Buying Cheap Guitars On eBay

eBay is a pretty great place to look for cheap guitars. I’ve bought (and sold) all kinds of things on eBay with very good success and only a few disappointments. Of the disappointments, I’d say at least half were my not reading closely enough or ignoring some of my own guidelines.

What are those guidelines? I’m glad you asked that question because I have one of those ever popular bulleted lists for you. Keep in mind that many of my eBay guidelines need not only apply to cheap guitars but almost anything else you might buy on eBay.

So here is my list in no particular order:

* Watch the seller’s rating. A seller with less than 50 transactions without at least some of those being sales and less than 100% satisfaction rating is always suspect. If the seller has sales in the 100s or 1000s even, I relax the satisfaction rating requirement a little. After all, everyone is going to have a dissatisfied customer now and again.

* I only deal with North American buyers and sellers. I swear every time I relax this rule even a little I get into some kind of hassle.

* Watch the shipping charges. Sometimes shipping can be enough to offset most if not all of the savings.

* Make sure savings are significant enough to warrant the risk factor. Is it really worth $50 savings on a $500 purchase? What if you have to return the item? How is that $50 savings looking now?

* Take your time and watch similar items for awhile if at all possible. eBay pricing is dynamic and is being affected (effected?) by the economy just like everything else. I have a bunch of searches I monitor all the time just so I have a “feel” for when something really is a good deal.

* Know what you’re looking for. Its way too easy to get sidetracked. For instance, lately I’ve been looking for a new camera. I know what I want. But in a moment of weakness I almost bought another just because it was a “good deal.”

* Avoid the impulse purchase. Like with any auctions, its easy to get caught up in the heat of the moment and make purchases you later regret.

* Look for items closing at strange times or in the middle of the week. Its normal for items to have a bidding frenzy right before closing. But if they are ending at an unusual time or in the middle of the week, there might be less of a frenzy.

So there’s my personal list of eBay guidelines for myself. Do you have some I missed? If so, write me and let me know!

Related articles by Zemanta

• eBay iPhone app (textually.org)
• If Your Rep Is Good Enough, Shoppers Accept Additional Surcharges [Studies] (consumerist.com)
• eBay sales down 16 percent (sellingbooksonamazon.net)
• European Style Penny Auctions Hit the United States, Beware of Scam Sites (seomashup.blogspot.com)

Tags: auction, Bidding, buying, EBay, Guitar, Pricing, sale, Shopping

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 10th, 2009 at 10:53 am and is filed under purchasing cheap guitars, where to find cheap guitars. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.