Discounted New Gear on EBay ?

[arcaxis]

I've been looking at some "new" gear offered on EBay which I occasionally see as "Buy It Now" and discounted quite a bit below most of the internet retailers "standard" price. For instance an Alesis Ion synth goes normally online for $799. I've seen a few listed on EBay as new in box as low as $699 with Buy It Now. I'm a bit of a skeptic and think that a price like that comes with some hooks. Possibly the stuff is seconds, refurbs, or the like. Anyone have any experience buying gear that discounted like this from EBay ? The sellers generally appear to have positive feedback so this seems to be a good sign.

[Outlaws]

Well, I would keep my eyes open for higher shipping prices and other fees. Some people want you to pay extra to cover Ebays fee along with Paypals fee.

Back to the shipping.....you might pay like 20 bucks and it shows up 6 weeks later via media mail.

Damn bastards!

[SonicAlbert]

Sometimes legitimate dealers sell on eBay too. The main thing would be to check about the warranty before bidding. Most typical individual eBay sellers would not be able to offer a warranty that the manufacturer would honor. If it is a legitimate dealer, then the new item you buy on eBay would have the same warranty as if you bought it in their store, which is essentially what you would be doing. Those dealers usually will say in their eBay auction description whether they offer a true warranty or not.

Not every discounted price on eBay is actually going to be less than a true street price. I believe many manufacturers limit how low a dealer can advertise the price on their gear. In other words, the prices you see advertised by dealers in magazines or on their web sites are not actually the lowest price they can or will offer you. It's only the lowest price they are allowed by the manufacturer to publicize.

I do know that a lot of the prices I see on eBay for new gear are really not all that great as compared to a real *negotiated* street price at a dealer. Not only that, but on a higher ticket item I really would want to buy from a store and salesman I know. On eBay it's basically "buyer beware", and don't expect a lot of after sale support!

[rpe]

I've never seen a "Buy it Now" price that was better than what you can get through the most popular mail order catalogs and certainly not cheaper than Guitar Center.

[arcaxis]

Here's a link to an Alesis Ion I saw. The auction was ended by the seller stating the item is no longer available. Wonder if he got his hand slapped for pricing so low ?? More recently they've been showing up at around $749 as Buy It Now. Still cheaper than most internet retailers. I wonder if the "Big Guys" will match price with an EBay ad....

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...category=29552

[SonicAlbert]

I don't think brick and mortar music gear dealers will match eBay prices, but Guitar Center will match an advertised price from any other dealer.

Also, I think it's relatively common for auction items to end early, for a variety of reasons. In my experience when they say "item no longer available for sale" it can mean that the seller made a deal with a buyer outside the auction. Like they sell the item quickly to a non-eBay customer, before the auction ends.

I've made several deals myself with sellers, negotiated a price before the auction ends. Usually the seller will indicate in the auction description that they are open to that.

Or if musicgear4less really is a dealer, they may have just sold the Ions quickly from their store, leaving non available for eBay.

[dafduc]

Talking about Alesis and preserving warranty rights...

...is kinda like talking about covering a Vanilla Ice tune and preserving its artistic integrity.

Daf (hoping Numark gets its shit together soon)