The ULTIMATE in Home sleep tests....

[brasshopper]

You know, there are a few people here on this board (and I am one of them, maybe) who download their data from their smart cards daily, and try and see what their score was last night. Lots of leaks? Good AHI! Excellent!

But is that data really reliable? And what does it really mean?

This item, from eBay, has to be the ultimate item for the person who is worked about their home sleep health.

eBay item 7622397794 is a Puritan Bennett Sandman Series III Sleep Diagnostic PSG. That's right - it is a complete polysommnogram! All you need to convince your doctor or insurance company that your home diagnosis of Sleep Apnea is spot on! And you will be able to find EVERY apnea - and even tell what stage of sleep you are in!

Shipping and handling to your location is included, in the low, low buy-it-now price of (gulp) $12,999.00!

It looks like a two station unit with 32 channels of recording capability, so you can run nightly sleep studies on both you and your SO!

Getting serious for a minute, I've seen three CPAPs on sale on eBay today. they are, for some reason, not cancelling them instantly. One is all euphamized (they don't call it a CPAP anywhere) but there are two being openly sold, without any disclaimers, by one of those eBay drop shops. One looks like the near latest and greatest from Respironics.

I wonder if eBay is changing their policy or if the person who normally cancels those auctions is just gone for the holiday.

[Bonnie]

hmmmm...13 grand plus tax..... If I was able to talk the doc inot an auto, this should be a peice of cake. But PLEASE, tell me I don't need to use a DME.

[Guest]

I also watch ebay (got my used CPAP there after the auction was canceled).

It seems that it takes some time once in a while for the CPAP to get canceled. It seems to vary. I have been looking for a pattern.

We are on a holiday weekend, I wonder if staff is low.

[brasshopper]

...be the high bidder when the auction is cancelled then make a private offer - tell them to get you on the phone with a "buy it now" at all the agreed details - and you snap it up if you really want eBay to get their slice.

[path2others]

What's next? Home CT scans and MRI machines?

[RedThunder94]

those are nice, i'll take 2.

[chdurie2]

brasshopper--

why would you care whether ebay gets their slice? ebay won't get a slice on a canceled auction because the auction becomes invalid. it becomes a person-to-person buy/sell thing off ebay, and you better trust your seller. people have done it here without a problem, but you don't need a phone call-email works fine. some sellers know the listing will get yanked but do it just to get a buyer--if the auction is canceled, seller doesn't pay ebay a fee. so it's kind of like a free classified ad with no protections attached. it's a little cottage industry--play the ebay cpap game.

as for whether ebay staff is home this weekend, i would think normal operations are slow because of the holiday weekend. btw, holiday weekends are usually a very good time to buy on ebay--bidding traffic is generally slower than usual. but i was surprised--i got a substantive answer to a complaint yesterday after about 36 hours.

caroline

[RedThunder94]

wow, i thought you still get stiffed on the listing fees if it gets canceled, that's cool, i was bidding on the remstar pro? unit that i sold it was selling but some new ebay troll named npttrucksales kept nickle and diming to get to my max bid, after that one got canceled i tried on that resmed s6 lightweight that was going for cheap, and the troll showed up again, i was on top right at the last moment before that one got pulled, still wasn't to the reserve though, i'm waiting to see if the seller will still want to sell it out of ebay.

[snoregirl]

Whenever I bid on ANYTHING on ebay I put in one low bid, then sit and wait for the end of the auction and count down. Put a reasonable bid in (what I am willing to pay) in the last 20 seconds. That seems to work for me a reasonable percentage of the time. I never win by bidding and bidding.... Just drives up the price.

I have bought CPAP (only thing bought after auction was canceled) a Yamaha euphonium, Palm PDA, Windows XP SP1, cell phone... all this way. Maybe a couple more that I don't remember.

On the CPAP ones, I always send a "question" to the seller with my personal email. I don't count on the seller to keep a list of bidders and when the auction is canceled, that list is unavailable anyway.

I actually figure that I don't want the seller who knows that their auction will be canceled. Tends to be a reseller or someone who knows that people pay over retail (Cpap.com) prices for used equiptment due to no prescription.

I want someone who honestly has tried Cpap and decides not to do it or has had surgery and no longer needs it or the relative has died and no longer need it. I figure those are my best bets.

I have email conversation with the person if buying when the auction is canceled and can usually tell if the person is credible. I ask questions and evaluate the answers sometimes a couple of go rounds.

Can I get stiffed? Sure, but so far not. Worth the risk for me.

_________________

CPAPopedia Keywords Contained In This Post (Click For Definition): CPAP, Prescription

[chdurie2]

RedThunder94: You know, I didn't check on the story of the fees. I just assumed it. I just don't see how Ebay could claim they're entitled to a fee after they yanked the auction--either the item isn't sold or/and Ebay is pulling its protections for buyer and seller.

