I just posted a reply to a thread about buying gear on Amazon. It brought to mind, again, a question I've wondered about for some time.
I'm fairly new at buying online, but I've gotten items from Amazon and eBay both with good experiences all around. I'm surprised at the variety of stuff that comes up by searching "survival" or related words on both eBay and Amazon.
What I am wondering about is which do you think is the better site to deal with, and why? What do you base your preference on?
Just wondering.

Amazon is normally my site of choice just because you generally know exactly who you're dealing with and what you can expect. That said, you can often get much better deals on ebay, and I've bought some of my (otherwise much more) expensive gear there.

For new goods Amazon, without question. For one of a kind or strange goods, ebay.

I've been buying and selling online since the mid 1980's and I've bought almost anything you can imagine online from ammo to zeolite and over the years, I've bought and sold on ebay as well.

Asking which one is better is like asking which half of your head is more useful.

+1 on what Martin wrote. I've bought a couple of things on ebay that turned out to be not such a great deal, I'm thinking of a couple of cell phone chargers in particular but they were so cheap that I really can't complain.

If you can find a vendor on ebay that delivers what you need at a good price, treasure them.

And for that matter, there are any number of online businesses outside of Amazon and ebay that give exemplary service. I haven't purchased anything from them yet but Redflare, a member/vendor here on ETS gets very high praise from their customers. McMaster-Carr, an industrial supply house sets the gold standard in my opinion for their variety as well as there incredibly fast shipping and very reasonable shipping rates, I can order from them on a Monday afternoon and the box will be sitting on my porch in less than 24 hours.

Good to know. Thanks to you all for your input. It helps.

One great thing about buying used SAK's is the lifetime warranty. My son was at a Boy Scout Mountain Man Rendezvous many years ago, and won first place in a blackpowder blanket shoot. Accordingly, he got first choice of the items on the blanket. He was drawn to a nice hairpipe choker, but I encouraged him to get the SAK. He pointed out that the blade was broken, I said I knew that, get it anyway. He did, and when we got home we mailed it off and in a few days a brand new knife came to him. What a deal!
He learned that day to trust his old man a little more often.
Even if you get multiples in a "grab bag" buy, you can sell them at yard sales and make a profit. Especially after returning the broken ones for repair or replacement.
Love those SAK's.

McMaster Carr is definitely one to put on a preferred vendor list. Great to deal with, fast service and friendly to deal with. They have an unbelievable catalog and their website is great as well.

Standard disclaimer, aside from being a customer I have no affiliation.

Regards,
Comanche7

Thanks again for the input. Good things to know.