eBay is very effective at providing low cost solutions and products to just about every consumer item in the world, and with millions of daily listings perhaps it is for you as well.
However, you may be wondering if eBay is worthwhile for purchasing fitness equipment from.
The answer is a tentative yes, as there are a few factors that may not make it the best place to shop, including time, bidding wars, and on occasion high shipping costs given fitness equipment tends to be heavy.
However, this aside, eBay can be a great place to find fitness equipment if you know how to shop the popular site.
When you first head to eBay you will notice that there are over a million items on average listed under the eBay category of “sports” that is broken down further into the “sporting goods” subcategory and from there into “exercise and fitness” which is where you want to be.
There are six more subcategories from here, but if you have reached the ‘exercise and fitness’ category then you are on the right track to finding the best exercise equipment you most likely want.
Here you can find anything from seven to ten thousand items once again depending on when you log in. On a random day eBay was tested to see how great the deals were, and here is the breakdown of the results:
The first product researched was the Total Trainer device which goes for a retail price around $500. On eBay it was advertised for Buy It Now (which means you do not have to bid, but can purchase for this price) at $277. The result, even with high shipping costs you are still going to save a lot on this product.
Next product: Jolie Weights. Retail price of these weights is $19.99, but online they sell for $14.99. However, add in the shipping and you will probably end up spending about the same price so unless you get a great shipping rate you probably will not save much.
This is the typical result of a search on eBay for fitness equipment and pretty much everything else. Sometimes you score big, especially when high priced items, and sometimes you break even.
Thus, you should also shop eBay with a basic knowledge of what constitutes a great deal and protect yourself by always checking seller rankings and carefully reading product specifications to make sure you get exactly what you expect, and most of all you need to know shipping costs, especially for heavy items.
