Buying lapidary material on ebay

I bought these two pieces of Blue Biggs on auction on ebay. I did well but it wasn't an informed choice. The pictures weren't as nearly as good the ones I am posting. THe smaller piece shown in the first picture was faced and about what I expected. For the second piece the pictures indicated that the right side didn't have emuch interest but wasn't indicated was the better left side was about 4 times thicker. I'll cut off the right side and glue the remaining piece to a board. The piece wasn't faced buit after cutting it the left side seems flat enourhg to glue.

I did some ebay searches while dinner was cooking, bought some nice stinking water slabs and saw this with about 1/2 hour to go and one bid at $19.95. Polished faced rough that might produce a few more slabs. 4 x 2 1/2 x 1 1/4 inches and weighs 12 ounces. $15 shipping, but I saw another item from the same seller that I was interested in.



With 5 minutes left I made a few incremental bids and quit when I was auto out bid at $35. I stuck around for the auction to end and the final price was $110 including shipping. I've seen some nice Deschutes but bidding has been very competitive and the items go for double my buy price.