I am astonished at some of the prices at which things
supposedly sell at on ebay. I am dubious whether some
of these transactions actually close or not.

But the occasional bargain can be had. I was in the
market for a DSL ethernet modem, which BellSouth would
happily sell me for $160 though they do offer an
installment payment plan. I checked around on ebay and
ended up buying one for around $42. It was used, but
it had been used on BellSouth. Even better, the seller
was local so I drove over, paid cash, and saved
shipping. Installed it last week and am now living
happily ever after!  :-)

David H.

p.s. some folks on the Internet bargain boards might
disagree with you about Dell being a "reputable"
on-line retailer. I've had no problems with them, but
have heard horror stories of lengthy backorders, and
cancelled orders that were shipped anyway. As always,
YMMV.

--- Don Ward <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> My admittedly limited experience with "new"
> electronic items sold on e-bay
> is that they tend to sell for a price higher than
> one can find just
> shopping around.  Palm M515's new and in the box on
> e-bay were selling for
> 10 to 20% higher than a price I found direct from
> Dell.com, where I enjoyed
> all of the consumer protections of a reputable
> on-line retailer.
>
> /Don


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