I frequently see prices on eBay that are much higher then the retail price, sometimes even twice as much, or auctions with unreasonably high shipping fees. Doing a little research and price comparison, can save you time, hassle and (most importantly) money, it doesn’t matter what your shopping for.

Buying computer parts, I often check Newegg.com because they often have very good deals, excellent service and user reviews of the products I’m interested in. Their new price is shipped often better then eBay’s new or refurbished (used) price… eBay is good for some of the older parts, but for newer parts, RAM and hard drives, Newegg.com usually gets my dollar.

OEM motorcycle parts are sometimes overpriced, either the reserve might is too high (more then the retail price or new price on a used item), or the shipping and handling fees are inflated… The inflated shipping is a common trick, you’ll see an item which is $100 in one auction and $40 in another, but with the shipping they are both the same price… Kneedraggers.com and Solomotoparts.com have pretty reasonable prices on aftermarket parts and Babbittsonline.com has some of the best prices on for OEM parts that I’ve seen.

Cell phones… This is an the area where I’ve seen some real price gouging… I’ve been seeing the Motorola ROKR E8 and other phones listed on eBay for $100+ over the sticker price, with seriously inflated shipping. Know the value of the phone your buying, read the item description carefully and make sure to give the seller’s rep a once over.

There *are* some really good deals on eBay, I recently bought a carbon fiber fender for my Kawasaki ZX-9R from cruiserbackrest, which was of better quality then some of the more expensive carbon fiber I’ve bought. I also got a good deal on the wiring harness I needed for my Suzuki GSX-R 750 from hnmasry, so eBay can actually save you a lot of money and you can sometimes negotiate (within reason) a better then listed price (especially if it’s an odd part that he/she has re-listed several times).

Although I’ve noticed that eBay has fewer bargains all the time and many sellers are just using it as a retail outlet, there’s still many things—such as used motorcycle parts—that it’s really good for. If you have any suggestions are thoughts about this article please drop me a message.

Regards,
Nicholas