How to buy quality running shoes at a discount prices
One would think purchasing a pair of running shoes would be a
fairly simple matter. Sadly, or probably for the better, it has
become quite an involved process. I would suggest you visit a
local store before attempting to purchase online. The key aspect
is to understand your foot profile. In truth this is not a
difficult task and certainly doesn't need fancy computer
technology.
Visit and obtain your profile as far as arches type, strike type
and over prontaros. Once you have this information find you
category using the guide below;
-Motion control : for runners with low arches, moderate to
severe over pronators with maximum rear foot control and extra
support on the arch side of the shoe, eg. bigger runners.
-Stability : mild or moderate over pronators, low to normal
arches, shoes has a combination of good support and mid sole
cushioning. -Neutral cushioned: maximum mid sole cushioning and
minimum medial support, bio mechanically efficient runners, mid
foot or forefoot strikers with high or normal arches.
-Performance Training: for racing, generally lighter, if you are
bio mechanically efficient you can use them for training.
So that is step one in your process. Next is to establish how
and where you can find nicely discounted shoes, and also grasp a
basic insiders guide to the athletic shoe market.
The basic industry premise is that new product sells at a
premium as older models are off loaded through various channels.
Therefore you could hope for discounts on new items from 10% to
probably a maximum of 20% and all the way up to 40% on older
year models. However it is still possible to find discounts on
eBay on the newest styles, especially if they are very lightly
worn. Think about it, trying on and testing running shoes is
difficult at best. Therefore many runners discard a pair after a
first light run. There is a nice fluid market for both new and
slightly used running shoes on eBay.
With a large volume of most shoe brands being traded everyday,
this is the ideal efficient market. One can study the dynamics
of this micro-market and determine some useful buying rules.
With a little more information than the rest of the marketplace,
one can almost certainly make some intelligent buying
opportunities. This article focuses on how to identify these
gaps and often purchase running shoes for 20-40% below retail.
This article should be read together with my longer piece and a
web site, which produces the information required to identify
buying nuggets. Find the links and URL's to these two sites at
the bottom of this article. The niche site focuses specifically
and only on data from the runners shoe market.
Most information on eBay focuses on the selling element, i.e.
how to sell your shoes. I have tended to specialize on the
buying end and trying to identify market opportunities and price
in-efficiencies to really capture excellent deals. To do this we
need to understand the dynamics of the eBay market place. Like
any other market it is supply demand driven, and like a large
flee-market if a buyer has knowledge of how many items are for
sale at what prices and how many other buyers are in the market,
then that buyer can capture the upper hand. Lets focus a little
more on supply.
The eBay supply dynamic is a little different in that supply of
an item must be seen at a point in time. In other words, because
auctions end at different times, one needs to grasp the number
of auctions ending in close proximity for the same item. This
gives you a feel for the supply of items or in our case cameras.
What makes this interesting is that today there could be a large
amount of auctions ending for a particular model, but next week
there could be very few. This is one element driving the price.
The demand side is slightly more complex and hidden from the
average eBay buyer. This is where that the web site I refer to
at the bottom has some useful data. Demand in eBay terms is
measured (by sellers) as a number of factors - how many people
view my auction, how many people ask questions, how many people
place me on their watch page, and how many people actually bid.
Obviously as we progress down this list the data become more
reliable as an indication of demand. Page views are not easy to
obtain, although some sellers place a publicly viewable counter
on their auction pages. Questions and watchers are available to
sellers, and the special web site mentioned below will expose
this information. Number of bids is available for all to see.
Now if we happened to produce a graph as the auction progresses
of the changes in the number of questions, watchers and bid's
one can easily see how the demand is changing as time
progresses. Typically if questions are high and watchers are
high, but bids are low, this may indicate some confusion and a
possible buy opportunity. If watchers are very high and
climbing, but bids are low, this can point to a last minute
bidding war, and a stay out indicator.
Armed with this information and also a quick summary of other
similar auctions ending soon, plus a quick feel for the skill
set of the seller and the current highest bidder, one can see a
picture very different from the average eBay buyer. Soon the
trained eye will observe some nice buying opportunities. For the
professional or amateur runner this will soon bring in a number
of athletic shoe buys that are quite a bit cheaper than retail.
For example it is quite possible to find gems at 20-40% of
retail prices. Sometimes a lightly used athletic shoe will offer
some unique bargains and discounts, especially if you are
comfortable with a brand and model.
Resource:
How to buy running shoes at a discount
Runners
shoes bargains listings
Article by Malcolm Silberman and Education Specialist trained by
eBay, for a more lengthily discussion of this topic visit
http://bargainbasementbrands.com/how-to-buy-top-quality-running-s
hoes-at-a-discount and to see running shoe auctions with this
value added data visit
http://runners-shoes.bargainbasementbrands.com