metalsmith
Cave Dweller 
Member since October 2012
Posts: 1,537
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Post by metalsmith on Feb 14, 2018 11:55:54 GMT -5
Thanks for the tip. I found the £17+ postage prohibitive but did find a copy for £3.44 delivered from the States in VGC! Done deal 😁 |
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Fossilman
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2009
Posts: 20,723 
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Post by Fossilman on Feb 15, 2018 16:01:13 GMT -5
I spent the week on Ebay, scoring some nice rock slabs...Even asked a seller if he would drop the price on a slab (Buy now) and get free shipping (He did it)..
I usually only bid once and its the last 10 seconds of the bidding... Bid high, pay the highest bid thrown on the table (Which is still a very good price,
low)...I usually score 99.7% of the time..
Pretty sweet deals on slabs there...I have bid seven times, won seven times and two more to go....Just do the homework on what the buy is, it can turn out a sweet deal for you...
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Post by captbob on Feb 15, 2018 18:43:47 GMT -5
Can't forget to add shipping - unless you get it for free!
Paying 40 bucks for a 10 pound rock = 4 bucks a pound, but if shipping is $15, the rock is now $5.50 a pound.
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Post by rockjunquie on Feb 15, 2018 19:19:39 GMT -5
I scored a big old stock oj slab last night for 22.00! I was pretty damn stoked!
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Fossilman
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2009
Posts: 20,723
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Post by Fossilman on Feb 15, 2018 20:13:13 GMT -5
I usually buy from the same guy (this go around..) he combined shipping for all... Come out pretty good.. LOL
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Post by captbob on Feb 15, 2018 20:13:15 GMT -5
I can't even remember what I got on eBay yesterday. Would have to log in to find out.
Don't care enough to look.
OLD (quality) OJ is gettin' really hard to find. Nice score!
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Post by captbob on Feb 15, 2018 20:15:45 GMT -5
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Post by rockjunquie on Feb 15, 2018 20:27:52 GMT -5
Yeah, it does look like autumn jasper. |
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Fossilman
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2009
Posts: 20,723
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Post by Fossilman on Feb 16, 2018 9:45:28 GMT -5
Albany,Oregon, just a rock throw away from me...LOL
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doublet83
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since March 2016
Posts: 118
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Post by doublet83 on Feb 16, 2018 10:27:24 GMT -5
I love looking for deals on ebay too. However, I wish Ebay offered the ability to permanently block certain sellers from your search results. 90% of the sellers for the stuff I look for never post anything that interests me, or never post good deals. So I end up having to scroll thru tons of stuff to find the few things that might be interesting.
I've stopped looking for lake superior agates because its become 3000 listings of over priced agates from professional sellers. Trying to find a few interesting listings in there is just not worth the effort. This is part of the downside when a marketplace becomes too commercialized.
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Post by hummingbirdstones on Feb 16, 2018 10:31:44 GMT -5
Go into advanced searches on Ebay at the top of the screen. You can exclude certain words in your searches.
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doublet83
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since March 2016
Posts: 118
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Post by doublet83 on Feb 16, 2018 11:53:16 GMT -5
I know I can exclude words or sellers from searches, but I would have to type in about 50 to 100 sellers each time I do a search, an impractical proposition. These are professional sellers that spam the site with commoditized/over priced items.
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Post by hummingbirdstones on Feb 16, 2018 18:48:50 GMT -5
Do it once and save the search. It will show up on the left side of your screen and then all you have to do it click on it to run the search.
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doublet83
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since March 2016
Posts: 118
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Post by doublet83 on Feb 17, 2018 10:12:10 GMT -5
Do it once and save the search. It will show up on the left side of your screen and then all you have to do it click on it to run the search. Ah, thanks. This may actually be a solution. I'll have to try it and see how many sellers I can exclude. |
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Post by grumpybill on Feb 20, 2018 8:26:27 GMT -5
Lets see if I can buy this one for a penny + shipping. Well...my bid didn't hold up. It's up to $2.25. EDIT: It sold for $4.25. I hope whichever one of you bought it, enjoys it! |
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Post by grumpybill on May 24, 2018 14:53:45 GMT -5
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Post by stardiamond on May 24, 2018 17:26:05 GMT -5
I haven't bought any lapidary on ebay for a few years. I buy regularly there. I shop stuff that I have looked at on Amazon. I have a lot of slabs and until I start cutting cabs again, there isn't much point. When I am bored, I do searches on the Oregon jaspers.
Biggest miss was Howardite rough at $5 a pound (blind). I didn't have a saw and asked about slabs. Shortly there after, I ran into the seller at a rock show in Reno and the price had gone to $55 a pound. I've scored some great deals over the years.
I need a new saw blade and when I get one, I might start looking for some rough on ebay.
