Your first ebay purchase/s

[star-warrior]

A 2.5" metallic blue external hard disk enclosure. £2.95. With postage, it came to £5.90 back in 2006.

 

[Swellegant]

I really don't remember... I've been a member since September 2000, with more than fifteen hundred purchases over the last eleven years. It was probably costume jewelry, that's what I was collecting at the time.

 

[roadtripboy]

Parts for an old JVC turntable. I got the belt I need for $5. JVC wanted $40.

 

[wonderwort]

Bonsai plant seeds...........I bought something like red maple.......tree.....

When I got the seeds.......I NEVER planted them......cuz I found it bonsais are too much work.

 

[swerve]

A pair of Lady Bug Earrings for a Christmas gift...

From a seller called 'Edselbabe' -- they sold silver clad jewelry to help fund their dog and cat rescue operation...

I wanted to help THEM -- and it was also a COOL gift for a friend of ours that collects lady bug stuff...

This was WAY BACK in 2001...

 

[Alan]

Good question!

I had to go to the very beginning of my PayPal account to find out what my very first purchase was on eBay.

It was a Stephen King hard back - 'Lisey's Story'. Advertised as brand new.
10th of December 2006.

It cost me just £2.70 + £4.74 postage - a total of £7.44. A bargain.

I love eBay too but I always set myself a target price before I place a bid but I must admit that I have occasionally got into a bidding frenzy and paid more than I normally would have just because I didn't want another bidder to have it!!

 

[swerve]

I have occasionally got into a bidding frenzy and paid more than I normally would have just because I didn't want another bidder to have it!!

SO that was YOU!!!

 

[purina]

I think it was a bootleg of "Comin' Home" - a film of Big Bro. & the Holding Co. performing at the Generation Club and in the studio. Probably half a dozen years ago.

 

[Alan]

SO that was YOU!!!

I hate it when I get an eBay rage! But when I really want something and someone gets in the way I want it SO much more!

It's not at all like I am in real life but on eBay I can get really savage!
And I must admit that a lot of swearing and cursing goes on!

It must be like drivers that suffer road rage!

 

[blackbeltninja]

I buy my cK undies off eBay, and it's the only stuff I have bought off eBay. Significantly cheaper than paying the exorbitant prices the two department stores who carry them charge for them, even with shipping and import duties included.

I have bought a shedload of cKs in 2011 off eBay.

-d-

 

[Kester]

I brought my first purchase a few weeks back.

Brought a pair of shorts for my upcoming trip to Mexico next week.

Got them from Hong Kong, all up cost me 30 bucks including postage. If I was to buy a good pair of short here, would easily cost me 40-50 bucks.

 

[HoodedRat]

I haven't bought anything on eBay. I have a horrible feeling that if I ever started I wouldn't be able to stop. Guitars would almost certainly be my downfall.

 

[frankfrank]

My first purchase is probably fairly close to eight years ago, and I don't remember what it was: BEST GUESS: A vinyl record.

 

[glasvegas]

Skins DVD collection. About $70 pounds.

 

[MoufOfKhaos]

I've actually never used it, because back long long ago, I didn't trust PayPal... because everything needed a paypal, so it seemed like a scam to me.

Now that I know better, I might try and see if I can find some ceremonial daggers on it since I can't find something that fits on Amazon.

 

[pridetube]

Thats funny, cause I didnt trust Paypal in the past either which kept me away from any online purchases.

Nowaday, I get most of my sports equipment from Ebay.

 

[frankfrank]

He had apparently thought I had only outbid him by one cent, as he bid in at $15 in the final seconds. Good old Auctionsniper. It bids just what it takes to win, and not a cent more.

Actually, that's not quite true. Auctionsniper (which is what I also use, but there are other companies that do it as well) bids your highest bid...but it's ebay which ultimately decides what bid is needed, and doesn't exceed what is necessary.

So if somebody bid $15, and you bid $100,000 on the same item (I'm making an extreme example), you'll win it for $15.50, I think - I believe the ebay "bid increment" at that level is fifty cents. That attracted me to ebay immediately, because it is so in contrast to closed-bid auctions I've been accustomed to.

In bidding for recordings and such, which appear on a private list, if I want something badly (and the minimum bid if $10) and I bid $73.11 on it, I will invariably be charged $73.11 for it, even if nobody else bid on it. On ebay, I would be charged $10 if nobody else bid, and only $10.50 (?) if one other person bid the bare minimum of $10. In more than 35 years of bidding on stuff, no seller outside of ebay has *EVER* reduced any bid I've ever made on anything. Therefore, anything I want there, I bid my ABSOLUTE maximum in all cases and, on rare occasions, I'll end up paying near my maximum, but usually I'll end up owing far less.

Ebay is actually a "hybrid closed auction" because all bidding is shown, but the bid that you can see can more accurately be described as "the bid on this item is AT LEAST this amount, but it may actually be much higher than the amount shown." So, the amount of the true MAXIMUM bid is closed...and during the last 30 seconds, with bid sniping sites being commonly used, an item can change far too quickly for anybody to challenge it and end up winning. If somebody wins something by bidding way out of whack, the actual "very high bid" is never shown - only that the person beat the second bid by whatever bid increment is in effect at that price stratum.

I know a lot of people don't fully understand it, because I've heard friends complain that "Dammit, I really wanted that thing on ebay, and somebody outbid me by one measly dollar at the last minute!" More than likely, both of these things are true: that the other bidder was sniping rather than bidding manually, and that the bid that was put in was actually considerably more than $1 above his/her losing bid.