Hey all,

I've never bought anything on EBay, but some of the prices look too good to pass up.

I'm considering an Alpine 7995 head unit and a CHA-S634 MP3 changer. The prices on EBay seem to be about 50-70% of MSRP.

Has anyone bought this kind of equipment on EBay, and what was your experience like?

Also, do the products come without warranty?

Finally, would anyone recommend buying this equipment from somewhere else?

Thanks,

Rob

 

I printed off the pages of the stuff from ebay that I wanted, went to my local stereo shop, and they matched the prices.

 

Did you just convert US to CDN at the current exchange rate?

Thanks for the advice!

 

If it is a private party sale on ebay for car stereo gear chances are it is stolen. Ask if they have the original boxes and purchase receipts. Ebay is the new fence of choice. Twice recently I have seen S2000 seats on ebay. In both cases I emailed the sellers telling them that I would be willing to go quite high in the bidding if they could tell me how they got the seats or the VIN of their car if they replaced the original seats. I never got a reply. I used to buy several items from ebay. I have ended up with 2 items purchased that were stolen for sure. If you buy a stolen item and are contacted by the police you have to return the item. This happened to me on a 500 dollar fishing rod purchase. Ebay has refused to help me. I guess if it sounds to good to be true it probably is!

 

I just purchased one off of ebay and had a guy that communicated with me great.

MAKE SURE YOU CHECK THEIR FEEDBACK BEFORE ORDERING!!!

You can get the reputation great. I've never had a problem with ebay, you can check my user profile, thunderchicken, for the guy I bought my last stereo from. He replied to my emails within 15 minutes each time.

 

A lot of this merchandise is new with manufactures' warranty anyway. I wouldn't worry about it, just make sure it says new on the description, some of this might be refurbished.

 

Big problem I see is not getting a Canadian warranty with whatever you buy.

 

Yes.

As George said, I'm sure much of the merchandise is stolen. However, some (many) of the sellers are in the business of selling and may even have storefronts. As thunderchicken said, check their feedback. If they've been in business for a while and have nearly all positive feedback, you'll be safer. Seems to me the warranty may be a problem purchasing from an unauthorized dealer though.

Try what I did. All I was hoping for was for the stereo shop to come close to the price because I would still have to pay shipping, duty etc. To my surprise he matched prices for HU and amp. I couldn't find a stealthbox for an S2000 on ebay (but still got 1/3 off retail).

 

I think a lot of the Ebay power sellers set up wholesale accounts with the MFG of the products....then they blow out a ton of product for very little margin...no bricks/mortar overhead and typically no MFG warranty. I have personally bought several items and have never experienced the "stolen" scenario....then again, I typically buy closed package items. I will also tell you that I recently bought a JL 300/4 off Ebay...got the amp new in the box...yet the serial number was removed and I was provided an agreement to provide the warranty through the seller of the item....basically JL tracks warranty claims by Serial Number and will close the wholesale account of any distributor if it finds evidence of web retailing at considerable discounts. so, in this case, if anything happens to the amp, I am probably SOL...I think that if you can come close to the price found on the web, you stick with your local shop...other times.....it is just a great deal...buyer beware.

 

Yes, buyer beware. most cases its not legit or "fell off the truck" Not hard when the speaker manufactures CLEARLY LABEL THE BOXES WITH WHATS IN THEM - DUH. Anyway you'd be without warranty so weigh the risks.

Anything Alpine, MB quart, RF etc. most likely wouldnt carry manufactures warranty. The reseller would have to back you.