Is it just me? Ebay prices?

I don't have great examples to show right now, but I swear ebay has been really showing high prices for TR parts lately - is it just me and the stuff I'm watching, or is the market that good for this stuff?

$305.00 bucks for a used crank,$100.00 for a used valve cover. Go figure.

I think some of it has to do with the inflated cost of selling stuff on their. A couple of months ago I sold a scuba set for $150 and ended up paying $15 to sell it with all their fees. I wont sell on their again. but you would think the parts would be cheaper with the economy, parts for sale are coming out of the woodworks!

I swear its mostly Triumph stuff though - I'm not an expert with the other bits, but Healey and MG stuff seems much more affordable.

I was watching that $305 crank out of curiosity Keith - I just don't get it.

I just hope the prices hold up fpr a couple more months until I can get some stuff together and cleaned up to auction off. And let's not forget it is an auction, where the buyer determines the selling price.

poolboy said:

I just hope the prices hold up fpr a couple more months until I can get some stuff together and cleaned up to auction off. And let's not forget it is an auction, where the buyer determines the selling price.

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No doubt about it, the market sets the price. It just seems Triumphs are more popular than what I'm used to.

I just listed my Cortina there,& notice that the
fees were about 1/2 of what I paid a couple of years ago.

- Doug

Just wait until you sell it. The fees come now based on sales....I was tickled pink a few weeks ago when we listed about nine or ten items for $15. Then once they sold our final fees were over $45!!! That didn't include what Pay pal charged to get our money. Also, I used the shipping calculator for USPS. Measured and weighed EVERY package and had them calculate shipping. EVERY package was off by $1 -$2 dollars. Thank goodness I added in a $2-$3 Shipping and handling fee for each package or we would have come out in the red on some of the items.

I had never sold anything on eBay until recently when I started to sell of some BSA motorcycle parts. I was a little surprised at what I thought was a higher than expected charges for the first couple of things. Turns out that although they give you 5 free listings for using the online sale tools, they then charge 8% of the final sale price. I found it to be cheaper to use Turbo Lister to sell the rest of the items as that ended up being a lower overall cost even though there was a listing charge (lower percentage on the final sale price).

I didn't have any problems with the shipping calculator using USPS and I had some odd sizes from motorcycle fenders to gas tanks and speedometers.

I was actually amazed at how well it went and have a few more BSA parts to sell and then a fair number of Spitfire parts since we sold my wife's 68 Mk III.

Scott

I have been buying and selling on ebay for about 8 years I have seen and heard many theories about selling. I have always used the principle that no matter what I am selling I always start low. It is an auction and I have witnessed some very frenzied bidding at the last moment which helped my cause in a very nice way. I always add $3 handling and yes I have been burned on shipping now and then. Over all my experience with ebay has been very good $$$$$ speaking. There are also folks out there that have no clue what an old part might be worth. I see that all the time also. What happens is it, doesn't sell and it gets re-listed at a lower starting price. Then there is always the clueless newby that does not do their due diligence in researching the cost of the part they are bidding on and spends too much.
Just remember it is probably one of the largest markets in the world and a neat place to buy and sell if you do both the right way.

Cheers, Tinkerman

Tinkerman said:

There are also folks out there that have no clue what an old part might be worth. I see that all the time also. What happens is it, doesn't sell and it gets re-listed at a lower starting price.

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I have noticed this as well, UNLESS its an eBay Store item. The costs of having an eBay store seems to be extremely greatk, at least for anyone who plans on listing 100 items or less. Anyway, what I have notice with anything at an eBay Store, every item is ridiculously price. Typically when theres a day left the item may go on sale, but even at 10% of its still too high. The item always gets relisted at the same high price, NEVER lower.

I am a sniper, but sometimes at the very last minute I will either forget to bid, or wait for it assuming it will be relisted cheaper when there are no bids. My experience has been that 40% of the time, it will, but 60% of the time the re listed item will now have more than one bidder. Ive even wait months for sellers to re list things, and when I finally contact them about it, they relist it with a higher price. >=(

I used to love the bidding process and used to try and bid at the latest moment. It was all part of the game, years ago. Now I employ a sniper service and I did it just to defend my ability to buy the part I needed when I wanted to buy it. Takes all the fun out of it, but gets the job done. I'm so close to the tag end of my restoration that I really spend very little time on ebay unless I am listing items. Which I need to do here fairly soon. Maybe I'll put an auction together this weekend
Part of what I have seen over the years is that some people do not enjoy the bidding process and that is why the "but it now" style has grown in popularity. My theory anyway. When I first got on to ebay "buy it now" was a very small part of the process. Now it seems to be more and more every day. What I see with "buy it now" is that the market is NOT setting the price but the seller is and many times it is not, IMHO a price that is truly relevent to the value, as perceived by us folks in the hobby.

