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milleplod

Active Member
Joined
Jun 18, 2014
Messages
454
Location
Bolsover,no longer home of The Beast!
Car
S212 E350CDi
....does anyone else enjoy trawling eBay, Amazon, et al, looking for car (and bike) related bargains?

I've recently picked up a genuine BMW oil filter, in a tatty box, for my bike for the princely sum of a fiver, delivered, and a Mahle air filter, unboxed, for the same price. And I found that the fuel filter that BMW assured me was only available from them at £23 was the same as the one fitted to multiple Fiats/Alfas...that cost me £9. I also found 4 NGK plugs for it for a tenner.

For the R500, I've just bought Borg and Beck branded air and cabin filters, 2 of each, for £23 all-in. I also found Mercedes Newcastle selling 5ltrs of MB-'branded' 229.5 oil for £17.99 - 10ltrs plus postage was £42, which seemed reasonable enough. Oh, and I won a never-used, 3-week old Duracell battery, complete with purchase invoice, for under £50, which saved me a fortune!

My wife says I'm a tight git, but I enjoy it. To have the bike serviced at BMW each year would cost £200 - £350, depending on which one wanted doing. It usually costs me under £60, even if I do the gearbox and final drive oil as well. The R500 is due a service by the end of August, I want to have the autobox fluid done too, so collecting a few bits and pieces will, hopefully, take the sting out of it a bit. That's assuming the indy doesn't tell me to do one when I turn up with my own stuff! :D

Pete
 
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I've bought a lot of spares for my 79 BMW bike on ebay; filters, points, plugs brake pads etc. Ebay is more tedious than it used to be with very few real auctions and you have to know the correct part fitments because many sellers certainly do not. I generally keep vehicles for the long term so at any time I'll tend to have enough oil and service parts for a couple of years ahead. That way you can buy parts when they come up at a good price.
 
It is always worth trying the "obvious" typo or miss-spelling on eBay searches.

This often turns up what you want with zero bidders.

I was the only bidder and winner on a Motocaddy golf trolley. The seller advertised it as Motorcaddy. A common mistake. As the only bidder, I won at a true bargain price, saving over £200.

Sent from my iPhone using MBClub UK
 
It is always worth trying the "obvious" typo or miss-spelling on eBay searches.

^^this^^

I managed to buy an MR2 Turbo advertised as an N/A MR2 without tax or MOT for £1000.

It was also advertised with 70,000 miles that was in fact in KM's so was 20 years old and 43,00 miles.

Oh and the kicker was that its paint was pearlescent white which looked cream until you poured water on it in sunlight, then it turned neon blue. It was the only MR2 painted that way from the factory.

I still remember trying to fathom out toyota paint code 41 versus 47 :D
 
Bought a 99t disco 1 v8 advertised with 92k on the clock and an lpg conversion all in for £1495, turned our the odometer was in km's as it was a Japanese spec car. Sold it 4 years later for £1500 after covering a further 43,000 miles.
 
I bought two new, boxed OE combination filters for my A200, one after the other, in the space of a week, each for the starting bid of £2.99 ... both were listed as for "Mercedes A class 1997-2004 (i.e. W168), but with the correct 169 part number in description. Still got one left, the first one, which I fitted in May 2015, was replaced by MB during major service at the end of March this year ...
 
I have a garage full of stuff which will "come in handy". Only bought because of the price and nothing to do with the fact that it will never get used.

And as for the household devices, I don't even want to go there. A man can never have enough openers for things. :D

I need to bar myself from the bay of dreams and start going to the shops for things when I need them and not just buying on a whim. It may be more expensive but not in the long run. Having said that, I do "need" a couple of bits for the car at the moment...
 
Looking for OM642 Air filters. Did a search on ebay, re-ordering the search by "Price Including P&P" and bought the cheapest at the top of the results.

I didn't realise just how cheap though....£5 A PAIR! (including Postage!)

That was a Buy it Now price, not auction.

Turned out to be exactly the same oas the ones already fitted.

So impressed I bought another pair....
 
I have a garage full of stuff which will "come in handy". Only bought because of the price and nothing to do with the fact that it will never get used.

And as for the household devices, I don't even want to go there. A man can never have enough openers for things. :D

I need to bar myself from the bay of dreams and start going to the shops for things when I need them and not just buying on a whim. It may be more expensive but not in the long run. Having said that, I do "need" a couple of bits for the car at the moment...

And I thought that the old saying was "A man will pay £2 for a £1 item that he needs; a woman will pay £1 for a £2 item that she doesn't" !
 

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