Buying Inkpads for Rubber Stamping on Ebay or Other Web Sites

I own numerous inkpads, and ebay was the place where I bought most of them. Some of my purchases were outstanding; others were not. In this guide, I share tips and experiences for finding the best deals on inkpads on ebay and other web sites.

Making Sense of Ebay's Search Functions:

The first thing that might help you out is knowing about wild card searches on ebay. There is no standardized format for listing ink pads. Some sellers will use the word "ink". Some will use the word "inks". Some will use the word "inkpads". Some will use the phrase "ink pads". There are other possible variations, too. If you want to just do one search that covers all these possibilities, use ink*. The asterick is a wild card that will bring up anything starting with "ink". This is also going to bring up some other irrelevant items. One thing I often find in that search is tattoo ink, which I don't want. You can add negative search terms to your search by adding a minus sign. So your search would look like this:

ink* -tattoo

Another thing you probably want to do is search within the crafts category. Limiting your search to the relevant category will help minimize irrelevant items like printer cartridges, antique ink blotters, and things like that. If you are still finding too many irrelevant items, you can always search using parenthesis, like this:

(ink,inks,inkpads,inkpad) -tattoo

Ebay's default search is called "Best Match". In my experience, "Best Match" should be renamed "Worst Match". You are going to have a hard time finding the best deals on ebay using the "Best Match" sort. I recommend that you switch your search to either "ending soonest" or "Price: highest price". Yes, I said "Price: highest first". That wasn't a typo. I know, you're looking for a deal, so it seems more intuitive that you'd rather search by "Price: lowest first", right? Well, you can do that too, if you want to. The chances are good that a search for lowest priced ink pads will yield a bunch of single ink pads, and you still have to pay shipping on those. In my experience, some of the best deals on ebay can be found by perusing the large lots of supplies offered. Art and craft supply lots are often offered by fellow crafters who are either getting out of the hobby or cleaning their craft rooms and purging supplies they no longer need. This is how I buy the vast majority of my art and craft supplies.

What Kind of Ink Should You Buy?

One thing that's kind of overwhelming about ebay is all the choices you find. How do you know which kind of ink to buy? Well, it depends on what your preferences and needs are. If you would like to learn more about different types of inks and ink pads that are available, I invite you to take a look at some of the product reviews I have written about various inks:

Click here to read a product review of Tim Holtz Distress Inks,

Click here to read a product review of Fluid Chalk,

Click here to read a product review of Adirondack inks by Ranger Industries.

Click here to read a product review of StazOn inks by Tsukineko

You have many other choices as well, but those are some of my favorites.

Wholesale Craft Supplies Lots on Ebay: Are They Worth It?

There are quite a few sellers offering "wholesale" lots of scrapbooking and crafts supplies on ebay. Some of these "wholesale lots" are worth the asking price, and some are not. I recommend that you read each listing carefully. Some of the "wholesale lot" listings show photos filled with amazing new products, but when you read the fine print you see that each lot does not necessarily contain all the items in the photo. Buyer beware. It is especially helpful to check sellers' feedback when you consider buying such a lot. If the seller has had many dissatisfied customers, it's an indication that you might want to think twice about buying from that seller.

More Ebay Feedback Tips:

Pay careful attention to actual comments left for sellers on ebay. These will give you an overall idea of how the seller does business. Keep in mind that some of the comments may have been left by unreasonable people, and if you do find those, take them with a grain of salt; you shouldn't hold it against a seller if (s)he received negative feedback on December 25th from a buyer who purchased an item on December 23rd and was angry that the item was not delivered in time for Christmas. You'd be amazed at how unreasonable some ebayers are. On the other hand, most ebayers are reasonable people and leave accurate feedback, so reading feedback from other buyers is a good way to gauge how well sellers are doing their jobs.

Keep in mind also that feedback might not always warn you of impending problems. I've bought and sold thousands of items on ebay, and most of my problematic transactions have been with sellers that had excellent feedback. With that in mind, I'd give the advice that you should never bid more on ebay than you can afford to lose. The vast majority of ebay transactions go smoothly, but if you do enough business on ebay, there are occasionally going to be times when a transaction just does not work out.

If you aren't an experienced ebay user, you might be tempted to think that 90% positive feedback is a good score. After all, 90% looks like a pretty high number. When you stop to think about it though, a score of 90% means that, over the course of the last 12 months, 10% of that seller's customers have been dissatisfied enough with their purchase to leave negative feedback for the seller. Those aren't very good odds. Consider the risk to reward ratio with any purchase you are considering making on ebay.

Ebay isn't the Only Place to Buy and Sell Inkpads:

Check out these other web sites too:

Splitcoaststampers buy / sell / trade forum

Twopeasinabucket.com's For Sale or Trade forum

Inkpads for sale at Bonanzle

Careful Packaging Is Important:

When buying used ink pads, I recommend that you politely ask the seller to tape the ink pads shut before shipping them. If the seller does not take this precaution, the lids might open up while the package is in transit. It could create quite a mess, and your ink pads risk drying out if the lids are open. This has actually happened to me when I purchased stamps on ebay in the past. When I opened the package, the box was a mess of opened ink pads. If this does happen to you, I recommend that you wear gloves when you clean up the mess. I didn't, and my hands were an inky rainbow by the time I sorted out all the ink pads. I was not happy!

Conclusion:

If you want to buy inkpads, there are some fantastic deals to be found online. There are also some bad deals to be found out there. If you are considering buying inkpads on ebay or other web sites, I hope these tips will help you to avoid the ripoffs and find the best deals. Happy hunting!