Buying guides
One collecting category at a time. LEGO, Funko, watches, games, vintage clothing and used electronics, and what goes wrong in each.
9 posts- AUG 30
Buying ex-corporate laptops on eBay: the BIOS lock a wipe won't clear
A supervisor password set by a company IT department lives on the motherboard, not the drive. Lenovo's own remedy is replacing the system board.
8 min read · Buyer protection, Deal hunting, Price research
- AUG 29
Buying vinyl records on eBay: no authentication, real bootlegs
Vinyl records sit outside eBay's Authenticity Guarantee entirely. Every grade is a seller's claim, and bootleg pressings are a separate, real risk.
7 min read · Collectibles, Authentication, Price research
- AUG 29
Buying graded trading cards on eBay: fake slabs eBay can't catch
eBay's own pages disagree on the price threshold for authenticating trading cards. Here's what the program covers, and how to spot a fake PSA slab.
8 min read · Collectibles, Authentication, Price research
- JUL 22
"Untested" isn't an eBay condition. Here's what the seller actually picked.
A seller who types untested has still picked Used or For parts off eBay's list. That field, and not the prose around it, is what a claim is measured against.
10 min read · Collectibles, Buyer protection, Authentication, Price research
- JUL 20
Buying video games on eBay: fake cartridges and who grades games now
WATA stopped putting its name on new slabs in October 2025 and is PSA Video Games now. How to spot a fake cartridge, and where eBay's coverage stops.
10 min read · Collectibles, Authentication, Price research
- JUL 16
Buying watches on eBay: what $2,000 authentication misses
eBay authenticates watches free from $2,000 and sells the check for $80 on select watches from $500. It confirms a watch is genuine, not that its parts match.
11 min read · Collectibles, Authentication, Buyer protection, Price research
- JUL 14
Dating vintage clothing on eBay from a photo of the tag
Care labels, fiber percentages and RN numbers each set a floor on a garment's age, never a date. Single stitch is evidence, and reproductions copy it.
11 min read · Collectibles, Authentication, Price research
- JUL 10
Buying Funko Pops on eBay without overpaying for a lot
By collectors' rule of thumb, a mixed Funko Pop lot is worth about half its summed price guide values, since guide values assume mint boxes. What to check.
10 min read · Collectibles, Authentication, Price research
- JUL 8
Retired LEGO sets on eBay: box grades, seals, and fake bricks
What B1, B2 and B3 actually mean, the tells a resealed box gives away, and where to price a retired set. We compare asking prices, never sold prices.
11 min read · Collectibles, Authentication, Price research