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Monday, 6 February 2017

Buying on eBay

A completely bias opinion base solely on my buying experience

There is some proper shite for sale on eBay and it’s imperative to buy carefully, unfortunately eBay works in such a way that sellers are forced to compete with each other based solely on price, when you continuously drive down price you have to improve your own purchase costs and quality tends to suffer. So the downward spiral endures and the race to the bottom is on. Anyone can win, you just have to work hard enough to corrupt the brands that used to be a sign of quality.

This means that quality products can often be hard to find, fortunately there are still businesses around who are able to supply great quality at reasonable prices. Finding these businesses has used up many of my evenings and i have not always been lucky in my choices, i have, on occasion bought some top shite and promptly returned it for a refund. Ebay, for all of its bad points, does have very good support for buyers and will refund items directly and then reimburse them selves from the sellers account.

I spend a lot of time reading feedback and won't buy from any seller with less than 99.7% positive feedback, no one is perfect but some are less perfect than others (much less).

Here are but a few who I have had the pleasure to deal with so far on this build. The crap companies won’t be named and shamed - yet.

Bought some LED lights from Jackson leisure and one of the lights became faulty after installation, they sent a replacement overnight, no fuss, no hassle. Bloody great service.

Wudwork Joinery, I bought plastic trim for the furniture board I used on the kitchen, great quality products and excellent service, really good advice and guidance over the phone.

Upholstry diy 123, I bought 4 way stretch carpet and found it a fantastic product that is easy to use and a great way to carpet line you van. Although it does require vast amounts of contact adhesive. (Which is solvent free to no getting high as you work)

South Devon campervans sold me the Smev sink and hob unit with all the required fittings, top quality kit and very easy to fit. A “router” (wood working tool not network device) is apparently essential to cut out the work surface as some area’s need to be lower than others but I managed without and still achieved a better result that I could have hoped for.

Rayne Automotive supplied the wiring kit, very good quality and number one for service.

And that’s it, I have spent (the wife’s money) roughly £4000 pounds on parts for this conversion, including £500 on a Rock and Roll bed (nothing to see here) and bought the vast majority from eBay businesses.

 The van is now a camper van and ready to roll, although there are still many jobs left to complete and perhaps some features i would like to add, the camper van is complete enough to be usable and has running water, gas hob and a 6 foot square bed. 


I have plenty of spares and leftovers from my many eBay purchases which I hope to use as I gradually finish off all the jobs and when I come to purchase any remaining parts, I will probably buy on eBay, however I have learnt so much and have confidence in my ability to spot the wankers out there... Practice makes perfect apparently.

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