch of BS to get there.
The scammer is long gone and almost certainly has the money.
Paypal can suspend or reverse transactions instantly within well understood time periods. It never does unless you are Ebay, or a big player. They show the public one wall of inflexible policy, but behind that wall they have a full suite of administration tools that are designed specifically to unwind transactions.
This is PAYPAL protection, everyone. They have the tools to fix stuff immediately, but its labor intensive. So they don't. Because you are small and meaningless to a big data monster like this. And they have insurance. And you have been taught to pay more fees.
My lesson for you is to be careful because they give you as little protection as you will put up with.
Hate to say it but that hasn't been my experience with Paypal. Had a Chinese seller who wasn't shipping items I paid via Paypal. Escalated this to Paypal. They asked first to try to contact the seller directly. I did, no answer. Paypal tried to contact the seller. No answer. Within 10 days I was fully refunded. Absolutely no hassle.
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Hate to say it but that hasn't been my experience with Paypal. Had a Chinese seller who wasn't shipping items I paid via Paypal. Escalated this to Paypal. They asked first to try to contact the seller directly. I did, no answer. Paypal tried to contact the seller. No answer. Within 10 days I was fully refunded. Absolutely no hassle.
Fantastic illustration of your confirmation bias.
Was the seller:
Already under suspect?
Limited info on file with PP?
CC payment vs bank vs other?
Paid w paypal balance?
Money still in other account?
Money on hold w other party?
I could list hundreds of other circumstances that create one PayPal outcome vs another.
Want a circumstance that you would have almost certainly waited? If it was a hacked account.
Your outcome is not indicative of the much wider and more complex set of variables at play.
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I had several claims with Paypal over the years as a buyer and every single time Paypal reacted almost immediately to my benefit and I received a refund. And this is based on thousands of payments with Paypal. I do not have one real complaint.
As a seller it is a completely different story.
I had a few buyers that claimed that something was wrong and almost every single time I lost and the buyer won the battle. Only one time it was decided to my benefit.
So, to me it seems that it has become a buyers market.
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I had several claims with Paypal over the years as a buyer and every single time Paypal reacted almost immediately to my benefit and I received a refund. And this is based on thousands of payments with Paypal. I do not have one real complaint.
As a seller it is a completely different story.
I had a few buyers that claimed that something was wrong and almost every single time I lost and the buyer won the battle. Only one time it was decided to my benefit.
So, to me it seems that it has become a buyers market.
You have correctly identified that PayPal's policies for seller is poor, meaning BOTH for buyer and seller are poor. Here, PP can act to not benefit the seller, of which I also have plenty of evidence. Now bring yourself to consider how they control both sides of it with the same level of indifference and you'll come to understand how badly they treat everyone across the board.
A lot of people are going to have a success story, I do too. But:
They are designed to work most of the time, and stop working when it gets too expensive. Its a calculated model of the cost of servicing, not the satisfaction of their customers or anything of goodwill in general. You get the cutoff when your problem is too expensive for them. Do you understand now how raw and basic this really is?
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Well, I think when you apply some common sense and do some basic research on the seller before you buy and then use Paypal, you are protected as a buyer, even if the amount in question is a little high. At least that is my experience. And I will continue to use Paypal for this purpose. I am well aware of the risks.
And Paypal helps me well to feed my Test Equipment Addiction. :-+
But as I have also said before, I will never use Paypal again for selling on ebay or similar.
And since I only have an addition of buying testequipment, I do not worry too much about selling. :-DD
Incidentally... I have just bought 4 more Agilent 34401A from a stranger and paid with Paypal.
They arrived today.
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Well, I think when you apply some common sense and do some basic research on the seller before you buy and then use Paypal, you are protected as a buyer, even if the amount in question is a little high. At least that is my experience. And I will continue to use Paypal for this purpose. I am well aware of the risks.
And Paypal helps me well to feed my Test Equipment Addiction. :-+
But as I have also said before, I will never use Paypal again for selling on ebay or similar.
And since I only have an addition of buying testequipment, I do not worry too much about selling. :-DD
Incidentally... I have just bought 4 more Agilent 34401A from a stranger and paid with Paypal.
They arrived today.
Nice. I hope you got these for a song and a dance... to the test equipment gods ^-^
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I used to purchase a good amount of equipment on ebay back in the early 2000's. I got alot of good deals, much of it needed to be repaired or fixed up. Much of it appeared to be from government / military surplus from what I could gather from the cal stickers that were not always removed.
As time went on prices started tp climb, but that didn't bother me as much as the insane increases in shipping costs over the past years. The worst is when ebay introduced it's Global Shipping Program that many U.S sellers use to ship out of the country to international buyers. Shipping using that program has almost doubled the time it takes to get our items. It has to do with the use of multiple carriers and the handoff time between one carrier to another. This could also be the reason I have seen an increase in my purchases arriving damaged. Also the shipping costs using this program has caused the cost of shipping to rise to a point that shipping sometime costs more than the item itself.
As costs rise, I just buy less. I still shop on ebay, but it takes more time to find the "deals". As for the higher selling prices sellers are asking and sometimes getting: It all comes down to this, you don't need a fishing rod (pole) to go fishing on ebay.
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I used to purchase a good amount of equipment on ebay back in the early 2000's. I got alot of good deals, much of it needed to be repaired or fixed up. Much of it appeared to be from government / military surplus from what I could gather from the cal stickers that were not always removed.
As time went on prices started tp climb, but that didn't bother me as much as the insane increases in shipping costs over the past years. The worst is when ebay introduced it's Global Shipping Program that many U.S sellers use to ship out of the country to international buyers. Shipping using that program has almost doubled the time it takes to get our items. It has to do with the use of multiple carriers and the handoff time between one carrier to another. This could also be the reason I have seen an increase in my purchases arriving damaged. Also the shipping costs using this program has caused the cost of shipping to rise to a point that shipping sometime costs more than the item itself.
As costs rise, I just buy less. I still shop on ebay, but it takes more time to find the "deals". As for the higher selling prices sellers are asking and sometimes getting: It all comes down to this, you don't need a fishing rod (pole) to go fishing on ebay.
Its the shipping rates that really eat into it. You need to find local gear now, I guess.
There is a crisis in packing though. My god, humanity, have we really un-learned how to pack a box properly? Do we need to allo
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Its the shipping rates that really eat into it. You need to find local gear now, I guess.
Yep. eBay global shipping is the worst thing that could possibly have happened from a buyer's point of view. It's ridiculously expensive and unbelievably slow.
Together with the new VAT regulations in Europe it can literally double the price of small purchases.
(plus it will take a month to arrive)
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Its the shipping rates that really eat into it. You need to find local gear now, I guess.
Yep. eBay global shipping is the worst thing that could possibly have happened from a buyer's point of view. It's ridiculously expensive and unbelievably slow.
Together with the new VAT regulations in Europe it can literally double the price of small purchases.
(plus it will take a month to arrive)
Interestingly, the country that constantly gets a pass on all of this is China. It's bizarre to see something arrive from half way around the world cost less to ship than the next state over. There must be one hell of an invisible hand at work keeping that stupidity going.