e'bay wins again

[Riverlander]

I prefer to shop local but I do check out e'bay to see if I am being ripped off. Today I went to the local auto elect. to get a new starter motor for the ride on lawn mower. Told the old one cannot be fixed and a new one would have to be ordered and is $250 plus GST. Told him I would think about it and found one on e'bay for $52.00 delivered. May not be the same quality but as it is coming from Ballarat it is probably exactly the same.
Similar thing with the new Thetford toilet for our van. $610 from e'bay and $840 local. I would pay 10% extra for local but I will not get ripped off if I can avoid it. Cheers John

[Mrcoolabah1au]

thanks i have had the same with a radiator for the car 500 fitted 100 0n Ebay and fitted my self

[bob r]

Yep eBay wins a lot of the time at my place to.

Bob

[Peter and Sandra]

I rarely even bother thinking about getting in the car and doing the hours drive to the nearest regional centre anymore, much easier to find what you want online, compare prices between online stores and ebay and then purchase from wherever is cheapest or sometimes if the item is required quickly from the place with the shortest delivery times.
I'm not fussed whether it comes from the other side of the world or in Oz.
A recent need for a new alternator for the Oka, locally anywhere from just over $500 to nearly a grand, bought two from the US for $AU90 each plus postage, both arrived here in under a week for less than $AU300. All prices were for identical, brand new, brand name, same part number, fully packaged items.
I don't mind paying a slight premium for locally available items but in this case local prices were exorbitant and they needed two weeks for delivery to their premises and I still had a 100k+ round trip to pick them up!