Bitten BAD by the eBay bug

[jenuine226]

OH MY GOSH! Has anyone else been bitten by the eBay bug?! I finally went browsing for some yarn on it (yup, I'm new to the whole eBay thing), and there were so many yummy yarns I liked that were being sold at a reasonable prices! I've already bid for 6 or 7 different auctions! Must ... stop ... bidding ...

 

 

P.S. "Dutch auctions" on eBay are a pain! I accidentally bid $1 more than I meant to because I didn't know eBay didn't automatically "bid up" on Dutch auctions for you like in their normal auctions.

[Ambersafghans]

Yes I have!

 

Last Christmas I was bitten badly by the ebay bug. (over $100!!!!) I still have some of it, but it will be used!!!

 

Amber

[mseavey2]

I have too. Got a great deal on a set of brittany blackwalnut crochet hooks for 47 dollars. What a steal. I haven't been on there for a while cause they have too much stuff I want. Notice I didn't say need:rofl

[CrochetGranny]

Oh yes! Last September I was crocheting afghans for all six of my grandchildren. I didn't have enough yarn. My hubby is always looking and bidding on ebay for something so I decided I would check it out.

Lots of yarn. I started bidding and before I knew it I had won about nine auctions. I had spent over $225.oo. I just stuck it back in my closet hidden as each box came in and used it till I got my afghans all made. Now I'm still trying to use up the last of it. I joined a swap and made alot of ten inch squares and sent out. I'm now down to two tubs instead of five.

[cogero]

yep I spent this weekend doing just that. i did get a great deal on some yarn for a scarf and with the price of gas what it is I am saving a little money.

[MarvieN]

I looove haunting ebay for yarns! Last year hubby got me a huge lot of yarn, two huge boxes! I'm still working my way through it *g* but I've been on the hunt again recently to replenish =)

 

Question for ya'll who use ebay and pay pal a lot... the account we have is in hubby's name, but I'm wanting my own. Can we set a paypal account up in such a way that he can dump X amount of dollars in it each payday or whatever, or does it have to be somehow accessed to your bank account? It's not that he ever tells me "no" when I want something (unless we truely don't have money at the time) but I'd just like to be able to bid on things without having to forward the info to him and having him do it for me, it's a big pain... especially if it's something that's about to end and I can't reach him at work lol.

[Woven N Spun]

Marvie,

I didn't use my bank account to secure my pay pal. Just our credit card. It gave me a 2,000.00 spending limit. We have had the account for years. I think we finally used up the spending limit and we need to either add our bank account (which hubby won't do) or sign up for a different pay pal account using a different ID name.

 

 

I looove haunting ebay for yarns! Last year hubby got me a huge lot of yarn, two huge boxes! I'm still working my way through it *g* but I've been on the hunt again recently to replenish =)

 

Question for ya'll who use ebay and pay pal a lot... the account we have is in hubby's name, but I'm wanting my own. Can we set a paypal account up in such a way that he can dump X amount of dollars in it each payday or whatever, or does it have to be somehow accessed to your bank account? It's not that he ever tells me "no" when I want something (unless we truely don't have money at the time) but I'd just like to be able to bid on things without having to forward the info to him and having him do it for me, it's a big pain... especially if it's something that's about to end and I can't reach him at work lol.

[mimi_mia]

STOP..........cold turkey:eek before you get in big trouble!! I did ebay for awile and had to stop.....I felt guilty everytime I won, mostly because I knew how much money I was spending.......now I don't even look at it any more...I've been rehabilitated.....it was that or D I V O R C E!

[Jsilvers]

Many people have a bank account specifically for use with PayPal. They just keep "enough" in it to cover their purchases. That's much safer than using your regular account.

[kittylou]

I haven't bid on ebay since July. I had to quit cold turkey because every time I go there looking for something specific, I end up bidding on at least 5 other auctions, usually winning most of what I bid on. I have a lot of cool stuff, but most of it I really didn't need and I've spent way too much money on it. My advice is to stay away!!!