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santabarbara
having dreams about rocks
Member since February 2017
Posts: 50
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Post by santabarbara on May 25, 2018 16:17:37 GMT -5
I find that a lot, NOT ALL buyers on ebay are just cheap. People most of the time have stuff marked for less than retail value, and people claim overpriced. If you go to a rock and gem show - those prices for the same higher end material is 5x more! I have seen this to be true several times over. Granted there are people who don't care and just want whatever they can get for some material, but overall I find ebay prices as a whole are much under retail value of rocks and items in general. Those "Overpriced" items are usually very rare and hard to come by anymore, hence there value - which I think is a good thing. Its like comparing the rarity and price of quality morrisonite to just some random breciated jasper that is a few bucks. Same for any hobby, when it is no longer produced or very hard to come by price continues to go up- as it should. I Personally have boughten some high grade stuff on ebay for way under half of what you would pay in person at rock shop or rock show. So complaining that the nice stuff is too expensive, put urself in the owners shoes, wouldn't you want to get closest to its actual value as you can? Now ebay allows "Best Offer" which I have gotten stuff for 5,10,20, 50.00 under their asking Buy it Now price. Ebay as a whole is great, where else can you search for a specific type of material or lapidary item, pay under or WAY under retail and have it arrive at your house without much hassle? Some people that don't live near rockhounding locations, it is their only way to get unique and nice quality material. Sorry for the rant, but we should be supporting any online marketplace that furthers the future of rockhounding and associated businesses - it is not like back in 1950s where there was a rockshop in every town and it was a much more popular hobby.
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Post by stardiamond on May 25, 2018 18:52:02 GMT -5
I find that a lot, NOT ALL buyers on ebay are just cheap. People most of the time have stuff marked for less than retail value, and people claim overpriced. If you go to a rock and gem show - those prices for the same higher end material is 5x more! I have seen this to be true several times over. Granted there are people who don't care and just want whatever they can get for some material, but overall I find ebay prices as a whole are much under retail value of rocks and items in general. Those "Overpriced" items are usually very rare and hard to come by anymore, hence there value - which I think is a good thing. Its like comparing the rarity and price of quality morrisonite to just some random breciated jasper that is a few bucks. Same for any hobby, when it is no longer produced or very hard to come by price continues to go up- as it should. I Personally have boughten some high grade stuff on ebay for way under half of what you would pay in person at rock shop or rock show. So complaining that the nice stuff is too expensive, put urself in the owners shoes, wouldn't you want to get closest to its actual value as you can? Now ebay allows "Best Offer" which I have gotten stuff for 5,10,20, 50.00 under their asking Buy it Now price. Ebay as a whole is great, where else can you search for a specific type of material or lapidary item, pay under or WAY under retail and have it arrive at your house without much hassle? Some people that don't live near rockhounding locations, it is their only way to get unique and nice quality material. Sorry for the rant, but we should be supporting any online marketplace that furthers the future of rockhounding and associated businesses - it is not like back in 1950s where there was a rockshop in every town and it was a much more popular hobby. I've been buying lapidary on ebay for close to 20 years. When considering slabs, retail price when it exists doesn't mean anything. A person has a price they are willing to pay and won't buy unless the price is reasonable for them. There are few or no rock shops in my general area. I have gone to lapidary shows and the price for good slabs (when you can even find them) is not reasonable. I have a better inventory than almost all sellers at the local shows. A person is lucky to find more than a few sellers of slabs at these shows. The bigger shows usually require traveling some distance. When I am interested in buying slabs, I do specific searches and occasionally find some material worth buying or bidding on. It takes skill to buy on ebay, because a person isn't able to inspect the material; only photographs which can be glamor shots or excessively lighted. |
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Post by vegasjames on May 25, 2018 19:12:25 GMT -5
I find that a lot, NOT ALL buyers on ebay are just cheap. People most of the time have stuff marked for less than retail value, and people claim overpriced. If you go to a rock and gem show - those prices for the same higher end material is 5x more! I have seen this to be true several times over. Granted there are people who don't care and just want whatever they can get for some material, but overall I find ebay prices as a whole are much under retail value of rocks and items in general. Those "Overpriced" items are usually very rare and hard to come by anymore, hence there value - which I think is a good thing. Its like comparing the rarity and price of quality morrisonite to just some random breciated jasper that is a few bucks. Same for any hobby, when it is no longer produced or very hard to come by price continues to go up- as it should. I Personally have boughten some high grade stuff on ebay for way under half of what you would pay in person at rock shop or rock show. So complaining that the nice stuff is too expensive, put urself in the owners shoes, wouldn't you want to get closest to its actual value as you can? Now ebay allows "Best Offer" which I have gotten stuff for 5,10,20, 50.00 under their asking Buy it Now price. Ebay as a whole is great, where else can you search for a specific type of material or lapidary item, pay under or WAY under retail and have it arrive at your house without much hassle? Some people that don't live near rockhounding locations, it is their only way to get unique and nice quality material. Sorry for the rant, but we should be supporting any online marketplace that furthers the future of rockhounding and associated businesses - it is not like back in 1950s where there was a rockshop in every town and it was a much more popular hobby. It makes sense that the prices are higher at the rock shows. There is the cost of the travel including gas and hotel costs to factor in. Then they have to pay for the booth, which can be pretty expensive especially if they need electricity to their booth. Ebay sellers do not have all these excessive costs unless they are also collecting or mining the material themselves, in which they do have the cost of gas and possibly lodging for those trips. |
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