I've never been a big eBay fan. Any time I've tried to get something, I've always been outbid at the last second, which I've found frustrating. When I do partake, I take a similar strategy as the Red Sox do with its players. I put a value on the item and if it goes over, I back away.
I've been trying to find an 80 GB Apple iPod Video for a present. The best price I've seen on this item was $193 on eCost.com, but unfortunately, by the time I circled back to buy it, it was not longer listed. I checked around and was seeing prices from $230 to more than $500, quite a broad range in price.
I decided to give eBay a shot on a whim and found one to my liking, a brand new unit, and began bidding, topping out $195 and was outbid in the last couple of minutes. I let it go for a few days and the other night I decided to run another search on eBay and stumbled onto another brand new one with only four minutes left in the auction. At the time, the high bid was around $190. I went to $195, was soon outbid again and ended up bidding $207, going a little higher than my original maximum bid, but I figured since I couldn't find that price again, I could raise my maximum level. I ended up with the winning bid and paid another $15 for shipping and handling and for a delivered price of $222, it was mine.
It's a brand new unit in its original box and I think it's a darn good price. Of course, I could get it and find I was mislead, but I did my homework on the seller before I submitted a bid and he's been around for a long time and has a good reputation. I feel confident it will come as advertised, but I'll find out for sure in a couple of days when it arrives.
I don't expect to become an eBay addict, but in this case at least, it enabled me to find a brand new earlier generation iPod for a reasonable price.
Good luck with your IPod - buying it as a brand new choice, was surely the best way. You can read in my blog, what can happen if you buy pre-owned items ... there are lots of surprises waiting.
Posted by: Retrolum | November 15, 2007 at 05:21 PM