The buying and selling of secondhand goods – it’s been happening since time
immemorial. But now there’s a new way of doing it – and it’s especially relevant
to those wanting more obscure car bits and pieces, like rare gauges and obsolete
parts. On-line auctions provide an amazing opportunity to pick up goods that you
simply never normally find for sale - and conversely, to make money selling bits
and pieces that are usually near-impossible to get rid of.
A win, win situation? It can be, but like all buying and selling forums,
there are also plenty of traps for young players.
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Outbid on... Fluke Multimeter
As regular readers will know, I have a Fluke 123 Scopemeter, an instrument
that I love and use very often. But it’d be nice to have a Fluke multimeter to
go with it, so I bid on this one. (Note that photos as bad as this are typical
on eBay – when you’re a seller, do better than this!) I put in a maximum bid of
AUD$103, but at the time of writing (and still with 4 days of the 7-day auction
left) it is already up to AUD$213. Oh well, another one gone...
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eBay
The biggest web auction site is also the best known – eBay. eBay is a global
system of interconnected sites. This means that despite there being sites native
to the US, Australia, the UK, etc, venders can choose to make their goods
available to a worldwide audience. The upshot of this is that when you are
selling goods, a huge audience can see what you have on offer (excellent, as the
chance of a successful auction occurring is much higher), and that when you are
in the market to buy, you’re much more likely to find what you want.
The above is kind of obvious - but the practical implications are major. For
example, for some time I have been after some cheap pressure transducers – you
know, the sort that will work with 0-100 psi pressures and output an appropriate
proportional voltage. Brand new they’re very expensive and you never see them
come up secondhand. Well, once upon a time you wouldn’t have held any hope of
that anyway. But right now on eBay, people in the US have a variety of NOS (new,
old stock) pressure transducers for sale. I bought two rather nice Honeywell
designs and had them here in Australia in a week. And at about one-fifth
of the cost of sourcing them in other ways...
That story is more broadly indicative as well. The goods were discontinued
items (so there were good reasons for their low price), they were small (meaning
cheap postage) and they weren’t a high risk buy (US$20 wasn’t a lot to lose if
something went wrong).
If you are completely new to online auction buying, starting with items like
these is a good way to go. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves – let’s take a
look at online auction buying in more detail.
Buying
The best starting point is your local eBay – www.ebay.com.au for our readers living
in Australia. Most people begin by putting search words into the search box (and
note that on the opening page you can make this search worldwide if you want),
but in many ways a specific search isn’t as useful as a category browse. Sure,
if you’re after a workshop manual for a certain car, you can punch in a specific
search term, but more often browsing through the category of relevance will find
you a greater number of items of interest.
Especially if you don’t know what you actually want until you see it on
auction!
The categories likely to be of greatest interest are under the ‘Cars, Bikes
& Boats’ major section heading. However, there are also plenty of other
sections where you’re likely to find stuff – under ‘Lots More’ (what a dumb
heading!) you’ll find two that I find particularly fruitful – Test &
Measurement Equipment, and Metalworking Equipment. In Test & Measurement
you’ll often find stuff like gauges and multimeters, while under Metalworking
Equipment there often pops up useful tools... like those in the box below.
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Bought... Tapered Reamers
Tapered reamers are used to enlarge holes in thin metals and plastics. The
cost for this new pair was AUD$19 with only AUD$4.50 postage and handling.
That’s a bit cheaper than you’ll find them elsewhere – and it’s quicker and
easier to buy them in this way rather than visit a specialist tool supplier.
However, be wary of buying brand new goods on eBay – many are of dubious
quality, lacking brand names and any back-up. Some new goods aren’t even in the
country – so you’ll be up for local taxes and duties...
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Registering with eBay so that you can bid on goods is easy – just follow the
instructions. No special information is needed (and if you then get emails
asking you for confidential information like your credit card details, just
consign them to the same bin as the Nigerian Millionaires That Need Help!).
