So here’s the straight dope on buying things on eBay.

Step One: Figure out how to search for what you want

eBay lets you search for strings in auction titles and/or descriptions. Usually it’s somewhat complicated to translate what you’re looking for into a suitable search that finds the relevant auctions. For example, suppose you’re jonesing for a carbon handlebar: first identify whether you can narrow your search by eBay category. In this case you can, all the carbon bars you’re interested in will be in the Mountain Bikes & Parts category. Any bars in the road section are overwhelmingly likely to be drop bars. Second consider what key words might be used to describe the sought after item. In the case of carbon bars the title will almost certainly have either the model of the bar or the material of construction. A quick “completed items” search for “carbon bars” reveals that most carbon bars are one of a few models: EC90, EC70, Next, MonkeyLite, or CT2. By using the parenthetical search construct you can search for all auctions with one of a given set of words in the title. So we’ll search for any auction with any of the above carbon “give away” words: (carbon, composite, ec90, ec70, next, monkeylite, monkeylight, monkey lite, monkey light, ct2). And we’re looking for handle bars specifically, so we’ll add a requirement that some word meaning the item is a handlebar is included: (handlebar, handlebars, monkeybar, monkeybars, monkey bar, monkey bars, handle bar, handle bars, bars, bar). Let’s further suppose that we specifically do not want over-sized 31.8mm diameter bars because we already have a nice 25.4mm (a.k.a. standard) sized stem we wish to use. Since most auction item titles do not specifically state that the item is of standard size the best way to search is to rule out auctions explicitly noted as over-sized. A quick search for “31.8 (hand*,bar*)” reveals that (31.8,31.8mm,oversized,over sized,OS) is a good description of words that mean the item is not the standard diameter. We use the negation operator to exclude any item that has these keywords thusly: -(31.8, 31.8mm, oversized, over sized, OS). So our final search is: (carbon, composite, ec90, ec70, next, monkeylite, monkeylight, monkey lite, monkey light, ct2) (handlebar, handlebars, monkeybar, monkeybars, monkey bar, monkey bars, handle bar, handle bars, bars, bar) -(31.8, 31.8mm, oversized, over sized, OS)

Step Two: Figure out how much to pay

Use the search string formulated in step one in conjunction with the “completed items search” to identify how much the item is worth. When you search there will be a narrow yellow backgrounded column on the left hand side of the page with a series of check boxes controlling the search criteria. Use the search string from step one, and check the “completed listings” check box. Peruse completed auctions and try to eyeball a median (or mean? or mode?) price. Traveling about half-way down the search results for the carbon bar search shows that the median price is about $50. Sound fine to me, given that a new set of carbon bars is $120+!

Step Three: Find auctions and bid

Use the search from step one to identify the auctions you wish to bid on. Chances are patience will be necessary. If so, use the eBay “favorite searches” feature to be notified of any new listings which match your search criteria. eBay will email you every time a new auction matches your search, very handy! Next, make your bid. Use a bidding tool such as Auction Sniper to automatically bid the price you identified as the items value. By setting up “bid groups” you can instruct Auction Sniper to bid on a selected set of items until it wins one, and then stop. This is a fantastic way to set your own price for a given component. Just set up a bid-group for the desired part and add auctions to the bid group until you win one.

Step Four: Feel superior

Paying MSRP is for the white collar wage slave! Build your 25 lb all-mountain rig for $1000, it’s possible with a modicum of effort and given the right research and dedication will be nicer than any $3000 off the shelf rig.