I've bought numerous heavy and light coil items on EBay. Of course, it seems the keyword "TESLA" seems to attract a lot of attention, and I have noticed items with very little applicability to our sport sold as "TESLA COIL" related items.
I do have one contrary experience in buying a coil-related heavy-ish item on eBay. Two years ago I won an auction for a 15/60 NST. Gladly paid the bid plus shipping, which amounted to about US 20 dollars - which was a large percentage (over 50%) of my winning bid price. Still, a 15/60 in great shape for $60 shipped seemed like a good deal to me.
What arrived was a 15/30 NST with the manufacturer's identification plate gouged so that the serial number and capacity specs were illegible. However, the NST model number was still plainly clear. It was obvious the NST was some fraction of the physical size of my other 15/60s, but still, I did some very perfunctory research and found that model was assigned to a 12/30 NST. I immediately registered my complaint with the seller, who did not respond. Then I complained via eBay's complaint channels, and I suppose they withheld payment from the seller, because I heard back from him immediately that it wasn't his fault the unit was not as advertised, he had bought it previously from some one who had told him it was a 15/60, and that should be good enough for me.
Inevitably, eBay settled my claim - I got a refund with my original shipping fee - BUT - I had to ship the unit back to the seller at my cost.... So in fact, I was out by 1 way shipping at my expense.
I imagine if you buy a quite heavy item, and have such a bad experience as that, it could be problematic.
But in 10 years or more of buying stuff through eBay, over 200 transactions of all values between $1 and $20,000, I have had exactly one bad transaction.
Cheers, Joe On 7/11/2012 12:53 PM, Yurtle Turtle wrote:
I've bought more than one heavy item, where shipping costs were more than the item, so folks like me are out here. ________________________________ From: Paul Brodie <paulb.brodie@xxxxxxxxx> To: Tesla Coil Mailing List <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Wednesday, July 11, 2012 9:48 AM Subject: Re: [TCML] TC parts for saleI've been selling on eBay for several years now and you will be pleasantlysurprised to learn what you can sell, regardless of how heavy it is and what the shipping charge is. I sold a VERY heavy telescope with a near $200 shipping charge and it sold fine. In fact, there is another scope on eBay right now with a $200 shipping charge and people are bidding away. So, do not just discount selling heavy items on eBay. As long as the shipping charges don't push the prices to unreasonable amounts, things will sell just fine. Keep in mind that as long as your starting price isn't really high, it doesn't cost much at all to list on eBay. If your item doesn't sell, all you have lost is is $0.50 or less. Finally, shipping isn't nearly as expensive as you might think, especially for items that weigh less than 70 lbs. For instance, a large Priority Mail flat rate box, about 12" by 12" by 6", only costs about $15 to a maximum of 70 lbs. Disclaimer, I do not have any relationships with either the USPS or eBay, other than I sell things on eBay. I hope this helps out. On Sat, Jul 7, 2012 at 8:31 PM, Brian Hall <brianh4242@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
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