Monday, July 22, 2013

Ebay'ing Like Crazy

I am stocking up on stuff that is much cheaper on Ebay. I ordered 100' of RG6 TV cable for the satellite system for $18. I needed 50' for an extra run to the kitchen to accommodate the PVR that we moved from the TV room. Fifty feet in Campbell River is $30 so I borrowed 50' from the motorhome which I will replace when the roll from Ebay arrives. I also ordered some compression connectors for the cable that will work with the tool I bought at Harbour Freight in the USA a couple of years ago. I also ordered ten back to back barrel connectors for TV cable ($4).

I ordered a new 16 GB memory card for my camera. The old one is many years old and has handled many thousands of photos and has been removed and re-inserted into the camera and reader hundreds of times. I fear it will fail at some point, plus it only holds 4GB of data. Time for an upgrade so I found a 16 GB Kingston 266X CF card for $27, about half what they cost here. The larger capacity will allow me to leave the original copy of my photos for a whole winter on the card until I get home. This will give me greater peace of mind.

Some of the other stuff I ordered is a backup battery for my cell phone ($8), a batch of four small Swiss Army Knives (from an airport screening company) ($16), a powered 10 port USB hub for the computer ($8), a new lens cap for my macro lens (99 cents, shipping from China included) and 6 carpenters pencils ($5).

I also ordered a 12 volt battery for my Dewalt impact driver. I inherited a couple of these drivers from Brooks and LindaLee when they switched over to the newer 18 volt Ryobi drivers for their business. New batteries for the Dewalt are $80 in Canada but I found a supply in China for $30 (shipping included).

Speaking of tools, I have a Ryobi table saw that I broke the fence on a few months ago and I have been limping along with the broken one since. I finally asked at Home Depot about replacement parts and found they did not carry them. I found a source in the USA for the $1.16 pot metal piece that broke but they want an extra $40 for shipping to Canada! I emailed Ryobi in the US for help and they are sending me a whole new fence for free! Now that is service!

Anyway, it has been pretty quiet here on the homestead. Maybe I will wash the cars today. The weather is perfect, not too hot but nice and sunny. Life is Good!

11 comments:

  1. Great deals! I will be on the hunt for a 16GB memory card also!

    Too bad about the shipping from the U.S... Canadians usually get the short end of the stick when it comes to shipping costs!

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    1. There are many counterfeit memory cards on Ebay so you have to be a bit careful. The more expensive ones are more likely to be legitimate. The good thing is, the fake ones work, perhaps as well as the legitimate ones. My old 4 GB card was a fake but is still working fine after five years.

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  2. Replies
    1. Norma does not have the patience to wait for an item. When she wants it, she wants it now, not in two weeks.

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  3. Croft, you're spending money like you've got it! Ebay can be fun can't it?

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  4. Croft,

    I needed to replace the UV bulb for my filtering system in the back yard pond. The local pond shop, here in Langley wanted $60 (taxes in) for one bulb. On line at EBAY, I ordered two identical UV bulbs, + shipping, for the grand total of $36. I did not have to drive anywhere and the parcel was delivered to my door in three business days. Hard to beat that!!!

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  5. George of http://geosuzie.blogspot.ca/ talks about a small deep fryer called a Fry Daddy made by Presto. Amazon.com sells them for $25 but will not ship to Canada. Amazon.ca sells them to Canadians but for $62.50. Same item, same company - Amazon. I wrote them to complain about the unreasonable price difference and they wrote back with some nonsense about Amazon in each country determining their own prices. Crazy. I will buy one for $25 at Walmart when we get to the USA. Walmart Canada does not carry them.

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  6. Sounds like you're enjoying yourselves. I now know why we have an rv. We've been in San Miguel de Allende for a month and sprouts are coming out of my shoes. I think we prefer to move around. We still have another month to go. Hmmm.

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  7. I got this comment emailed to me:

    Hello Croft:

    Hopefully this E-mail gets to you, I'm not a favourite of Google so I didn't sign up to make comments on your blog.

    I follow a blog of a couple who are presently renovating their boat:

    http://ourodyssey.blogspot.ca/

    Sean made some interesting comments about an offshore piece he bought, he had to make some changes to be sure that it wouldn't burn up.As a "tekkie" you probably won't fall into this trap, but as they say, buyer beware!.

    Al

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    1. Hi Al, I read Sean's post about that item he had to modify for use on their boat. It is one of the things you have to be careful of when buying offshore. I try to stick to lower voltage items. ;)

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