Anybody ever buy any tools on ebay. I’m looking for a dovetail saw and was considering ebay. Anybody have any thoughts about this?
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Replies
I've made a number of ebay tool purchases, so far (knock on wood) I've been satisfied with everything I have purchased.
I think you have to know what you want, and ask the seller questions. I think the prices are generally fair, but it's a good idea going in to know how much you want to spend and not get involved in a bidding war because you get caught up in the competition. You can pay too much...I know this as I bought a $200.00 Stanley 45 in its original box. Twice what others went for.
David C.
I've done some buying and some selling. The vast majority of the people are great. Check their feedback and the detail of their description...ask questions if you're not certain about something. Patience and persistence are required for most good deals...sometimes the bidding zealots just go nuts...let 'em! I've passed on many deals and won items when it seemed no one else was paying attention.
Thanks guys, I think I'll give it a shot.
To emphasize one of David's comments: "you have to know what you want" Do you have a specific saw in mind?? There are so many Power Sellers on eBay who sell the same cheap junk you find in the cheap junk catalogs.
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>)
yup, I do have an Idea of what I'm looking for.
Actually that's the reason for wanting to try ebay, I'm looking to get a quality old saw cheaper than getting a quality new saw.
I have been through all the catalogs. I also have not been able to find one at flea markets or yard sales either, which is generally my preferred method for such purchases. I've found almost all of my planes (Baileys) that way, decent Disston crosscut and rip saws, spokeshaves(metal), and a drawknife for under 10 $ each. I got a super Brown and Sharp combination square complete with the regular, protractor, and center finder heads for $25. and a very nice Sargent (fits my hand better than the Stanley) smoother for that same price. Geez, I've even bought a pair of 36" deep reach clamps for $5. Huge back saws are everywhere, but no usable dovetail saws can be found.
I realize that I'm probably not going to find the types of bargains that I'm used to, but still, I'm gonna try and get something cheaper than a LN or Adria. If I can't then I'll get one of those.
Thanks
Sydna's may have what you're looking for. Very fair prices, and no bidding necessary.
http://www.sydnassloot.com/index.htmDan Kornfeld, Owner/President - Odyssey Wood Design, Inc.
I have heard a few rumors that Ebay might be a way to unload stolen tools.I am not a regular Ebay watcher, but for those of you who are, have you seen anything to indicate this might be the case?********************************************************
"It is what we learn after we think we know it all, that counts."
John Wooden 1910-
Edited 1/14/2006 11:22 am by nikkiwood
That's a good question nikkiwood. I've become a fairly regular Ebayer lately. Most of the people I've dealt with have been pretty upright...mamy are really nice and do things that renew faith in mankind, but I'd guess it'd be easy to sell or unknowingly buy a stolen item.
Edited 1/14/2006 5:51 pm ET by scotty
Any time someone contacts my store about a burglary, I always suggest they keep an eye on eBay. Given the volume there, I'm sure lots of stolen stuff gets sold. forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>)
Yes, thanks, I've been to that site, all over most of the sites on the web as well , and your right no bidding is a nice feature I've been outbid twice already. Sydnassloot doesn't have any dovetail saws at this time. I've been over to Vintage saws and he doesn't have any dovetail saws either but in his "news" page it says that he has a a lot of saws that he has yet to list so I'll keep looking all over the place until then. If I don't find anything I guess I'll have to bite the bullet.
Actually...
Since so far in the short time that I have been searching it seems that most of these saws are from the UK and the shipping is in the 20 to 30 $ range. Chances are likely that I would have to have it professionally "tuned"more $'s. ( I can sharpen an already properly set up saw but not to confident of my ability to bring one back from the dead), and the price of the saw itself, the Adria and the LN do not seem so expensive anymore.
Gee whiz where are all the good saws? Are there that many collectors (hoarders) out there? If so why would someone do such a thing? To have this fantastic tool and not use it, just look at it every so often? That's what the TV is for. It's a tool, meant to be used, not a miniature spoon from Niagara Falls.
Anyway...
Thanks for your response, and everyone else's too. If you can think of any more sources I would appreciate hearing about them.
Most of the fellas I am aware of who are buying used saws on ebay are capable of identifying what they are buying through the sellers retoric, and if need be rehabilitating them themselves.
