A Discount Online Buying Tip

This may not be anything new or useful to a lot of you, but I thought I might mention it for those who don't know. This "tip" only applies to when you are bidding on items on eBay (or, if you know of another online auction site, it might work there too).

Do you like to collect figures, but not care about the cards they come one? Even if you do care about the cards, if you open your figures when you get them, do you really need a duplicate of the card when buying multiples or repaints of a figure? Well, if you look on eBay, a lot of times you will see figures going for relatively cheap, the reason being because their shipping cost is outrageous! On average, a carded figure without any form of insurance goes for about $5.00 for shipping in the continental United States, though they can frequently be seen with a shipping charge of as much as $15.00 attached to them.

I know not everyone is as cheap as me, but we all like to save money, right? Well, if you find a figure you like, and can't find it selling loose, try contacting the seller and asking if they'd be willing to ship the figure loose. More often than not, the seller will agree to do so if it's a newer figure you're wanting to bid on. Maybe they realize that if you're going to be paying less for shipping, you'd be willing to bid more on the actual item...who knows? The point is, if you're bidding on a figure with a $5 shipping charge attached to it, and you know that if you win you're only going to be paying $1 for shipping, that's an advantage you have over the other bidders that can really pay off in the long run. Is this dishonest? Not really, since the other bidders could just as easily request loose shipping themselves if they wanted it, and proabably actually want the figure's card if they win.

Another tip for folks like me with limited access to money orders and no access to Paypal currently is that many sellers, even if they only have Paypal or money orders listed as payment methods, will accept loose cash if you ask them ahead of time. This doesn't give you an advantage during the actual bidding, but will save you the cost of a money order, as well as a trip to wherever you need to go to get one. Like I said, when you're as cheap as me, every penny counts!

Hope this helps other people...I know it's made my online buying experiences just a little bit easier...

 

You know I've used this to pick up army builders. I was able to add 2 more Felucian Clonetroopers to my collection at about $7 each (plus shipping) which was worthwhile to me instead of paying $25 and getting stuck with two more Sandtroopers and EP II Clone Commanders than I needed.

The only problem I have is that not everyone on ebay is honets ( ~gasp!) and I have my doubts about certain variants which may be more custom than the seller will admit.

 

Yeah, you're right..."let the buyer beware" is the one rule to always remember first and foremost. You definitely can get those clone Evolutions figures individually on eBay a lot cheaper than if you were to buy the Evolutions set every time you wanted a new one. I noticed that the AOTC clone usually goes for dirt cheap by itself, as it's not as popular as Bly's trooper. If you can find the honest sellers, this is definitely the way to get them...

 

As an ebay seller myself, I always offer buyers the option to open the figures and ship loose for less money. When I sold my first collection, over 600 pieces, only 2 buyers out of almost 200 asked me to open stuff. I think most buyers bidding on MOC figures want to keep MOC figures MOC .

onward!

 

I'm always very polite about my requests, as some sellers like to sell their items "as is". I know it's just a matter of preference, since they won't have to see them after they're sold, but some folks still want their figures sold a certain way.

I've done a little bit of selling myself, though I didn't have much to sell at the time. It was an interesting experience, but I just didn't enjoy the visits to the post office and the process of shipping stuff off to others. Somebody has to do it, though, I guess.

I wish there were some sort of online exchange similar to eBay where you could just trade goods of similar value instead of doing money only (ie. I could send someone getting rid of an Ephant Mon a Dark Trooper in exchange if they were interested). I know it would be a little more "ify" than doing money exchanges, especially electronically, but it would save a few steps in the long run...

 

Rebelscum have a trading board in their forums. There is a private selling/trading board here but you need to be a Fan Force member to be invited. Mike is the moderator there and could give you more information.