Using Ebay and are we being smart about what we buy there?


I have to say that I have always watched my pennies! I find it fun to find the best prices for the things I buy. Adding in the cost of shipping is important to finding the best prices.
 
I have taught myself the same thing, Mark, and I make myself pause to add the two and use the new total to tell myself how much I'm paying in all. It's so easy to trick ourselves. The people who mark an item at $4.99 will tell you that we see the $4 and 'ping' off of that number right away. I tell myself that it's really $5, PLUS tax...here in Canada.

I wonder, now that I think of it, who really is buying the latest 'n greatest of tech. It can't be the 20 something who is a barista at Starbucks, or the young engineer just starting out who still has to live with mom 'n pop for the 'next while'. I purchased a Samsung S7 Edge as part of a two-year contract with my service provider in March 2017, so I'm coming up for renewal. I'm very impressed with the S7, and couldn't possibly bring myself to ditch it and pay another $500 for the S9 or whatever they offer. The S7 should be good for another two-year contract AFAIC. It still looks like it's brand new, and I carry it everywhere.
 
I have taught myself the same thing, Mark, and I make myself pause to add the two and use the new total to tell myself how much I'm paying in all. It's so easy to trick ourselves. The people who mark an item at $4.99 will tell you that we see the $4 and 'ping' off of that number right away. I tell myself that it's really $5, PLUS tax...here in Canada.

I wonder, now that I think of it, who really is buying the latest 'n greatest of tech. It can't be the 20 something who is a barista at Starbucks, or the young engineer just starting out who still has to live with mom 'n pop for the 'next while'. I purchased a Samsung S7 Edge as part of a two-year contract with my service provider in March 2017, so I'm coming up for renewal. I'm very impressed with the S7, and couldn't possibly bring myself to ditch it and pay another $500 for the S9 or whatever they offer. The S7 should be good for another two-year contract AFAIC. It still looks like it's brand new, and I carry it everywhere.

Same with my S6, but the battery is getting to where it will not last even 24 hours. I need to get rid of Messenger as I keep getting adds uploaded, and it I don't clear - it drains the bat even faster.
Anyone know if I can get rid of Messenger and still keep Facebook?
 
Well......this is entirely beside the topic....but I have never registered with any social medium except the odd photography or rail forums. Oh, and an ethics forum as well. But I don't do facebook, twitter, snap chat, Instagram....I had a sneaking suspicion that they would be data miners and that I would come to regret becoming active on them. Turns out I was 'bout right on that count. I was also banking my time heavily on my new hobby of model trains and communicating in forums and knew I'd get bogged down reading updates from a gazillion people on those other places.

Sorry, I don't know how to get rid of messenger. What you could do is to look in your list of Apps under 'settings', and see if the two of them are separate entities...two separate apps. If so, try uninstalling messenger and see what the outfall is. Might not be pretty since facebook needs to keep tabs on all its subjects.
 
Same with my S6, but the battery is getting to where it will not last even 24 hours. I need to get rid of Messenger as I keep getting adds uploaded, and it I don't clear - it drains the bat even faster.
Anyone know if I can get rid of Messenger and still keep Facebook?
I don’t have messenger on my phone or tablet. I simply use the web browser included with the device. Farcebook has gotten more and more demanding that I install messanger, but so far I’ve een able to keep them at bay. The latest trick is to not allow desktop mode even when I request it, and I have to go into the address bar after requesting, and change the “m.farcebook” to “www.farcebook”.
 
Thanks for the info, Guys.
I tried a couple things - didn't work - probably me - doh!
I didn't mean to hijack the thread - hope I didn't ruin it for anyone!
 
There are different motivations from buying different ways. Sometimes, it's a matter of who has stock and who doesn't. Shipping times or charges can be an issue. I know that if I'm not happy with a price, I'll take the time to do some shopping around. Sometimes it's not worth the hunt. Personally, high ticket items or high quantity items are worth the hunt. When the new Broadway K4 Streamliner came out, I priced it out and got my (sorta) local hobby shop to match the price. I'd rather give them the business than a faceless mega corporation.
 
im admin on one of the big boy facebook pages & I had a women hit me up asking if she could sell her 5 or six MTH big boys
I said sure .well she got 500 for 4014 so she thought she could get 500 to 600 for the rest well, the sat & sat she wouldn't even consider
very reasonable 350 avg .
so they languish on evilbay now ohh did I mention the 54 dollars in shipping !!!!!
 
I ordered the Bachmann 70 Ton switcher from Amazon with a secondary supplier being a well-known hobby shop. Five days after the order was placed I received a notice form Amazon that the locomotive was sold out! I checked other hobby shops that were on line and locally as well and all were out of stock of the switcher.

As a last resort I checked E-Bay and found a supplier that did have the locomotive in stock as the same price as Amazon and free shipping. I placed an order through PayPal and the locomotive is to arrive on next Wednesday. The seller had a five star rating on all its transactions so hopefully everything will work out okay.

Lately, I rarely order any items from E Bay, but in the past did order on a regular basis.

Yes, you have to know the price of the item that you want to order and I've ore cars sell for over the retail price that one could buy the cars for in a hobby shop. I've purchased DCC decoders at a discounted prices as well as locomotives. But, I've burned too.

I received what were Tyco cars ( complete with horn and hook couplers) where the photos and descriptions were inaccurate and showed better models than the ones shown. I kept the cars to remind me to beware!!!

Greg
 
I have to say this : I have bought many many items on Ebay, over some, what, 10-15 years. Not one time have I been duped by they, the bank's transaction, nor the dealer. Not a once. A few have been by bidding and the rest straight across purchases using Ppal / debit card. And at some date, if it's MRRing related, we'll have to buy them on-line anyway, as eventually there will no longer be mom and pop model train stores. From the 5 or 6 that used to exist in Los Angeles, we're now down to 1; the Whistle Stop in Pasadena..! The last store to go belly up was the Train Shack in Burbank..There are 1 or 2 in Orange county. But, alas, it's only a matter of time before they too won't make the rent..
 
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