eBay

Andy W — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 21:48:00 GMT

eBay is changing our world, especially for those with a penchant for “tweaking.”

I’m not a big shopper. In fact, I truly hate shopping. I may even be the stereotypical male (or engineer?). I can’t really remember the last time I went shopping for the specific purpose of buying clothes, though I’m probably about due. I do routinely shop for shoes though… not because I have a shoe fetish, or that I have foot problems, but because I am particularly hard to fit.

Which brings me to one of the big things I hate about shopping – I don’t like talking to salesmen. In the time it takes to explain what I want, I probably could have found it myself. Or found that they didn’t have it and left. My conversations with salesmen generally consist of, “Can you point me to the (insert widget) aisle? Thanks.”

Salesmen make a living because they are experts about the products they sell (we hope), and they ask you lots of questions to find out what you want and/or need. Engineers don’t need salesmen; we already know what we want; we just want to know if you carry it and how much you want for it. But, for those times when I do need an expert, I’m probably not going to go looking for a salesman!

Some places, though, force you to talk to a salesman: furniture stores, appliance stores, car parts stores, and car dealerships to name a few. Oh, and shoe stores. GRRRRRR! 9 times out of 10 I waste my time and the salesman’s too. After I try on every pair of 12’s and 13’s in the store it’s like, “Sorry, nothing fits. Thanks.”

So what does this have to do with eBay? Not much, really, but I have a much more enjoyable time shopping on eBay.

For starters there are no salesmen, and I can search literally thousands of stores for what I want (since I already know what I want) in a matter of minutes. I’m anonymous; there’s nobody stuffing my mailbox (or inbox) with junk mail. Or calling me back to “follow up.”

“Um, you didn’t have what I wanted, that’s why I left without buying anything.”

But the real reason I love eBay, and why eBay is changing our world is that when I need some obscure thing, chances are I can find it on eBay.

My eBay rating is up to “7” now.

“Wow! Really? Seven?” you say.

Like I said, I’m not a shopper.

The great thing about eBay is that it creates a market for things that never had a market before… like parts for LaScalas. And magnetrons for microwave ovens.

“Who needs a magnetron for a microwave oven?”

“EXACTLY!”

There’s a guy in Chattanooga, Tennessee who scraps microwave ovens with shipping damage and sells “new” parts for microwave ovens. I called the parts places in town and no one had the part I needed in stock. It would be special order. Special order costs more money. Special order is not returnable, blah, blah, blah.

Well, I moved this summer, and just before we got an offer on the old house, the microwave oven broke. It’s seven years old.

“Well how long did you expect it to last?”

When I was in junior high school we got our first microwave oven. It still works… so I was expecting, oh, another ten or twenty years.

“Well, jeez, aren’t microwave ovens cheap?”

Not the ones that are also range hoods.

“So what’s that, 300 bucks?”

EXACTLY! For something I'll never get to use. I have five kids. I can feed them for a month on 300 bucks! OK, so maybe not a whole month, but still…

So to order a new magnetron it was going to be $145. And a new capacitor was $55. A price check at Lowe’s confirmed I can get a brand new (low-end) Whirlpool (matches the rest of the appliances) for $199.99 plus tax.

So, I would be an idiot not to buy a new one, right? WRONG! Helloooo eBay!

Within two minutes I found this Chattanooga guy, and he has both parts I need.

“Can you combine shipping?”

“Yup.”

Grand total: $30 with shipping!

And my kids get to eat this month.

So perhaps in the past, the appliance repair guy knew about this Chattanooga guy. And he would send out his catalogs and business cards to the repair guys. But would I get a catalog? Why would I? I only need one magnetron. But then the repair guy gets the catalog, and he knows what the new part price is… and he charges me for it! And charges me $65 just to look at it. And then $65/hour to take out a few screws and put them back in. Total bill $65 + $65 + $145 + $55 = $330. In that case I would be an idiot not to buy a new microwave!

Or maybe the mere existence of eBay made it possible for this Chattanooga guy to exist. Who knows?

Last year I fixed our $450 washing machine (also seven years old) for $130. I had to replace the gearbox. I got the tool I needed on eBay for half of what Sears wanted for it.

My wife absolutely loves me.

Thank you eBay!

Andy's Blog : eBay

eBay