Bidding on eBay works on a proxy system. Say a person has placed a cone
airfilter up for auction. You can read their description of the goods (New? Old
but new? Secondhand? Is the photo clear? Is the postage amount being quoted?),
look at the current price (this may be the starting price – ie the amount that
the vendor has placed the goods in at, or it might be the price that the bids
have already taken the auction up to), the number of bids (if any), and the time
remaining for the auction. The airfilter may have a starting price of $10 – and
no bids.
In this case you decide that you’re prepared to spend $20 on the filter, and
you place a bid for that amount. You then refresh the page and see what’s
happened. Hey, you’re now the highest bidder! But in most cases, the current
price will have risen only marginally – the proxy system means that the bid
amount rises only sufficiently to be higher than anyone else’s bid (assuming of
course that other’s people’s max bids have been less than $20!).
In other words, you don’t show your full hand straightaway.
Then, as other bids come in, your bid will be automatically incremented up to
your full $20 amount. If someone places a bid higher than that, you’ll be sent
an email pleading with you to consider a higher bid. (You also receive a
confirming email once you’ve placed the original bid.)
Time passes (most auctions are up for a week) and at the end of that time you
receive an email saying that you have won the goods. You’ll also receive an
email from the vender saying how much you now owe them (that’s if the postage
amount was originally stated in the auction) or asking where you live so that
postage can be calculated.
The money can then be sent by you to them by a direct bank transfer (the
vender tells you their bank details and you transfer the money either
electronically or at a branch of their bank), by money order, or by cash. The
latter is of course frowned on by postal authorities, but if notes are well
disguised and the amount is small, this can be the easiest way of doing it. Of
course, if sending cash, you take the risk.
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Bought... Vernier-Adjust Needle Valve
Another new item, this vernier adjustable ¼-inch needle valve looks ideal for
an accurate boost control. The goods description included: "BRAND NEW in sealed
package, Swagelok part # B-4L2-VIMH. Micro adjust handle, viton O-ring, 1/4 NPT
male threads on inlet and outlet." With this data I was able to find a
manufacturer’s spec sheet on the web, which confirmed that it looked the goods.
It cost $US12 plus US$10 postage – about the cost of a local bog standard needle
valve!
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Talking of risk, what happens if you transfer the money and the goods never
show up? The main structure in place preventing (or at least, reducing) fraud is
the feedback system. Once you have conducted a successful transaction (either as
a buyer or seller) you contribute your feedback on the other person. This
information is then available for all to see.
Obviously, buying from someone with bad (or zero) feedback should be
avoided....
Most people selling goods on eBay want to be able to keep on doing so and so
strive for good feedback. The goods arrive promptly, they are well packaged and
they match the descriptions.
(Of course, even if all this is the case, that doesn’t always mean that you
are happy. I bought – for AUD$4 – a large lot of brand new ‘stopcocks’ still in
their original packaging. That’s all the description was but I figured anything
of that name - and in the depicted quantities – had to be a good thing. When
they arrived, I fell on them enthusiastically, tearing open the mint condition
packages that were apparently produced in the Sixties by French aircraft
manufacturer Generale Aeronautique Marcel Dassault. But inside there were dozens
and dozens of tiny machined cylinders, the guts of some obscure aviation valve.
What I had bought was completely useless – but written on the outside of the
packages was ‘Stopcocks’. The vender had obviously never opened them up....)
One hazard that you face when bidding is being sniped. Sniping is the
practice of bidding in the very last window of opportunity before the auction
closes. Unlike a traditional auction (and some other online auctions), eBay has
a closing time for every auction. When that time comes, the winning bid is the
highest at close. This approach allows last minute bids to potentially win the
auction – sniping. Snipes can occur in the last minute, the last 30 seconds –
even the last 10 seconds.
