Hey Cressers,
Almost my whole set is compiled from eBay purchases. I had purchased a
Cleveland QuadPro driver with a bimatrix shaft for $75 (shaft alone is ~ $100). I didn't like the way it hit though. That is the only downside of buying something off eBay. I got lucky though because I ran into a guy on the course who liked the look of it and wanted to try it. He loved the feel and traded me for his Great Big Bertha, which I was always borrowing from my friends. I have also purchased my driving
irons from eBay. I have a 15* and an 18*
Cleveland Quadpro Launch iron - I absolutely love them - and only paid about $75 each. Most recently I bought a set of
Titleist irons for $100. They are about 10 - 12 years old, but they were described as in good condition. My current set of Wilson iron are about 15 yrs old and have approx. 1000 rounds in the past 10 years, so I deserve to treat myself. The only
clubs I didn't replace are my TM putter and my
Cleveland SW and LW - my putter has been with me since I took up the game and I have NO intentions of ever changing. I got the sand wedge as a gift a few years ago and I found the LW for $30 in a discount bin this Spring. With all of these purchases over the past 6 months, I now almost have a complete set of backup
clubs.
As for getting better deals elsewhere or getting hosed, I usually check prices and read product reviews on epinions.com, golfreview.com and golf-gear-review.com before I bid. To reduce the risk even further, I make sure that the seller has over 300 positive feedbacks. Anything more than .5% negative feedback I tend to stay away from. If the rate is slightly higher, I read comments - some of the buyers out there screw something up and then post negative feedback when it was not the sellers' fault.