Little Miss Sunshine

Are there any other ebay widows here? I surf this site to keep myself amused while my husband buys off ebay! Mind you there are some bargains to be had and ebay Au doesnt seem to be as popular as ebay U.K so prices are good(so my husband keeps telling me)

Mrs Jackaroo

its the other way around in our house - I'm the Ebay addict. I havent really gotten into it too much in Oz yet because like you say its not as popular as the UK yet and I find it the opposite - not many bargains to be had!

arkon

I'd agree as we are or were both ebay addicts but here the idea of paying less than you would in the shops by the time you add the extortionate postage is a concept they don't seem to have here. I very rarely find a bargain and if I do it's usually not what it seems. Fake or otherwise misrepresented by the time you get it.

tabby

Yep I agree, I just tend to buy books were the seller has more than 1 that I want and put the shipping together.

The 2 things taht amaze me here in Aus are the price of paint and price of books (don't even start me on nana's )

arkon

Forget bananas; don't even get me started on the price of books or even the pathetic range available. Not long after moving here I discovered the problem with books, so thought "no bother" I'll buy them off the internet!! Even if you can find them on the internet the cost to get them to you makes any saving you make not worth it. I have found a partial way around it though. I went on the USA forum and asked if someone would act as a book forwarder from the states. I got an excellent girl to help me. I ordered 20 books and got them sent to her address and she forwarded them on to me in a box. Saved heaps, and was able to get stuff unavailable here in this illiterate godforsaken land. Only snag is you need to buy a lot of books to make it worth while.

As a small side issue, today went into a shop with a 20% off voucher. Bought 6 items at $6 a piece and handed over the voucher. Girl rang it all up in the till including the voucher and the total came to $36! When confronting the girl that this was incorrect, she replied no its not, it is correct! Asking her to check her sums she still remained defiant that 6 X 6 minus 20% was $36! Her answer was it must be right as the till is never wrong! After much pleading to work it out by hand, where it became painfully obvious that this 20 something girl couldn’t do her 6 times table and only after enlisting the help of another shop assistant was the errant till shown up for what it was. I’m not saying the till was made in Australia and was genetically pre-disposed to short changing people as that would be just plain daft. I’m just so glad I never bought 7 items because I’m not sure even I could have worked it out then, that the thieving gypsy basxxxrds were trying to fleece me. Fleeced in the shops, fleeced on ebay and fleecing for a living, Oh the joys…..

wsbtroyno21

Never thought I would find myself saying this ...... but I actually agree with you Arkon. I was a huge fan of buying stuff from Ebay in the UK and always felt as if I were getting a bargain. Here in Oz its just not the same. I used to do a lot of online shopping in general but since coming to Oz I have found it almost impossible to find decent online shops. I also think the price of books here is shocking .... I used to buy books regularly but haven't bought a single one since I got here. The choice of books available is pretty bad too.

Wendy

annqldau

Found a good book shop 2nd hand in Strathpine the other day for anyone near Brisbane was a factory unit full of good 2nd hand books will def be going back there in future.

Ebay here I agree isn't up to the same standard as UK everything quite high priced. Mmmm... maybe means we should be buying crap 2nd hand and sticking it on...LOL.

arkon

Well it's no secret I don't like it here and on my last trip back to the UK I got another nasty reminder of how much I dislike the place. As you might have guessed I'm a bit of a book worm, I'm even writing my own book. So the price of books here and the lack of choice is particularly annoying, but them back in the UK I discover that the supermarkets are selling books for around the £3.50 mark! Even Borders were doing deals like 20% off, and then amazon also much cheaper.

Also sad I know is the fact that I used to do a lot of international travel around Europe and the states with my work so every new city or town I used to seek out the secondhand book shops. Just another little thing I gave up without realising just how much it meant to me.

As for internet buying, try as I might I recently couldn't find an internet shop that sold a particular water filter cheaper than Big W and they were charging a couple of dollars over the RRP! They just don't get the idea of the internet when it comes to shopping. Before the protectors of Oz come on shouting and giving me a big list of internet shops in OZ, All I can say is been there, seen them, wasted my time! If your an internet bargain consumer in the UK you will be sadly constrained here. I've lost track of the number of times I can't even find a reference to something when narrowing the search ot Oz, then make it UK wide and get 10,000+ hits! Ho Hum,Ho Hum it's back to home I go....

Mrs Jackaroo

In the UK I would have jumped at doing that - carboots and charity shops I loved for bargains to sell on Ebay, but its not so easy to find junk in Oz (well not cheap junk that is!! )

wsbtroyno21

As much as I love my new life in Oz, I wholeheartedly agree with you.....but not enough to go back to the UK !!!!!

arkon

Carboots!! don't get me started! In my area I've given up going to markets and carboots. Also something I loved doing back home. Here you get only one of everything or if it's plants maybe 2 or 3. But burger stands no chance! I found out why too when I tried to have my own stall for a bit of a laugh. I got vetted to make sure I wasn't selling something that competed with the RSL or rotary clubs food stand!! I kid you not, no one else can sell a burger in my neck of the woods unless it's the rotary. The organizers even told me it was to make sure those that had stalls made a good amount of money! Clearly never heard of market forces and survival of the fittest, (burger that is).

Oh and I was allowed to have a stall because it was deemed by the organizers that I was selling something that no one would want and so I was ok to give them my $13 for a stall!

hevs

Well I love ebay but have only used it here.

Just made $7 more on a bed we bought 2 years ago minus the mattress and the kind people came to pick it up 1/2 hour, cash in hand, after the aution eneded.

We have also sold tickets for a good profit too.

I'm off to the shed in the morning to see what other crap i can flog

Have to agree with Akron re the book situation though i have found a great second hand one up in the Dandenongs

tabby

I have bought extra robbie tickets (my wifes going not me!) so hope to make enough to cover my expense for joining his fan club !!!

tabby

Call me nosey but are you intending to go back to the UK ????

iPom

I joined up with my local library and I'm reading three books per week on average, completely and utterly free.

Novel, eh?