Having a Cricut machine, I naturally want more cartridges for it. And being a cheapskate, I equally naturally seek them out on eBay and Craiglist instead of at my local craft stores (though I have gotten some very good deals on holiday sales and clearance at Jo-Ann's, plus instant gratification). I recommend this to any fellow cheapskate.
Many of the cartridges I've bought off eBay have come from the unacknowledged Cricut factory outlet. It's easy to tell who this is -- all else aside, when your PayPal payment is billed to "Provo Craft & Novelty Inc." that makes it pretty definite. Their cartridges are new in the box, and they have free shipping, so it's usually a good deal. Sometimes, though, a cartridge I want isn't currently available from said factory seller so I check third parties. And therein lies a post.
I noticed one, Bridal Shower to be exact, in my morning search. "Very hard to find! Only $59.99! Free shipping!" Is that a deal or what?
...or what.
If you happen to want that cartridge, you can buy it on eBay from the Cricut eBay outlet for a Buy It Now of $29.99, or bid on it starting at 99 cents. The usual sale price from that seller, based on sold auctions, is about $8-$10. It's on the Cricut website for $19.99. And if you don't want to risk random people on eBay and the hideously show shipping from the Cricut store (website or eBay -- both get sucked into the black hole of the Moreno Valley post office) you can buy it off Amazon for $16.08. Free shipping if you have Amazon Prime.
Another one: Simply Sweet. "ProvoCraft Cricut cartridge Simply Sweet NIP Font Retired Very Rare" listed at $109.99 plus shipping. Or, if you prefer, only $19 a month for 6 months. Very rare, that must be a deal, right? Um ... for the same price, you could buy it, also NIP, from the Cricut outlet store on eBay And another one next month. And the month after that. And so on for all six months (well, within a couple of dollars). Because, yes, you can buy it (with free shipping, too) for $19.99. Amazon itself doesn't have it, but a number of their third-party vendors do, and you can get it for under $25 (including shipping) from no fewer than nine of them.
Another one: Destinations. "Very Rare - Great for all Cricut machines - used." It's $26.99 plus $7.63 shipping. Or brand-new for $19.99, with $3.60 shipping, from the company website. Seriously, how can something be "very rare" when you can just order it from the publisher? Or from Amazon? Or from the literally dozens of other listings on eBay? I happen to own that one. A check of my eBay purchase history reveals that I bought it from the unacknowledged Cricut factory outlet, new in the box, for $11.49, free shipping.
My point isn't .. well, isn't just ... to trash the eBay sellers who are trying to sell these things for many times the retail price. They're clearly in the business of taking advantage of suckers. We cheapskates need to not be those suckers. Do your homework. "Very hard to find"? Only if you don't click on any of the 30+ other listings for the identical item on eBay. Only if you don't go to the Cricut website. Only if you don't check Amazon. Only if you don't, in other words, do what is called in the business world due diligence.
I also check Craiglist for any Cricut stuff. Again, I found a seller with delusions of riches. She said she'd paid $40-$60 for her Cricut cartridges and therefore wanted $20 each for used, linked cartridges without their boxes. This might have even be a valid price if they were some of the genuinely rare ones, the ones that routinely go for $50+ on eBay. They weren't, though; they were fairly common ones. Again, a check of eBay would show that what she was selling would go for that price or lower (with boxes, too!) and not linked. But she'll probably get what she's asking, because people will think "well, it's on Craigslist, so it must be a good deal."
Now, there are Cricut cartridges that are rare and hard to find. The four Close To My Heart cartridges are only sold as part of large, expensive packages, never separately, and are both scarce and pricey. 50 States was discontinued for no reason that makes sense, and it's popular and scarce; the same is true of Dinosaur Tracks. Several of the licensed cartridges were discontinued, presumably when the licenses ran out, and are likewise hard to come by. If you check around, it's easy to see which ones they are. Sadly, it seems that the last person you can believe is the one writing the listing -- the one who lists something that can be ordered from the company website as "very hard to find."
Do your due diligence. Check the prices. Know what you're buying and what it usually sells for in various places. Don't believe the sellers. They might honestly not know what they're talking about, or they might think you don't know and intend to take advantage of that. Either way, you should know. You must know if you're going to get a good deal.
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