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Stihl on eBay

I know one or two forum members buy and sell Stihl gear on eBay. Billybop is a great exponent of this and makes it work for him.

But whenever I have look on eBay, I only find three kinds of sellers.

Firstly, the seller who has quite a few new Stihl items for sale but at much higher prices than even list prices. Who buys from this kind of seller? We all know that your local dealer will give 20% off petrol and 12% off battery gear [this is what I get with my dealer]. So why would you pay 25% more than list from someone you don’t know and can’t easily get back to if there is a fault?

Secondly, there is the seller with really rough looking machinery that looks to have had a really hard life. Again, who would buy this kind of gear?

And thirdly, and perhaps the most perplexing, is the well looked after used, but not very old gear, but the seller wants a nearly new price.

A good example of this is an auction on eBay that only ended yesterday.

It was a Stihl MSA 200 C-B chainsaw [tool only]. It was 16 months old and looked to be, at least visually, in very good condition. It only had one bid and sold for the starting price of £225 plus £15 postage, so £240 in total for a sixteen month old machine that may need a new chain.

Now the list price of the MSA 200 C-B [tool only] is £310, less 12% discount = £272.

So why would anyone pay £240 for a second hand item that can be bought new for only £32 more? and have a full warranty, be bought form a deaker you know and trust and, of course, not possibly have a worn chain and bar? I have just paid £40 for a new chain and bar for my Husqvarna.

I am all for a bargain, but paying nearly new prices for used gear makes no sense to me.

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  • I agree with all of that! My thinking is that people think that buying off Ebay is easy ( and it is to be fair) and gets them a bargain . They obviously don't look around do they!

  • PRO

    I agree with you Vic, I don't think there are many genuine bargains for small machinery these days. It was definitely better a few years back!

  • PRO

    I started off the business on Ebay kit, and it delivered me the Stihl blower that we still use daily 5 years later for around £100. I still use Ebay for 50% of the kit - there are loads of people out there downsizing their property, or similar things - or bits of kit I would like but cant justify buying a new one of... the current one being a pole pruner :( 

  • I like to stick to local dealers where possible but if they come nowhere near the Internet prices of the big players like world of power, L and s etc 

    What can we do? Saving £100 here and there soon adds up.

    • PRO

      I have only mainly ever bought new and used machinery from a dealer and had really good experiences , I once bought a cordless hedge trimmer off gumtree locally which meant i could collect it and that was a great bargain , no postage to pay and got to test it out and meet the seller who was genuine . 

      Also bought Two lawn mowers off gumtree , again both collected locally  and well maintained machines at a good price . 

       

      • I'm after a new mower and a few stihl bits next year before the season kicks off and hoping my dealer will match what I'm finding on line 

        As hrx 537 for £1080 is going to be hard to beat 

        My local honda dealer wants £1650

  • The dealer I use here is exceptional on all levels. When I bought my initial battery kit [HSA 86 – HLA 65 - two AP200s and AL300 charger] late last year I looked online at the usual suspects like F R Jones etc., just to get an idea of how cheap they could be bought for. My dealer offered me the same price as the cheapest online. So given the aftersales care that they give me, why would I buy from anyone else.

    This week I needed a new chainsaw bar [and chain]. I rang them up and that evening one was dropped off at my house, without me paying for it in advance. I rang the next day to pay for it. They gave me a very good discount and as they are coming past my house anyway, there is never any charge to drop things off. They do this for me all the time.

    A while back I had a major breakdown with one of my machines. It wasn’t really covered under warranty, but they did the repair under warranty in any case and it cost me nothing – saving me what would have otherwise been well over a £2k bill.

    So for me, buying Stihl [or any other] kit online is not the way to go. Yes, at times you might be able to save a little, but the advantages of having this kind of long term relationship with the dealer is priceless. The immediate help and assistance when broken down is critical to running a business. They have even lent me gear to get me out of trouble, or turned a big and complex repair around in just a few days. How much is that worth?

    • Yes vic spot on

      You Will deffo need the dealers friendships sooner or later 

       

      Id rather use them and keep the local trades going.

      Will get my list together and head down in Feb.

  • Hi yes bargains do pop up on ebay from time to time but are a bit thin on the ground, the best "buy it now" type of deals you might never even get to see the listing, as somebody else will have swiped it.  (By me, quite often lol) I do go to the dealership but it's an hours travel for the round trip for me to basically go shopping, it is neither work nor leisure is it, so prefer online whenever I can. The folk in the dealership treat you with the same respect whether you visit once a week or once a year in my experience, I personally don't want to see that "Oh no not him again" look on their face lol

    • Personally I think its a good idea to keep on the good side of your local dealer and use local business as much as possible but I live quite close so it's not really out of my way like it is for you.

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