If you have a high speed web connection, and if you want to be sitting at
your computer keyboard at the end of every auction that you are bidding on, you
can manually snipe. But most snipers use dedicated sniping software that does
the hard work for you. However, sniping software still requires that your
computer is switched on and web connected. An alternative is to get a dedicated
sniping web site to snipe on your behalf. Some web sites will do this free for a
limited number of auctions per week (eg two auctions) and about 15 seconds
before auction closing. If you pay a fee, unlimited auctions can be sniped
within just seconds of closing. (The moral dimensions of sniping are interesting
and we’ll leave you to make your own judgements on that.)
In short – start by bidding on small, low-priced goods which are typically
likely to work, and be prepared to manually or automatically snipe.
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Bought... Magnehelic Gauge
We’ve talked about this type of gauge often – it’s ideal for measuring
pressure drops through airfilters, actual aerodynamic pressures on cars, and so
on. This incredibly sensitive brand new old stock gauge cost US$25, with postage
about US$15. That’s waaaaay cheaper than buying locally from the company’s
distributors. The gauge was in mint condition and came beautifully packed.
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Selling
As you’d expect, selling on an online auction site is more complex. It’s best
to become a buyer before looking at selling. Registering for selling requires
that you provide credit card details – this is used as proof of identity. You’ll
also need to have a digital camera (well, I suppose you could use a film camera
and then scan the prints in, but it would be almost more trouble than it’s worth
unless the items were very expensive) and some image editing software.
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Sold... Magazine
This November 1981 edition of Motor magazine sold for a stunning
AUD$21, from a starting price of $5. For obvious reasons I headlined the item:
"Sigma Turbo Road Test" and it went for something like ten times the price I
would have got for the magazine at a garage sale. And since I’d ended up with
two copies of that edition, I didn’t need this one... Postage was stated as $5
within Australia – overseas markets by application.
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We won’t go through the step by step process of selling – there are tutorials
on eBay and the instructions are clear and to the point. Instead, let’s take a
look at some of the key points.
Firstly, you need to have a really good photo (that’s why the image editing
software is useful) and a clear and accurate description. One of the interesting
aspects of online auctions is that people tend to be very frank about the
deficiencies of their goods. ‘Paint missing off main body’, ‘instrument has name
engraved on it’, 'may not work'- these sorts of phrases are
common. But even while being frank, make sure that you really ‘sell’ the goods
in the description.
Secondly, be clear as to the payment method that you are asking for and the
way that postage will be handled. Often it is easiest with small items under
(say) 3kg to say that all postage within your country will be sent in a certain
way – eg in Australia, by Australia Post overnight bag. Add in a little for some
bubblewrap and in Australia this rounds out to a neat AUD$10.
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Sold... Warning Light Cluster
I’d bought this VDO product years and years ago for a project that never
happened, and had tried on and off to sell it ever since. It was new, but the
box was soiled through storage. The starting price was AUD$11 and it ended up
going for $30. That’s an excellent selling price.
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Thirdly, expect email queries about your goods. These questions are sent
through the auspices of eBay but replying is as easy as with any email. If you
find that the same question is being repeatedly posed, consider revising your
description of the goods.
Finally, as with any deal, communication is an important part of successfully
concluding it. If you will be unable to send the goods for a few days, tell the
buyer. Also email them when the goods have been despatched and remember to leave
eBay feedback when the deal has been concluded satisfactorily.
Conclusion
Workshop manuals, test equipment, parts, automotive collectables – they’re
all there and waiting to be bought. And, on the other side of the coin, it’s
possible to make real money selling stuff that you’d get only a few cents for at
a garage sale.
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Sold... Dick Johnson Autobiography
I bought this autobiography of racing driver Dick Johnson on a disposals
table for AUD$8, brand new. After reading it I thought it a lousy book (surely a
man like that must have more interesting things to say?) and so had no wish to
keep it. I listed it at AUD$6 and it attracted three bids, rising marginally to
$8. When you remember that the buyer pays postage, in this case I broke even...
after reading the book!
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