Ebay bargains

Has anyone noticed the lack of obvious bargains on ebay recently ?

I used to have a bid on unusual items (usually car related) and get 'em for silly-cheap prices more often than not, now everything I'm interested in seems to go for top prices. So why is it when I come to sell anything, I don't get these silly prices ? Or if I do it's for a cheap item :)

There's still some bargains to be had, but it's hard work, and usually only stuff to pick up, you just have to hope there's no-one close enough to collect that's interested.

I scored a set of immaculate 15" 9-spoke Ford Puma alloys, complete with centre caps, new wheels nuts + locking ones with almost new Yokohama VRsports for £82. Last week I bought a low-milage 1.8l Zetec, complete with spare head and most bits to spin it 90 degrees and change it to RWD, steel sump, new water pump (correct rotation for RWD) and a starter motor. All for £50 :)

The wheels are on, the engine is in the workshop, I have a project for next Winter or when the crossflow dies :)

So, anyone else like to share their ebay bargains ? :)

Reply to
Tony Bond
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You have caught some bargains. I wasted many an hour looking for a PSA 1.5 diesel for Kermy, or a 1.4 TDCi / HDI... :)

I meant to bid £52.01 for a PDA and missed the decimal place, somebody

*could* have sold me a stiff meh.
Reply to
DervMan

I got a mirror glass for the van for a tenner. Might not seem a bargain, but trust me, it is after months of driving around with one of those cut to size plastic things...

Reply to
Doki

Got a Momo wheel a while back for ~£10. Had a stupid 4 hole bolt pattern so didn't fit to my boss, so I forced to buy a new mountney wheel/boss for £40 from the bay instead. Looks like this:

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to small really, but hey ho, will see how it goes.Advertised the original Momo wheel on a random forum my mate's started and a guy contacted me so see if I wanted to swap it for a red phase 2 BX 16v front bumper. I should be looking at at least £50 for one of these (if I could ever find one) and since my missus hit a wall last September I've been looking for one! So picking it up at the weekend. So what I originally thought was an Ebay f*ck-up has turned into a hell of a result!! Some other ebay bargains include a few car brochures I bought from the USA for about £50 - some mk1 MR2 brochures, an SD1 leaflet, a Volvo R Sport leaflet, a Volvo Tundra press release from Bertone and a TR2 brochure. Looks like the TR2 brochure alone is worth around £40 on British ebay :D

Reply to
Carl Gibbs

Good god man, why?? You wanted it to go even slower? I had that engine in an AX, which weighs a good 100kg less than the KA, and it was SLOOOOW. Stupidly frugal, yes, but in a KA it'd be as bad as a 1.0 Yaris :-P

Hehe. You dozy bugger :-D

Reply to
Albert T Cone

Erm, why on earth would you have wanted to inflict one of those on a KA???

That I can understand more...

-- JackH

Reply to
jackhackettuk

...erm no, not really.

-- JackH

Reply to
jackhackettuk

Only since the moment they first opened for business.

Reply to
Stephen Firth

Yes, really. With me ragging the living crap out of it it returned

57mpg. In tootle mode during the fuel shortage, it was giving me over 70mpg. It's a nice engine, by the rather low standards of NA diesel lumps.
Reply to
Albert T Cone

I'd say it's a nice engine for small cars full stop. When my bird was looking for a car, we went and tried all the usual suspects. At the side of say, a 1.0 Micra, the 1.5 diesel felt the better engine. I might have driven a shit Micra, but it felt glacially slow even with me thrashing the f*ck out of it, whereas the 1.5D 106 was alright. I suspect it's all down to power delivery as the Micra's actually faster to 60 and has a slightly better power to weight ratio.

Reply to
Doki

*bzzt*

I guess the AX I owned, and the 106 I've tried since must have been 'broked' then - 50mpg on average, (less if ragged), and given the way they regularly fell to bits, hardly worth the hassle over something not quite as economical but not in need of regular driveshaft changes etc.

I believe the 1.4 was a fair bit more economical, but also a lot more gutless.

Either way, not a conversion I'd be considering - it's not as if they'd just slot straight into a KA anyway.

-- JackH

Reply to
jackhackettuk

Oh yes, speaking of ebay -

People have mentioned the LED headtorches from hong kong for about a tenner. Anybody actually bought one?

cheers, clive

Reply to
Clive George

Yup, got one for 99p plus 6 quid postage. It's not bad - good for working under cars. It has a stupid ratchety bit to let you adjust the angle, but the plastic bits of the ratchet wore out in no time, so it's gummed in place now. Otherwise it's fine.

Reply to
Albert T Cone

Erm, why on earth would you have wanted to inflict one of those on a KA???

That I can understand more...

=====

Because I'm tight... :)

Reply to
DervMan

The 1.5 isn't as economical as the 1.4, but it'll return high 50s day to day with mid 60s a real possibility without trying too hard to be economical.

At the time I was considering a 90 mile commute and was offered a knackered engine'd Ka.

Reply to
DervMan

Maybe! My ex-girlfriend replaced her 1.0 106 four speed with a 1.5 diesel. She went from ~47 to the gallon in the little 950cc 106 to ~57 in the diesel. As I recall the paper performance looked identical (something like

19 seconds to 62) but on the road the diesel felt much handier. Hardly what you'd call quick of course.

It helped that it was the XT diesel so it had more toys.

On the other hand it would have been unusual and different. For the commute I was contemplating the lack of go wasn't a real issue since it's almost all motorway anyway.

Yes and yes; plus it's much weaker too.

No, sadly not - but certainly not beyond the realms of possibilities.

The 1.5 weighs near as dammit the same as the Endura-E (slightly lighter as I recall), some bits would have been a pain to replace if in the Ka (same as the 106 heh), all just to save ~20% fuel.

Ultimately of course, it wasn't worth it from any perspective other than

40,000 miles a year, likes diesels, likes Kas, going to run it into the ground...

...but since when is modifying something worth it? :-p

Anyway we didn't move to Hull so it didn't matter.

Reply to
DervMan

I have a luxeon one. Cost me £20 at the time but they're cheaper now. Runs off 3 AAs, comparable in brightness to a 3 D-cell maglite IME. Doesn't like rechargeables though.

Reply to
Doki

Ah - I'd be looking to run it with nimhs. Does it just not work?

cheers, clive

Reply to
Clive George

It does just not work. I may try pulling the resistor our and swapping it - a few calcs made it look like it should work. 3 alkalines is 4.5V, whereas 3 NIMH is around 3.6...

Reply to
Doki

Ok, ta for that - looks like I'll avoid it.

cheers, clive

Reply to
Clive George

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