Any secrets on finding good deals on the net?

[DreamKnight]

Ok so I have a friend that is an expert in finding deals. He's got his secrets. I can have him go find me something and he'll make it work. A good example was when we used to collect DVDs (when they were the just out hot thing) and he's go and find deals and dig out coupons and mix them up and confuse their shopping system and come out getting free to $5 a pop on new releases.

Have anyone here have an secrets they can share to get some good deals on scale modeling stuff?

 

[AKE]

Plenty of sites to get deals on all sorts of stuff, www.slickdeals.com takes ahold of my wallet on a regular basis, but nothing I know of for kits. It's such a niche market. Flea markets would be my best guess. There is one that occurs every few months in Costa Mesa I think. I've never been though.

 

[Grendels]

I find great deals on eBay all the time. But you have to be patient, and watch the item for months if necessary. I recently picked up a Ma. K. Falke and the figure set A that goes with it for $60 and that included shipping. It took three months to get it at that price.

One way to do this is to set a price and NEVER bid over that price. As long as the kit isn't too rare, it might take a few weeks to a few months to get it.

I have a few really rare kits, and those only show up every three or four months. With those kits, I can take years to pick one up. I was looking for a model from a Japanese anime called lensman. This model only shows up every 3 to 6 months. And it usually sells for $100 to $150, and that is in Japan, so shipping will be expensive. I got it this weekend for $25 from a U.S. seller. So shipping isn't killer.

One last thing, it is pretty easy to get caught up in the heat of a bidding war. You just have to learn to say no.

 

[Quaralane]

I agree with Grendels here.
Set your maximum (INCLUDING SHIPPING) and stick to it.
Watch out for "lowball" prices. They tend to have HUGE shipping charges attached.
Watch, be careful, and be patient.

 

[Grendels]

I want to add that if you can find something that has been listed wrong. Or even better, the person selling it has no idea what it is, and list it very wrong. Then you will get one hell of a bargain. I use to collect Godaikin toys, and found a $300 one listed in the wrong section and I got it for $40. It was owned by a Sci Fi author, and he gave me a certificate that states it was his.

 

[DXM]

Here's a site I that I found some great deals if I were interested in what I found.

http://www.auctionbloopers.com/

It searches ebay auctions for misspelled words that would normally be missed by regular searches.