Ebay
I just don’t understand some of the things that happen on Ebay. I have been selling things on Ebay, mostly left over motorcycle parts, for some time now. I have also bought quite a few things on Ebay. There are some things that I have purchased from Ebay stores that were pretty good deals, cheaper than I was able to find them on other web stores or local retail. But sometimes the things I see on there just don’t make sense.
For instance, I bought a new ’08 Harley Ultra Classic a couple of weeks ago. (From a dealer, not on Ebay) There were a lot of changes from the ’05 that I had so I wanted to get a new service manual. The service manual retails for $60 at the dealer. I searched Ebay and found several 2008 Touring Service Manuals. There were two Ebay stores selling them for a “buy it now” price and about three different sellers offering them on a auction. The cheapest Ebay store was selling the manuals for $48. So, trying to save a few dollars, I bid on a couple of the manuals. Knowing I could buy one from the Ebay store for 48 bucks, I bid $45 on the manual that bid was ending first. In about 30 seconds I was out bid, so I tried the another. Same thing, in a couple of hours I was out bid. I watched those bids and they closed out for $52 to $55! So the long and the short of it was, Ebay buyers bid more for a 2008 Service Manual than they could have bought one out-right. I bought one from the Ebay store for $48.
I’m wondering if there is some sort of compulsive behavior here? A “I’ve got to win this bid” mania? I find it hard to believe that someone would bid more on Ebay for an item than they could buy it for. Does that make any sense at all?
There is a second part to this story. I have two service manuals for Harleys, a 95-96 and a 2005. I thought I could recover some of my “investment” in the new 2008 manual, so I put them up for bid on Ebay. The auction closed this evening, and the 95-96 manual went for a bargain $10.50. The 2003 manual went for $56 plus shipping. Yep, I got more for the used 2005 Harley Touring service manual that I paid for the NEW 2008 manual!
Like I said, sometimes I just can’t explain the things on Ebay! But as long as I am selling things and they are bidding them up, I like it!