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Fixed Wireless Business

What Would You Buy from eBay?

Members of the ISP-Wireless list discuss buying used equipment online. Many report finding great deals and recommend looking even if you don't intend to buy.

[June 4, 2002]

On the ISP-Wireless list in May, MS asked,

"Why does anyone buy ISP equipment from eBay? We're not talking Pokemon cards: this is equipment that's essential to your business. If you're serious about your business, why buy crucial equipment from the same place that sells Barbie dolls?"

A number of respondents suggested that the answer comes down to one simple word:

[CO advised] "Cost! I've gotten great deals on laptops, spectrum analyzers, routers, and a lot of other equipment. I've also sold excess equipment of my own. Buying on eBay allows me to get more hardware for my money: in most cases, I save 30 to 40 percent. It allows me to stay in business."

[AA agreed] "I've bought everything from robots to antique computers. I've never had a bad experience, and I've got loads of contacts and technical advice. On the cost side, I recently paid five bucks for something worth several hundred, and it works just fine."

[ML added] "50 percent of my equipment comes from eBay (switches, PortMasters, modem racks, Ascend Maxes) and the other 50 percent (routers, DSUs) comes from used equipment vendors that take good care of me. The only brand new equipment I've ever bought was on the day I started business: since then, it's all been used. Some of the eBay stuff dies, but it's so much cheaper than the new stuff that it's worth it. Plus, there's so much stuff on eBay now from failed dot-coms that you'd have to be nuts not to look at what's available."

RB recommended limiting your eBay purchases to emergency backups only:

"I use eBay for my reserve backup equipment. If it works when I get it, then it sits on a shelf until I just may need it. I'm willing to save a bundle for some risk. If something fails, then I swap it with the eBay stuff until I get the 'real' stuff working again."

Others pointed out that most resellers aren't any better, and they're usually much more expensive:

[DB observed] "Typically, electronics either works or it doesn't. Sure, I wouldn't buy an aircraft flight control system or an MRI scanner from eBay, but for WISP equipment, it's 50 percent of what I'd pay a broker—and that's assuming that the broker has what you want in stock."

[PF noted] "I would not buy from Joe Blow on eBay, but if another WISP had excess gear and would put at least a non-DOA warranty on it, then yes, it's worth the 20 to 50 percent you would save. Most resellers are not that great to deal with, either—nobody has all the answers."

[FB added] "How many times you bought something brand new and it didn't work out of the box, or failed in a day or so? Most sellers offer at least a ten-day warranty: be sure to burn the heck of it during that time. And really, what precautions do used equipment resellers take? They just buy it, clean it up, and resell it. On eBay, the person who owned it is usually the person selling it: at least he knows what it's been through. You can e-mail the person selling the item and find out where it came from. If it's another ISP, you're probably going to be alright. Just be smarter than the average doorknob, and you'll be fine."

—End