As with anything on an auction site-- check your seller out carefully.

I won't deal with anyone who has more than 1 or 2 LEGITAMITE complaints. A lot of times- a bad buyer will leave poor feedback when it's not warranted. So- check out the feedback of the people who've left bad feedback on the person your considering buying from. Lots of people have a history of leaving poor feedback. I won't sell to those people-not worth the feedback rating from them. Especially if they have a track record of leaving poor feedback after almost every auction.

Check people out.

As for the question of the used CPU:

I won't ever pay more than 50% of retail on a used item. Doesn't matter if it's been used for 3 years or 3 minutes. Used is Used and it's not worth more than 50% of a NIB item.

That being said-- good luck trying to find one for that price.

You can get a NIB Intel P4 or Celeron 1.8ghz for about $65 shipped. So, consider that. I don't know what speed your looking for. Me- I got a PIII 550mhz and a 1.8ghz sounds like a racehorse to me. Can't imagine needing a 3+ghz processor. But- then again- I only surf the net/email and run some digital video once in awhile.

There are a couple of other things to watch for, make sure there is a guarantee against DOA, read everything in the description, never buy as is, and basically hope that you don't get raptus regaliter!

As a e-bay buyer who has been taking about 4 times out of my 40+ purchases ,be careful ,some really good advice in post #2 above ,especially the part about not paying more than 50% of retail price ,i see a lot of s--t sold on ebay for way more than its worth .
That said i have had good results with most of what i bought ,but have payed to much for a few idems ,but i usually resell them locally and get my money back +a little extra .Also if you can watch out for people who over charge for shipping ,i just paid 35$ to have something shiped to me that cost the seller 13$ to ship they said shipping and handling !!It was a box of used computer cards all pulled from working machines ,what the seller failed to mention was they were pull from the machines back in 1995 !!
I have bought some used CPU's that worked great and still are working great .

i agree with everybody here. As an experienced auction buyer and seller (although not in pc parts) you do have to be careful and check out the seller thoroughly. if you're not sure whether to buy something dont hesitate to ask questions about the item. I brought some PC parts from ebay and have had no problems with them (yet). Also auction sites can be ideal if you're looking for something that isn't easy to find in the shops. I got myself a 4 way fan speed controller capable of controlling up to 8 fans from a seller on ebay. easy to install and cheap.

If you're going to buy used parts ask the seller which year they are from.

Well, ebuyer will definitly tell me the item it is selling, but with a wee warning of:

"Please note: A 'Used product' in our blowout category may not always be complete. Accessories such as manuals, cables, and drivers may not ship with these products."

This I would imagine simply means items won't come with certain objects, but should be in working order. In CPU terms I'm sure this would only mean the heatsink or whatever would be missing, and thats not a serious problem because they're so cheap

There are some very good deals (P4 3.06ghz for £39.72, thats about $80), but they seem too good to be true. For example the 2.4ghz p4 is more expensive than the 3.06. I'm not sure why this is, and to be honest I'm not quite sure how the ebuyer used system works i.e. who supplies them.

I'm still considering whether or not to buy a used P4. You CAN return faulty products, which is a good sign. Plus I only wish to get a simple system working until I upgrade to 64bit in a year or so when it becomes mainstream.

I probably will go for it, as soon as one becomes in stock. 40 quid for a 3ghz cpu? yes please

good advice, I asked 3 questions ,no answer ,but i still bid [my first mistake ],it was only 5 bucks plus shipping for 60 computer cards[sound to good to be true ,and it was,my second mistake . ] ,got an answer when the auction was over ,answer was sorry we were away for the weekend .

oh well, better late then never as they say eh? at least someone else agrees with me here though

You can never be to carefull on e-bay ,make sure you read,read,read .
PS. know anyone looking for 1990/91, IBM 16/4 ,token ring serial nic cards ,i got 30+ of them .LOL

I agree...read, read, read. Know the product, and I reiterate...make sure there is a gurantee agaist DOAs. I wouldn't even look an item that lists as either "incomplete", or "as is", most of these are not returnable and don't work! If you go to eBay and look at the transaction ratings, you can start to get an idea of the kind of complaints that buyers have. This in turn should help arm you with the information to make a safe and enjoyable puchase. One last suggestion, when you go to pay, use Pay Pal, they act as a third party and have some distict advantages if there is a problem.
Happy hunting. dcc