eBay – 24th June 2013

K’Nex Connectors:  £1 (+ £1 p&p), Twice

Ted needs to stock up his supply of K’Nex following the construction of his K’Nex Fruit Machine, K’Nex Ball Amusement Machine and K’Nex Binary Machine, and so when he saw these really cheap connectors on eBay, he jumped (but not fast enough – some had already been sold).

He paid £2 for 70 eight-way white connectors, and £2 for 70 seven-way blue ones, including postage. He bought them only two or three minutes apart.

Two days later, Ted received them – as two parcels! What is more, they cost £2.60 each to post!

The seller paid 40p to eBay to list the items, but this will be ignored because there were about eight items in the one listing.

Each item incurred eBay commission of 10% of the sale price, i.e. 10p.

Each item incurred PayPal commission of 3.4% + 20p = 27p.

So the seller paid a total of 2 x (10p + 27p) + 2 x £2.60 = £5.94 and received £4!

What is more, there were a total of 36 rubber bands around the pieces, when two would have been adequate!

eBay – 12th April 2013

3-Volt Counter:  1p (+ £3.35 p&p)

It was only after Ted had entered his bid for this counter that he noticed the words ‘Czech Republic’ as the location; he didn’t even look at where it was coming from, because the postage and packing was £3.35 – pretty typical for small items nowadays.

The starting price was 1p, and so Ted rashly entered a maximum bid of… 1p!

Believe it or not, no-one else bid for this really useful item.  The postage was 98 korunas which is equivalent to £3.11, and so after the PayPal commission the seller sold this at a loss! The strange thing really is that the starting price was 1p – why not make it 99p, especially since there is no eBay fee for items under £1?

Ted will probably use this when he constructs his next Clickety-clackety Sunlight Counter.

The counter apparently came from a mainframe computer.

eBay – 25th January 2013

Veeder-Root Elm City 5-Digit Counter: $20 (+ $15 p&p)

Veeder-Root Counter – Before

Veeder-Root Counter – Before

Ted is wary of US eBay purchases now because of the possibility of exhorbitant duty, but he does know that items costing no more than £15 should be duty-free. He therefore bought this beautiful brass Elm City counter even though it looked in a sorry state. After dismantling and then cleaning and oiling it, Ted now has yet another counter for which he has no intended use, but this one is different – it has a lockable bar so that only the keyholder can reset it! Unfortunately, the wee keyless padlock was locked and had to be cut off and discarded.

Veeder-Root Counter – After

 

eBay – 1st January 2013

Vintage Mechanical Tally Counter:  £4 (+ £2.90 p&p)

From eBay Advert

After Cleaning

Isn’t this identical to the counter which Ted bought on 24th December 2012? What is he playing at? Why did he want another one? Is he going nuts?

Well, the truth is that this isn’t identical to the other one. This one does not have GERMANY stamped on it with a back-to-front N. This one has brass dials, not steel ones. And this one was cheaper, thus reducing the average cost per purchase. So there.

eBay – 24th December 2012

Mechanical Tally Counter:  £7.50 (+ £3 p&p)

Yes – Ted has done it again. He’s bought another mechanical counter. His excuse this time is that it’s different from his numerous other ones – this one has got a wee thousands dial. It’s also in excellent condition, its glint almost blinding the viewer.

This counter is stamped ‘Germany’ with a backwards ‘N’. This, to deluded Ted, means that it will be worth a small fortune in a few years’ time when it is sold at Sotheby’s auction house.