All--I've also done it twice and not had a problem.

I bought an Actva mask with buy-it-now and hours later, the auction got yanked. the seller emailed me and said she'd understand if i didn't want to go through with it. i have no idea who she was. she had sold a few masks where the auctions went through, and they were interspersed with selling her kids' clothes. i asked her to please send it quickly because i was having cpap problems (true) and it arrived pronto.

I bought a UMFF as a buy-it-now, which I thought was a bit overpriced for someone who got the wrong size and ripped the thing open, but it was a lot less than cpap.com, so i figured someone would pay the seller's non-negotiable price. The auction got canceled while the mask was in transit. Then my post office lost it, and I was very nervous because I had not bought insurance. It turned out the seller was very nervous, too, while the post office looked for the package, because she thought she would have to replace it. The post office found it, but told me that no one would have to pay for a replacement because it was their fault--the mail carrier delivered it to the wrong address, and fortunately, i have honest, conscientious neighbors who returned it to the post office after opening it and seeing that it didn't belong to them. The post office said i could file a claim if anything was missing. So it was a little crazy, but it worked out fine.

Caroline

[dsm]

Re buying directly outside of eBay. IIRC If you pay via paypal & the goods fail to show, paypal will not stand by any claim as they only do so for items that passed through either eBay or Yahoo.

Paypal is a subsidiary of eBay (for those who didn't realise it, so is SKYPE (if you haven't heard of SKYPE yet, you soon will ) )

Generally people selling on eBay are pretty honest. I haven't had a crooked transaction yet. Some sellers have tried to extort on the P&H but if you stand up to them they usually see reason.

But back to buying outside eBay's infrastructure. If you send money via most means other than paypal, you really are at the mercy of the seller as eBay will not support you. They will sell you conciliation services

DSM

[RedThunder94]

you can also do a postal money order, if you pay for something and then they cash it and don't send you anything, they can be charged with mail fraud, IIRC.

[chdurie2]

Yes, they can be criminally charged with mail fraud. but that still doesn't get your money back--it only gets them perhaps arrested. there are also other contract violations that would likely be enforced by a state court to at least get a money judgment against the person. but good luck actually going after someone in another state if they don't have a big-time theft-like operation going on. The law and the practical realities of getting the law enforced are two different animals, if say it's only a $100 mask purchase or even a $500 machine purchase.

The Ebay/Paypal system is certainly not perfect, and I have heard that it can be a pain and time-consuming to try to recover money through them, but at least there seems to be a system in place that at least sometimes works, whereas off-Ebay/Paypal, I think you're out in the wilderness on your own without much hope.

Caroline

[susan@theredpencil.net]

I read this message from you, as well as some from other people, and I wondered if you can explain something to me. I have a REMstar PRO C-flex CPAP with heated humidifier, mask, hose and bag that I bought new, and used for about a month. It just doesn't help with my sleep problem and a friend suggested I put it on ebay. I have never sold on ebay, but from the discussions I've read, it sounds as though selling a CPAP might not be possible. Why would ebay cancel an auction? Is it not allowed? Do you know anywhere else I can try to sell it. It cost me $500 in addition to what the insurance paid for it.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Please reply to susan@theredpencil.net

[quote="snoregirl"]Whenever I bid on ANYTHING on ebay I put in one low bid, then sit and wait for the end of the auction and count down. Put a reasonable bid in (what I am willing to pay) in the last 20 seconds. That seems to work for me a reasonable percentage of the time. I never win by bidding and bidding.... Just drives up the price.

I have bought CPAP (only thing bought after auction was canceled) a Yamaha euphonium, Palm PDA, Windows XP SP1, cell phone... all this way. Maybe a couple more that I don't remember.

On the CPAP ones, I always send a "question" to the seller with my personal email. I don't count on the seller to keep a list of bidders and when the auction is canceled, that list is unavailable anyway.

I actually figure that I don't want the seller who knows that their auction will be canceled. Tends to be a reseller or someone who knows that people pay over retail (Cpap.com) prices for used equiptment due to no prescription.

I want someone who honestly has tried Cpap and decides not to do it or has had surgery and no longer needs it or the relative has died and no longer need it. I figure those are my best bets.

I have email conversation with the person if buying when the auction is canceled and can usually tell if the person is credible. I ask questions and evaluate the answers sometimes a couple of go rounds.

Can I get stiffed? Sure, but so far not. Worth the risk for me.

[tomjax]

Some post here selling PAP.

Yahoo auctions have cpap al the time and sell lots of them.