Old vintage pens have quirks, and you either need to be familiar with fixing them yourself, or pay extra to have someone knowledgeable do it for you. Used pens are fine, but for a first pen I recommend one from the 1990's or newer.Scratches are your personal preference, and you might get a good writing pen for cheap if you don't mind the way it looks. You want to see that the nib isn't mangled and the body isn't dented/cracked. A used pen needs to have a few pictures. If there are no bids with 30 seconds remaining then you might get a steal. Auctions hit high prices when there are 2+ people fighting and no other similar auctions to fall back on. Check that periodically (Sunday afternoons are when a lot of auctions end) and you might be able to find a good deal that other people have missed. Go to the collectibles->pens and writing instruments->fountain pens category, filter by "auction" type (to get rid of the thousands of Chinese buy-it-now pens), and sort by time- ending soonest.Don't risk your money on a new model until someone on a forum has taken the plunge and reviewed it. Check out the reviews online before purchasing a Chinese pen to make sure you are getting one that is respected in the community. Look at buy-it-now pens from China, or some US sellers can ship it to you faster for extra money.If you blow your budget on the pen and can't buy any ink, you will be a sad panda. Don't forget about ink! A box of cartridges can be had for under $10, or a bottle of Noodler's brand ink can be had for under $15.Four days after I complained to eBay the money was back in my PayPal account. I bought a radio once that was never delivered (I waited two weeks). eBay and PayPal aren't owned by the same company anymore, but they are still tightly integrated. Have a PayPal account and pay with it.If I make a mistake like that, it embarrasses the hell out of me and I apologize profusely. However, between the knock-offs and counterfiets, the volume-pricing dealers and those who don't know (or care) what happens to the market, prices on ebay - more so than others 'venues' - are dramatically lower than they perhaps should be, for the value of the item. I'm not saying that, many times, the prices aren't over inflated or that the seller hasn't made a typo or other error. Frequently I find that prices, during the race to the bottom on ebay, are about a dime on the dollar for many - if a majority of - things. I look at various places for pricing comparisons, as well as doing other research. I sell items that are expensive and I don't put them out for pennies on the dollar. No matter what ebay says, they aren't the end-all of pricing. Maybe they did some on a PC and some on a phone?Īnother seller has an item priced at $199.95 plus shipping when previous items (same brand, color, size) tell me $19.95 is more reasonable.Īs a seller, if you make that kind of mistake, how do you react if someone sends you an ASQ for clarification? This seller also has a number of other items priced at $99.99 and nearly identical items priced at $9.99 which is more realistic. One is priced at 165.00 plus shipping for an item that is typically in the $15 range, so I'm thinking they meant $16.50 maybe. Yeah, I know the whole bit about pricing high to hold a listing spot or other reasons, but these don't seem like that. Looking at a couple of things that are far overpriced from comparable listings.
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