Most of the fellas I know who would be buying hand saws of any type on Ebay are NOT gonna be buying junk.
Ergo, unless you know yer saws well enuf to understand from a foggy picture, or mis-described item, and what might or could be involved in rehabilitating used saws, stay away from used saws (at least in that forum)
OTOH, you could buy a 2dollar handsaw from the flea-market, and with the assistance of a 20$ vice and an new 5$ file, go down the slippery slope of trial and error saw-sharpening. It only sounds scarey.....
That being said, perhaps you already sharpen yer own handsaws.....
Didn't mean to offend anyone.....
Ebay is not the forum for the "tyro" to obtain his first dovetail saw, at least in my humble opinion. Why? because if it turns out to be a piece of sh*t, without the support mechanism to correct the error, it would be a turn-off for the unadventuroous.
Eric in Cowtown
I've bought quite a bit of stuff on E-bay, so far haven't had problems.
URL for a Disston 12 inch saw:
http://cgi.ebay.com/H-Disston-12-Inch-Back-Saw-Good-Miter-Saw_W0QQitemZ6244796550QQcategoryZ13875QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
I've got one of these that I had my sharpener re-sharpen to a rip pattern and it works just fine.
Leon
Edited 1/15/2006 2:38 pm ET by lwj2
Thanks, I'll check it out.
As far as the eBay experience goes, I find it helpful to ask questions beforehand to get a read on the offered tool- but place the item in the "watch this item in my eBay" catagory without actually placing a bid. Then go in with just minutes before the sale and make the highest bid you are comfortable in making and STOP right there. Persistence pays off as well. If the item you seek gets too pricey, another one will becoming along shortly. I got my pre-war Bailey #4 for less than 40 bucks by just holding off on placing the bid till the last minute.
"go in with just minutes before the sale and make the highest bid you are comfortable in making " or use one of the sniping services.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>)
I have had nothing but good luck on Ebay. I have made over 200 purchases, and have been treated very fairly by all.
I have bought and sold quite a bit on e-bay. As a seller you have to be careful with services such as paypal. I have had overseas buyers dispute the credit card charges long after the sale and then paypal charges you extra because of the dispute even if you have proof that you shipped the item. Just a rant, a good place to look for old tools though. Almost forgot. I have a Record #05 jack plane on e-bay for sale right now.
Troy
Edited 1/16/2006 8:25 pm ET by Troy
I had no idea there were such things as a sniping service! Thanks for the tip.
Has anyone else noticed that, while ebay officially prohibits "shills", there are items listed with low starting prices and then one person drives the price up greatly in a couple of minutes (like 100%-200%) but doesn't end up buying it? I don't mean alternating bids with someone else, but if they already have the high bid, why keep driving it up? They're jacking up the price on themselves.
"I cut this piece four times and it's still too short."
"...one person drives the price up greatly in a couple of minutes...." "I don't mean alternating bids with someone else...." Not sure how that could happen without "alternating" since, when you place a bid, it only goes to the next increment until someone else does bid. For instance, if an item is cookin' along at $5.25 and you place your Maximum Bid at $10.00, the item bid will only go up to $5.50 (or whatever the increment is). The only way it will go above $5.50 is if another bidder places a bid, right? Or am I missing something here??
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>)
Edited 1/17/2006 11:59 am by forestgirl
You can raise your own bid, but my question is basically, why do that to yourself unless you have no intention of actually buying it? This happens with handplanes a lot, and I haven't been buying them very long. I just saw a set of 6 Stanley 750 chisels that went from $275 to $426.99 awfully fast. Here are the last 5 bids. Same thing has happened with a couple of #112 scraper planes.US $431.99 Jan-15-06 20:01:44 PST Bidder A
US $426.99 Jan-15-06 20:01:09 PST Bidder C
US $275.00 Jan-13-06 05:58:28 PST Bidder B
US $270.00 Jan-15-06 17:01:37 PST Bidder A
US $260.00 Jan-14-06 17:52:34 PST Bidder A
"I cut this piece four times and it's still too short."
I think it has to do with the "max bind" function.
