5 years ago
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Buying From Ebay
I needed a battery and an AC adapter for a Dell laptop. So I checked Dell naturally. The battery was $300 and the adapter was another $70. On top of that there was shipping and sales tax of course.
That seemed too high to me plus the last time I ordered a battery from Dell there was a big delay. A laptop without a decent battery is really, really annoying.
I decided to check Ebay.
I've used Ebay quite a bit so I'm certainly not a novice. I opened my account in 2001 actually. I understand it more or less but still would be an infrequent user. I have a Paypal account which is usually how I pay for stuff I buy on Ebay. Paypal is a bit beauracratic for me but still works pretty well.
My first purchase on Ebay I think was some perfume for a friend who could not find the particular brand and fragrance in a conventional store. I volunteered to check the Internet and found it on Ebay and bought it.
Anyway I loaded Ebay into my browser address bar. By the way I'm using the new Google Chrome browser now just fyi. It took me about a minute to find a battery equivalent to the one I needed and maybe an additional minute or so to find an adapter.
The battery was $72.49 on Buy It Now. I'm not much for auctions. The adapter was $23.99. The shipping was free since I selected standard USPS shipping although I did insure the battery. There was no sales tax. I was supposed to get them on Friday but they actually came on Thursday. I ordered them on August 31 so both were over-holiday transactions.
When I purchased I checked the reputation points for each seller. I find this to be an amazingly useful and helpful system.
Now that I have received both my purchases I have left my feedback for each seller.
Really I don't know how the transactions could have been improved unless the items were free and they could have just materialized before my eyes.
Truly I think this is one of the most revolutionary changes in the way we buy and sell things.
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3 comments:
Yes I think the days of going to the store are fading. I do almost all my shopping online these days. With the price of gas these days, who wants to run from store to store trying to find the best deal when you can do it from the comfort of your home although I'm more of an Amazon shopper than ebay but I like them both.
I used ebay on more than one occasion when my mom was here. She wore cardigan sweaters a lot and often spilled something on them. I got a group of cardigans - called a lot - for $5. They were in perfect condition. I was also very pleased.
I buy on Ebay and I was a seller for a while too. I might get back into selling once I get a bit more organized here. I remember my first purchase on Ebay. I bought my brother a pocket watch with a pirate ship on it. He loves pirates and is a huge collector.
By the time you add in drivng around and the time looking for the item, it almost pays to just buy it online. Still, I do love to shop and look at what I am getting firsthand.
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