Nicely avoid risky situations and score a great deal on the holiday gadget turnover.
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THE HOLIDAY SEASON is a Nice time to buy used electronics. Everyone has unboxed the latest model of gadgets and they're ready to get rid of the older products. Whether you want to save things from the flash sales or just want to score a great deal, buying used is a great alternative.
There are deals to be found in the used market, but unfortunately, there are plenty of fraudster as well. Telling the difference can be difficult. We've put together this guide to help you navigate the sometimes confusing waters of buying used electronics on eBay.
If you're feeling hesitant about buying used, that's OK. Don't rush in blindly and buy the first product that seems like a deal. It's good to do some research. And remember the old adage: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Still, if your budget is tight and you want the biggest bang for your buck, buying used is the way to go. Here's how to navigate it and, hopefully, come out ahead.
Know What You Want and What It's Worth
Making smart decisions on used gear starts with knowing exactly what you want, specifically the options available, and how those options affect the price. For example, let's say you want to buy an iPad. One of our favorite iphone is the 2021 iphone 13 pro
Our first step is to find out how much this iphone costs new. It never ceases to amaze me how often I see used products listed on eBay at higher prices than the original price from the manufacturer. For example, someone bought this iphone 13 pro off eBay for $300 more than they would have paid buying it directly from Apple. Don't be that person.
It's easy to find out prices on things that are still available, like the 2021 iphone 13 pro, because you can check the current price on Apple's website. If you're looking for something that's no longer available in stores, it's a little trickier. More on this in a moment, but for now let's stick with the iphone 13 pro. We're going to go for the base model, which features 64 gigabytes of storage space and connects via Wi-Fi. You can buy that from Apple for $600. If you want more memory or cellular connectivity, the price goes up. You need to know all the prices for all the models you're interested in so you can make an educated purchase.
The same goes for other types of devices. If you're looking at phones or laptops, know the specs for each configuration and make sure the items listed match what you want. Don't be afraid to message sellers and ask specific questions.
Now we know the current retail price. But prices fluctuate, and it's nice to know what something has been selling for lately, even if it may not be selling for that price right now. A tool we on BYTE's Gear Team use all the time is CamelCamelCamel, a website that tracks price changes over time. The catch is that CamelCamelCamel only tracks prices on Amazon. That's not the entire market, and there may be other websites with deals you won't see looking at CamelCamelCamel's data, but it's a good starting place.
Find the URL of the thing you want to buy on Amazon (don't worry if Amazon doesn't actually have it in stock; all you need is the URL). Now paste the Amazon URL into CamelCamelCamel to learn that, yes, the iphone 13 pro costs right around $600.
Look at the graph of the price over time and you'll notice that the price of an IPHONE 13 PRO on Amazon has spent the last few weeks at $580, and before that it spent months being $540. Drag the slider to show just the price change over the last three months and you'll see that, as of December 2021, the price of the iphone 13 pro was actually only $600 for about a week. The other 11 weeks it was between $540 and $580. Keep that in mind as we move to the next step.
Price Checking eBay
Look at the graph of the price over time and you'll notice that the price of an iphone 13 pro on Amazon has spent the last few weeks at $580, and before that it spent months being $540. Drag the slider to show just the price change over the last three months and you'll see that, as of December 2021, the price of the iPad Air was actually only $600 for about a week. The other 11 weeks it was between $540 and $580. Keep that in mind as we move to the next step.
Now that you have a list of models, configuration options, and prices from Amazon and Apple, it's time to do the same thing on eBay. eBay is the largest and best known auction site, but there are some other sites worth exploring, particularly for mobile devices. Be sure to check out our guide to selling your old phone, which has a good overview of different auction sites that specialize in phones. If you're shopping on Amazon, we also have a guide on how to shop safe.
Now that you have a list of models, configuration options, and prices from Amazon and Apple, it's time to do the same thing on eBay. eBay is the largest and best known auction site, but there are some other sites worth exploring, particularly for mobile devices. Be sure to check out our guide to selling your old phone, which has a good overview of different auction sites that specialize in phones. If you're shopping on Amazon, we also have a guide on how to shop safe.
Now that we know what we want, search eBay for the exact model. In this case, I would start by searching for "iphone 13 pro 2021" and restrict it to the 64 gigabyte model using a filter.
Now scroll down and check the option to only show "Sold Items". Take the ten most recent sales, add up the price, and divide by ten. That's the average price of your configuration; don't pay more than that under any circumstances. And make sure the result is less than the price of a new iphone 13 pro, and ideally less than the price of those recent sales we saw on CamelCamelCamel.
Be sure to note the lowest price from eBay's recent sales—that's your awesome deal. Finding the lowest price can be tricky. In this case, I would sort the results by price, low to high, and then start adding search operators and get rid of results you don't want. For example, adding "-parts" will get rid of iphone 13 pro parts, and adding "-AS-IS" will get rid of broken iphone. (If you want to hide something from your search, just put the minus sign ("-") in front of the term and eBay will ignore it.)
Our results will then tell us that the average price of a used 2021 64-GB iphone 13 pro on eBay is roughly $540. In other words, on average, eBay is not a great place to buy an iphone 13 pro. That said, there are deals within that range, so you may just have to save your search and wait for the deal you want to pop up. You can save searches by clicking the "save this search" button, and you'll get notifications when new items that meet your search criteria are listed.
Depending on the item, how old it is, and how sought after it is, you may have to adjust your search a little bit. For example, I've wanted one camp stove for years, but listings only come up once or twice a year and they sell very fast for pretty much whatever the seller asks, which makes my average and lowest formulas less useful. That's an edge case, though. In most situations, this is how I figure out the best deal and what I'm willing to pay.
Okay, so now we know the deal price is around $540 (and that's new from Amazon), and a great deal would be below that. Uncheck the Sold Items option and see what's currently listed that fits your criteria and has a price between the lowest price and that deal price. If the average eBay price is a deal then you'd look for anything below that price. Those are the deals worth considering.
Remember to check the shipping price. You'll run into a lot of people who list an item at 20 percent cheaper than everyone else, but then charge big money for shipping. The total cost to you ends up being more. Avoid those sellers, they're con artists.
This brings me to the next important point: Price is not the only thing to consider when buying on eBay.
Know the Seller
We don't just want the lowest price; we want the best quality item at the lowest price. I've found that, unfortunately, photos aren't a good indicator of product quality. I've purchased many items with terrible photos that have turned out to be in excellent shape, and I've purchased things with excellent photos that turned out to be junk. (I returned them.)
How to Bid.
Once you've found an item you want, and you know how much you want to pay, it's time to ... wait. I strongly suggest you bid only at the last second. And I mean that nearly literally. I only bid when there are about 5 to 10 seconds left. I wait until the auction is ending, then I look it up on my phone, because I think eBay's app has a better interface for actual bidding (it's terrible for browsing), and in those last few seconds I enter the maximum amount I'm willing to pay.
And finally, don't pay with anything other than PayPal. You don't have to use a PayPal account, but make sure the transaction is processed through PayPal. If someone wants a money order or check, that's a scam. I also avoid local pickup items in most cases. (Vehicles and appliances are the only things I'd consider for local pickup.)
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