I personally dislike the competitive aspects of buying on eBay, though
it has no peer in the areas of 'price discovery' (a good term I learned
from a trip to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange) and for dealing with
small lots of odd items.  It's also a marvelous educational medium.

Bidding, however, requires a degree of nerve and determination that
I don't have.  As Kenny Rogers (American singer) once instructed in
the matter of poker playing: "You've gotta know when to hold 'em, know
when to fold 'em, know when to walk away, and when to run."

There are people who enjoy this sort of thing.  My guess is that they
may place the items back on sale at eBay to see if they can make their
money back.  It doesn't seem impossible that eBay is used as a form of
gambling by some.

If I was going to deal in an activity like this, I'd likely choose
items that are generally appealing and easy to ship and which show up
well in photographs: the mechanical music advertisements listed here
would be ideal.  You wouldn't want to get involved with, say, used
commercial floor polishers if all you wanted to do was speculate.

However, I once saw a gentleman buy a heavily-discounted hammer-drill
at the local Odd Lots store.  His purpose, he said, was to sell it on
eBay.

Mark Kinsler
Lancaster, Ohio, USA
http://home.earthlink.net/~mkinsler1