I think the advantage to eBay would be that used equipment is available. This drastically reduces the price. I don't think you will get a high end multimeter for 100 bucks from supply house. I definitely see where you are coming from hvaclover. Buying something off eBay is.def a little bit of a gamble. I don't know bout you guys though.but I.dont do this job cause I get rich doing it. It's a struggle sometimes to be able to afford some of the tools and if I can find a way to save a buck or two.so I can buy my kids something nice than great.
I think the advantage to eBay would be that used equipment is available. This drastically reduces the price. I don't think you will get a high end multimeter for 100 bucks from supply house. I definitely see where you are coming from hvaclover. Buying something off eBay is.def a little bit of a gamble. I don't know bout you guys though.but I.dont do this job cause I get rich doing it. It's a struggle sometimes to be able to afford some of the tools and if I can find a way to save a buck or two.so I can buy my kids something nice than great.
I would raise my prices That's what the knowledgeable do in this business.
And when you buy right at the suppler the diff in price does not seem so great , especially if you get a instrument malfunction
Seems like our local supply houses have very limited tool selection, and often very expensive. Never seen an H10 leak detector in any of the 3 supply houses we use, and when I ask about it, I get a deer in the headlights stare. Only recently started seeing Testo 550 gauges, literally until a month or two ago the only digital gauges our main supplier had was the Refco gauges that everybody hates.
I spent three weeks at every supply house asking about 3/8" vacuum rated hoses, and couldn't get them. Some just gave blank stare, others said, "Yeah we've got it!" but then couldn't find it, or only had it in a 3 foot length, and it was like $80, and they only had one, it was freakin ridiculous. Nobody had or had even heard of a vacuum tree, except one, who said he could order it but it would take like 3 weeks to get, and cost like $400, and he only could get one brand, one style, and that's it. Couldn't even show me a picture or anything.
I found it its much easier just to quickly find the tools I want on TruTechTools or I've also used hvacr-tools, and within a few minutes I find exactly what I want, click, and order. And its cheaper. Heck I've ordered tools off Amazon.com too. I like being able to see all the different models a manufacturer has and compare and read reviews of each one.
With that being said, a lot of tools i DO buy locally, Fieldpiece multimeter, Cooper SH66a, even my Inficon Dtek Select I got from Johnstone. Analog gauges, hoses, etc I buy locally too. Hand tools I buy local. So I guess it really depends on what type of tool it is.
As far as service with tool failure when you bought it locally, I haven't had very many failures, and the one I did, got tired of calling supply house and them calling around to check on it, finally called manufacturer myself and luckily they had a great customer support team and got me taken care of promptly (Inficon in this case).
I have bought almost 200 items on ebay, mostly tools. I have only had two bad experiences, one where the item got lost in delivery with no tracking number (USPS) and the other I don't know what happened, but I filed a claim with Paypal and did get a refund.
Otherwise, I have gotten fantastic deals both slightly used and brand new. I continue to watch for many items to see if a bargain I can't pass up comes along.
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Originally Posted by cavalieri85
