Over the last few years Ebay has become a wonderful asset to anyone building anything from a antique car to converting a bus to a Motor Home. This is not an official ebay publication, but the suggestions of a regular seller and buyer on ebay.  There is I think a misconception by many people who search Ebay for parts.  Ebay is not a giant flea market or yard sale !  It is unlikely that you are ever going to find the fifty thousand dollar item for five dollars. And in truth if you did someone would out bid you to the point where it finally sold for forty thousand :)  I do not mean to say that there are not many many very good buys to be found, but Ebayers are made up of businesmen, collectors, sellers etc who are in the most part savy and aware of the value of their product. Also the buyers on Ebay are also in the most part intellegent and know the value of what they are seeking.  Yes everyone wants to steal a buy for a tenth of what it is worth, but if you are seriously looking for something be reasonable in your bidding. The point to all this is that though an item may start at one dollar on the bidding it is not going to sell for .01% of its acutal value in most cases.  Again, if you wish to win an auction be realistic in your bidding.  I personally set the guide line for example on used parts that the reserve should be about 40% to 50% of the cost of the item from a scrap yard or parts recycler. That is if you can buy it from a junk yard for $100 then I am going to have a reserve of about $50. The reasoning for this is that I want to give the buyer a good deal and that has to include the cost of shipping.  It is foolish to try to sell an item for a price that when you add shipping is going to be greater than the cost the buyer can get by going to his local recycler.  Now of course this does not include things like the right headlight from a 1919 Stoddard Dayton, or any other item that is unlikely to be readily available, those items sell for whatever the load will bear, but once again you have to be reasonable in your priceing.  You may have heard that someone paid ten thousand dollars for the last one sold, and if you have nine thousand in the item you are going to try to get your money out of cousre. BUT ! if you have a hundred dollars invested in the item be realistic on the reserve. No matter how low you start the bidding if you put a ten thousand dollar reserve on a ten thousand dollar valued item the item it is unlikely to sell.  Put a reserve that gives you a reasonable profit and then let the bidders decide how far above that reserve they are willing to go.  Placing auction after auction that does not sell is great for Ebay but will cost you a fortune and gain you nothing. 

   On the subject of buying Ebayers have to realize that as well as the person who is just trying to sell an item they have aquired in various fashions, many of the sellers on Ebay are commericial businesses.  This is especially true in the parts sections. Do your research and look at what is being charged for the item. I am not in anyway saying that you should not buy from someone who is a formal business, many of them on Ebay are offering very good deals. What I am saying is that it is senseless to purchase an item for more than you can get it somewhere else.  A common practive is to offer something for a very low price and if you read the ad carefully you find that the shipping and handling charges put the item at or above what you can buy it for elsewhere. I recently went to purchase a cold air intake for my Mercerdes, the price at one Ebay store was $49.95 which was great price, the shipping and handling was listed at fixed rate of $89.95 which brought the price up to $139.80, not a good price since they are sold at most parts stores locally for $99.95.  It is important to do your research on every item.  The second thing to remember is that if you want an item, bid what you are willing to spend, I have heard so many times that someone missed something by a few dollars and in almost every case After talking to them I found they had tried to buy it cheap.  Remember that you are in competition with many other buyers, and many of them are going to offer what is a reasonable price, your idea that you can get it cheap is wonderful but unlikely to be successful.  Lastly it is fun to buy and sell on Ebay, but if you seriourly trying to aquire something you have to put the fun aside and bid as though you really want it.