To be honest, I don't think it's ebay-watch that has driven prices up recently or even contributed to it. Primarily the £:$ has screwed all US VRC collectors as all Europeans are in a strong place. But I also think ebay has grown up a huge amount now and it's not the bargain bin it used to be, it's a business and the searches are now far more complete and intricate than they used to be - it's now the people who use smart tactics that get the stuff cheap now:
-Always bid in the last few seconds, never before. Snipe!
-Don't bother with Sunday afternoon ending auctions, they always go for more than weekday ones
-Bid on things near the end of the month if you've got the cash, 'cos alot of other people will have run out of money (same goes for x-mas, I've got some real bargains because people selling need cash for x-mas, other buyers with families will be broke because of it).
-If there are 2 things that are very similar listed one after the other always bid on the first one as disappointed people from the first auction will always bid much higher for the second one.
-Bid in countries with a poor exchange rate (currently the US, £ buyers will always beat $ ones, used to do it in euro countries)
-Look at other sites like CQout or bumblebee as not everyone uses ebay
-Go to traditional auctions like police auctions, much cheaper stuff comes up there
-Go to old fashioned bike shops and dig around in their basements (I knew of one shop in London that up til 6 years ago had several Attitudes in their basement because of a change in ownership and I got a full set of Mavic mechs and shifters for next to nowt in another because the owner wasn't up on the 'retro' thing.)
-Make friends with people on this site as one mans junk is anothers jewel and swapsies are in!!
-Only pay what you think it's worth, if you loose then someone else wanted it more!