My 2 cents worth this morning.

Cheers, tinkerman

I think my initial reaction and reason for the post was, despite comments and my own feelings about our economy, business in Triumph parts seems to be booming on ebay. Admittedly I've been watching some pretty rare pieces that were on in the past couple of weeks, but also just basic bits (like a TR3/4 crank) that went for much more than I expected. There appears to be a lot of active TR restorers out there, with quite a bit of cash. I guess it shouldn't surprise me, I'm spending it like everyone else too.

TR4nut said:

I think my initial reaction and reason for the post was, despite comments and my own feelings about our economy, business in Triumph parts seems to be booming on ebay. Admittedly I've been watching some pretty rare pieces that were on in the past couple of weeks, but also just basic bits (like a TR3/4 crank) that went for much more than I expected. There appears to be a lot of active TR restorers out there, with quite a bit of cash. I guess it shouldn't surprise me, I'm spending it like everyone else too.

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We've probably been competing on the same bids.

Let me guess: Overdrive transmissions?

I understand how rare they are, but I refuse to pay such ridiculous prices. If anyone has a Type A OD unit they want to part with at a REASONABLE price, please contact me.

Tinkerman said:

I used to love the bidding process and used to try and bid at the latest moment. It was all part of the game, years ago. Now I employ a sniper service and I did it just to defend my ability to buy the part I needed when I wanted to buy it. Takes all the fun out of it, but gets the job done. I'm so close to the tag end of my restoration that I really spend very little time on ebay unless I am listing items. Which I need to do here fairly soon. Maybe I'll put an auction together this weekend
Part of what I have seen over the years is that some people do not enjoy the bidding process and that is why the "but it now" style has grown in popularity. My theory anyway. When I first got on to ebay "buy it now" was a very small part of the process. Now it seems to be more and more every day. What I see with "buy it now" is that the market is NOT setting the price but the seller is and many times it is not, IMHO a price that is truly relevent to the value, as perceived by us folks in the hobby.

My 2 cents worth this morning.

Cheers, tinkerman

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I use a sniping service too, but mostly for things I know I cant manually snipe. In other words I know Im going to be asleep, or somewhere where I cant bid. The service is free, but there have been times where paying extra for features would be worth it. For example, youre only allowed to bid on 3 auctions a week, but the number resets on sunday so if youre tricky about it, you can use it for more. The other thing is it can bid on the lowest auction. Heres an example of where its useful. Theres an item thats been discontinued since 1995. You can easily buy it for $170. But when on ebay, they go for a little over $100. One seller had two, both ending in two hours one minute a part, one was at $60, the other was $50. I had no idea which one to snipe, I didnt want to buy both, and I was certain that these people proxy bidded. So with the sniping screen opened, with no decision made, I got distracted and left home. They both ended at those amounts and no more! To this day they still go for over $100!

Now for "buy it now" my husband is always making buy it now, when theres still an option to bid. buy it now is only important if you need an item right away and its worth the extra for it... ...or in this one case when a seller listed something ridiculously low, in that rare case I wonder what the seller thinks when his items ends 6 days and 23 hours early. Anyway a good example of the "buy it now" "cant wait" is the floor pan I got. My husband begged and begged me to buy it now, when we really were in no hurry to get it. This item had several people who bought it now, and every time people bidded, it ended close to that price anyway. But I noticed from his feedback that one did in fact go $10 less with only one bid. So I waited for everyone who wanted one to get theirs, and after 3 or 4 auctions later, I got mine, $10 off.

Now then. I used to sell stuff on ebay. I stopped because of how ridiculous so many bidders are. I wont go into that, but many times I would have a $15 buy it now, with a $9.99 starting bid. The buy it now option goes away after the first bid. This one guy was always the first bidder for like 6 auctions, always removing the buy it now option because of it. The amount he would bid for was always more than the buy it now price, and he never ever won any of my auctions, ever.