Shopping on eBay and Amazon

[db5]

Many believe that these websites are where to find the best prices. Not so. Amazon dealers often have prices that are inflated beyond what you can find locally and eBay is questionable. When dealing with either, continue looking as you may find better bargains. I often find Amazon has the same product, offered by different vendors (search for the less expensive one) and eBay may have the same product offered by the same vendor at varying prices. I think that some payment from the vendor puts it at the top of the list. The vendor makes more and so does the website.

For example, I recently needed to replace a refrigerator W10408179 valve (search on eBay and elsewhere to see varying prices). Prices ranged from $160 locally and on the internet from $120 (plus shipping) on the high-end and $25.00 (shipping included) on the low-end. The prices varied from McCombs Supply in Lancaster, PA from around $60 (their most expensive) to $25 (their cheapest including shipping) on eBay. The same product and the same source. It took some looking to get this lesser price. Ten minutes or less to save $35? I’ll work for that.

Sometime back I bought some vacuum cleaner bags from a supplier on eBay. The prices, from the same vendor, depending on where you looked ranged from $4 per bag to less than $1. So look carefully before you decide to buy.

[kablerj]

Remember to consider shipping costs, especially on ebay. Some ebay sellers charge 10 times what it should cost to ship.

[dgale]

And in regard to shipping costs, don't forget Amazon Prime - if you are a prime member, you get free 2-day shipping on all prime items. I've been a Prime member for several years and save a ton on shipping. In general the prime items cost a bit more than you can find from other non-prime Amazon sellers but when you factor in the shiiping costs from these sellers, Prime items are much less, not to mention getting the item 2-day air instead of ground shipping.

I always "shop" around for better deals online before any substantial purchase and virtually always find that Amazon has the best deal...note that I said almost always - there are always a few examples I can find where a better deal can be had but usually the price difference is very small and I'd prefer to stick with Amazon, as it's easier to keep track of my purchases etc.

I always prefer to shop locally when possible, even when it costs me a bit more, but I live in a fairly small and remote community, so options aren't great and in general I find most local vendors price things at full-blown retail. I'm all for spending a bit more to support the local economy but I also have to balance that with supporting my family and when items are 25%+ more, I often have to choose the latter.

I originally stumbled acorss Amazon Prime about 6 years ago when our water heater died on the Monday before Thanksgiving. I had planned to replace it with a tankless water heater and our local plumbing supply wanted $1500 plus CA sales tax (~8.5%). I probably would have just bought the thing but they didn't have in stock and said it would be 1-2 weeks to get it in...tell that to my wife who has no hot water. So went home and started searching online, thinking at the time that the shipping would kill me, especially to get it here quickly. I did a search for that same model tankless heater and found my way to Amazon, who had the exact same unit for $799 and at the time they didn't charge sales tax (they do now). Shipping was going to be $100+ for 2-day but then noticed the Amazon Prime option, which at the time was $60 for a year. This got me free two-day shipping and even better, any single item can be upgraded to overnight shipping for $3.99, so I spent $63.99 for overnight shipping and a year's prime membership and have been a member and regular user ever since. As much as I wanted to support the local plumbing supply, they were soundly beat on multiple fronts and I was able to get the heater for less than half their price and had it the next day and installed in time for Thanksgiving.