[donnalynn2]

I agree with everyone else, DON'T LOOK or you'll spend way too much! You have to be so careful because some auctions may be priced low but with the S&H it'll come out to be much more expensive in the stores!

 

I'm working on a shawl made with TLC's Amore yarn right now which sells at $5.99 a skein. Since I cannot afford that, I stop by Jo-Ann's or Michaels every day on the way home from work with one of my 40% off coupons and get each skein for $3.50 It's a lot cheaper than getting off eBay and I don't spend any extra money on gasoline because I have to drive right by there anyway!

[dhaunae]

I'm a total eBay fanatic, sometimes buying and sometimes selling, and I've been with PayPal since the very beginning (I even have both PayPal debit and credit cards!). I did open a separate bank account strictly for my PayPal stuff, just for safety's sake, but I never had even the teensiest bit of trouble so a couple of years ago I went on and linked my main account to it. My fiance has his linked as well, and also hasn't ever had any trouble. Let me also say that the one time I ever, ever had a problem (I made a $70 purchase, the merchant had trouble getting it to go through and tried repeatedly, and in the end charged me that $70 *FIVE TIMES*), I made one phone call, was on the phone maybe a total of 5 minutes, and the money was back into my account by the time I hung up. Pretty impressive customer service IMO.

 

Marvie: We actually do exactly what you're talking about with the transfers; it's just easier for Steve to transfer money to me through PayPal since we bank at different banks (my main bank doesn't even have a branch here), so every month he plops the household budget money into my PayPal account and I use my PayPal debit card for grocery shopping, etc. It's a cashback card, so by the end of the month the fee that PayPal takes out has been recouped through the cashback feature. It works very well for us.

 

And eBay can be addictive. If you don't have strict self-control it's easy to get carried away and bid too much or bid on too much. It's one of the reasons I use a snipe tool and have turned off the "you're outbid" notifications; when I find something I really, really want to bid on I place my max bid using Auctionblitz and never, ever look at the item again. If I win I win, if I don't I don't, and I never get tempted into a bidding war.

[donnalynn2]

And eBay can be addictive. If you don't have strict self-control it's easy to get carried away and bid too much or bid on too much. It's one of the reasons I use a snipe tool and have turned off the "you're outbid" notifications; when I find something I really, really want to bid on I place my max bid using Auctionblitz and never, ever look at the item again. If I win I win, if I don't I don't, and I never get tempted into a bidding war.

 

Amen! You know that many sellers will purposefully make false bids on their own items under a different name just to get more money for things! I've learned that no matter how "rare" a find, if the auction you're bidding on gets too high, just wait and another one just like it will pop up soon!

[crochetdiva]

I haven't bid on ebay since July. I had to quit cold turkey because every time I go there looking for something specific, I end up bidding on at least 5 other auctions, usually winning most of what I bid on. I have a lot of cool stuff, but most of it I really didn't need and I've spent way too much money on it. My advice is to stay away!!!

 

Been there, done that , don't go near now. I racked up over $350 on ebay (No yarn, only patterns). And I don't think I have used a single pattern I bought.

[Kimberly]

...bad...just ask my parents! Since I am over in Europe and don't want to pay the shipping to here, I have almost everything sent to my parents house and only what I have to have ASAP sent over here. I try to limit my E-bay looking to the time period right before I am going home for a visit. My yarn stash in the US is almost as big as my stash here thanks to E-bay!

Just be careful and spend what you know you have, and set a limit...As tempting as it is when you are out-bid to go back and bid again, avoid it! Trust me!

[Ambersafghans]

I'm watching some yarn right now. Most of it ends tomorrow evening. I do need some more to make some more baby blankets. I've sold a couple. But, still....

 

I can't afford to do what I did last year around christmas!! I spent aroudn $100!!

 

Amber