Buying a Drinkwell on eBay?

I'm considering buy a "gently used" Drinkwell or two or three from eBay. If I go the route of eBay, I can get at least 2 Drinkwells. If I order from an online store, I can only afford one.

As I've got 2 floors of cats, I'd like 2 Drinkwells. Considering a 3rd for the garage for those kitties, too!

I'd need to sign up with Pay Pal, how long does that take?
How do I bid on eBay?
How secure is eBay....esp. as far as giving my address to a complete stranger?

I've seen some gently used Drinkwells, & the sellers have 100% positive feedback, with no neutral or negative reviews. Like this one:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Drinkwell-Pet-Fo...QQcmdZViewItem

If I put in my maximum bid as $3 or whatever. Then I come back & someone has outbid me, can I put in another maximum bid then?

Sorry, never understood how eBay works....so I've got a lot of questions!

i have 2 of those, ever since i got them, the cats dont try to drink out of the bathroom sink..

and yes you can bid again if someone has outbid you.
i am no ebay expert i have only gotten a couple of items, and one of those i picked buy now.

You can also set up a maximum bid, and then whenever someone out bids you, it will automatically rebid in a set increment up to your max amount. Then you dont have to stalk the bid until it ends!
Paypal only takes a little while to set up, as far as I remember.

Paypal takes minutes to set up, and it is secure. Basically, when it comes to bidding think about what the maximum amount is you would pay for the item (think about shipping too) and place your max bid. Ebay will automatically bid you $0.50 over asking price, but if someone else outbids you Ebay will automatically up your bid another $0.50. That way, if it gets out of your price range, you bidding will stop. Or, if you really want it, you can up your max bid.

I've bought tons of things on eBay and have used paypal for most of them, particularly in the last 6-7 years (back in the older days, it was common to send checks or money orders). With eBay you can get great deals, the caveat being watch who you buy from. Anyone with 100% positive rating should be good, however. And watch the shipping rates, some seelers will gouge you on them.

eBay and paypal are very secure and easy to use. They're a great benefit to the consumer if used thoughtfully.

You've gotten some really excellent eBay advice, so I won't repeat but I did want to address another issue you may not have considered. I dislike the term "gently used". It is up to interpretation and what ~you~ may consider to be acceptable in terms of use may not be what the seller considers acceptable. If you are comfortable purchasing these fountains and you can get them at a good price, I'd say go for it. But when you receive them, inspect them with an extremely critical eye, then get yourself a large bucket, fill it up with bleach/boiling water and sterilize ALL parts before you use the fountains. Make sure to buy new filters and make 100% absolutely certain that you can get ALL nooks and crannies imaculately clean. I might be overreacting, but my motto is that it is sooooooo much better to be safe than sorry. Good luck with your auction!

That was another one of my concerns, Gaye. I've looked at the "used" ones, & I am also looking at ones that are still sealed in the original packaging. I'm still not sure if it is worth all the hassle....but I could afford more than one if I went to eBay route.

Yeah, I feel ya. I have a fountain in the kitchen, another in the bedroom and a third up on the loft. There was a fourth in my boy Tonka's enclosure but I took it out since I was having to wash it thoroughly at least twice every day (Tonka pee's in his water). I now keep that one as a back-up in case one of the others fails. They aren't cheap and the filters are sometimes difficult to find. I have the Petmate fountains and because there are so many smallish spaces where I really can't fit my hands to get them clean, I wash them in the dishwasher with the heat dry setting once or twice a week

If you decide to go with one new in box and the price goes out of your range, check out amazon. I did a quick search and it looks to be like the ebay 'buy it now' price is almost the same as amazon. Amazon probably has cheaper shipping as well.
http://www.amazon.com/Drinkwell-DW-0.../dp/B00063446M

There are a lot of "free shipping" offers on various sites this year for the holidays. Personally I would take advantage of that rather than use ebay. I really don't like ebay. I've been unimpressed with my own transactions on there, and my DH actually didn't receive things he ordered.

When I couldn't afford the Drinkwell, we had the Freshflow. We also tried the CatIt, which I got off Petfooddirect.com for less than buying a new Freshflow locally (watch for a sale and one of their 22% off emails). The only reason we have a Drinkwell now is I had a "free shipping on $25 order" email offer from Petco.com and the Drinkwell was on sale for a crazy price of $30.

You might also check out www.litterboy.com. They have good prices with free shipping. Prices actually beat ebay!

Originally Posted by pee-cleaner

You might also check out www.litterboy.com. They have good prices with free shipping. Prices actually beat ebay!

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I ordered from them through Amazon.com They get things to you very fast. I bought filters or something like that.

Twitch will only drink from a Drinkwell. The Cat It I've never tried, but she likes to free flowing water. I know the Petmate Fresh Flow was a flop, I've got one. I will have to check out litterboy.