For example, let's say you have a bid in for $100 dollars and your max bid is $200 dollars. If I come in and bid $105, Ebay will reject my bid and now your bid is $106.
If a couple of people do this, it will look like you keep upping your bid until someone goes higher than your max bid.
I'm not an Ebay expert, but this may have something to do with it.
But if the other person bids $1 more than my last bid, it won't go to my max bid unless $1 more IS my max. I just think it's a bit suspect for one person to raise someone else's bid, then raise their own repeatedly, when there aren't any others. Unless, by being as new to this as I am, I didn't read the bidding rules as closely as I may have needed to and didn't see that a person't max bid won't show up until it's reached. I just thought of that possibility. DOH!
"I cut this piece four times and it's still too short."
I think that last bid you see from Bidder A was his maximum bid, so it had to be represented when Bidder C came in with an even higher bid as his first bid.
The way their software works, you can't raise your own bid.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>)
Well, I'll not be surprised if this starts a whole 'nother hoo-hah uproar, because there are definitely two camps on the sniping issue. Some people think "Why not?" and other think it's morally repugnant that anyone would do such a thing.
On the rare occasions I bid on something at eBay, I often use a sniping service. First of all, I'm not going to sit here glued to my computer and a clock trying to snipe it myself at the very last second. That was fun about the first 10 times I did it, but definitely there are better ways to spend my time. Second of all, if I really want the item and I think there are a couple of other rabid people in the running (and 99% of the time, this item is for business, not for fun), I'll use any legal tool I can get my hands on.
Hope you find a good one!forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>)
I'm familiar with sniping, but don't know what a sniping service is. OK, let me rephrase that! ...I think I can figure out what it "is", but how do you go about getting one?
Google for ebay snipe service or something like that -- that should work. I'd recommend one, but I so rarely use it, the bookmark isn't even on this computer. The two that I've used allowed you to have one free snipe running at a time at least. They charged for regular multi-item snipe service. Used to be really cheap, but I think it's gotten quite a bit more expensive in the last year or two.
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>)
scotty
http://www.esnipe.com/
Heres one for you to take a look at.
Doug
Thanks forestgirl and DougU!
Well thank you for that pointer! I just used esnipe yesterday, and today for the first time I won an auction at a reasonable price! I'd given up on eBay but may use it more now.
Thanks!My goal is for my work to outlast me. Expect my joinery to get simpler as time goes by.
I'd given up on eBay but may use it more now.
John, just dont use it against me! ;)
Doug
Well, I'm not a collector. I'm looking to buy a jointer plane; once I get one I won't be bidding on others. In my entire life I've bought a total of three things on eBay!My goal is for my work to outlast me. Expect my joinery to get simpler as time goes by.
I'm a fan of and frequent buyer/seller on eBay. As long as you know what you are looking for and feel the item is described well, you should do fine. But good deals are not easy to find; if something is selling cheap, chances are it's a cheap tool. I bought some bar clamps on eBay. They looked like Jorgensen clamps, but turned out to be cheap Chinese imitations. The steel in the screws was so crappy that several have stripped threads, and the ball and socket joint on the adjustable pad often won't pivot. They were much cheaper than Jorgensens--and much less expensive.
When something like that happens, do you write a complaint to the seller? And is that complaint reflected in his/her rating as a seller?********************************************************
"It is what we learn after we think we know it all, that counts."
John Wooden 1910-
As long as the description is not misleading (e.g., they didn't allude to the clamps being Jorgenson) and the item is shipped per the auction ad, it's really not kosher to leave negative feedback. Neutral maybe, but not a negative. It is a totally Buyer Beware world at eBay, and if it seems too good to be true, it probably is -- it's up to the buyer to know what they are bidding on. There are rare exceptions (like the time I sold something on a $20 Buy It Now bid that would have gone over $100 if I'd not put that BIN price on it).forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>)
As FG said, the seller did nothing wrong. Never said they were Jorgensens--they just looked like them. I was blinded by the low cost, never thinking they could be junk (had I been a Harbor Freight customer, I would have been more wary). Or it could have been something priced by FG ;-)
Recommending the use of "Hide Signatures" option under "My Preferences" since 2005
"Or it could have been something priced by FG ;-)" OK, go ahead, rub it in!forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>)
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