Thread: The Hunt Online Auctions

The online auction houses have taken the idea of the local exchange meet and perfected it with one easy change: they opened up the exchange meet to the world. It’s simple to get wrapped up in the auctioning and overpass the price of buying the same or even a new for that matter. Therefore doing your homework is very important before buying anything. Occasionally, while researching the price of a part you’ve bid on, you find what you’re searching for at even better value.

Even, eBay is a great place for learning about those parts. A lot of times their configuration will even allow something to avoid, or to look out. eBay is not only an auction house of PC parts, it’s also an electronic community and library for those parts.

The first place I searched for parts was eBay, which lists for sale thousands of components in a wide range of condition and cost. For eBay addicts, the best way of shopping on eBay is by clicking on the desired category. This takes you to auctions that are ending very soon, might be with the appropriate component at the appropriate cost. You’ll undoubtedly using eBay to purchase components for the server, here are something’s that one should consider while shopping:

• Check the vendor’s history and feedback.

• Avoid vendors who insist on payment via money orders and cashier checks only if they have a positive feedback history.

• Do not bid on 3 or 4 of the same item if you want only 1. You might win them all. When you find an item that you want, bid on that item and see it.

• Don’t get caught up in the competition. Have a fixed bit in your mind.
The other online auction house is uBid. The differences between uBid and eBay include the following:

• You bid and win a lot of the auctions from uBid, which processes the order and ships it directly, while on eBay you are dealing with a separate vendor.

• The payment process bills the credit card directly on uBid automatically, but with eBay, one can use PayPal, an escrow like payment service; a credit card, if the separate vendor accepts them; or a check or money order, again sent directly to the seller.

• The number of offerings on uBid is less, though impressive. While eBay attracts more than a million new auctions a day, the total offering of uBid is hardly more than a million.

• The auction doesn’t close on the particular time and date on uBid, but rather when no more bids take place for a 10 minute period after the posted deadline. On eBay if you don’t get your bid in on time, you lost.

Typically, bidders would only deal with uBid and not independent vendors, as uBid was a conduit that offered very good delivery at a cost. At present, there are 3 sellers on uBid: the legal uBid Preferred Partners, who are uBid-approved third-party merchants; the Consumer Exchange, where one can sign up as an independent seller; or uBid itself. Another valuable service provided by uBid is the payment process. While signing up as a customer, one requires providing a credit card number, to which all the winning bids are charged automatically; whereas on eBay, one actually have to verify every item, using the seller’s paying preference.

Our tips for bidding on uBid are the same as for bidding on eBay. Generally, uBid has been a very good resource for memory and HDD, however they can be costlier due to shipping and handling so verify before bidding, especially as the payment process is automated.