Buying Glucose Strips On EBay - 10 Essential Tips For Buying Safely

Overview

Buying glucose test strips on EBay can be a rewarding experience. You can easily save between 30-70 percent off regular retail by shopping the bargains.

However, there are some caveats you need to wary of since you won't be buying through regular retail channels. Which auctions should you bid on and which auctions should you avoid? Below is a list of ten things that are important when selecting glucose test strips. You should fully investigate EBay auctions for glucose test strips before you bid so that you don't get taken for a ride when buying. No one knows everything about this subject and I'm not an exception, but I'm hopeful you'll pay attention to some of the observations and advice offered here.

1. Be wary of the Expiration Date of the strips

The number one thing you should pay attention to is the expiration date. You're best to stay away from strips that will expire either this month or next. A lot of us test once or more a day so be sure the strips are good for a few months into the future at a minimum. An expiration date of a 6 months to a year into the future is your best bet, just to be safe.

2. DON'T BUY EXPIRED STRIPS!

Glucose test strips are not designed to work reliably past their expiration date. If a manufacturer will not guarantee results on expired strips, why should you be willing to risk it? Isn't your own wellness important enough to avoid any doubts? Stay away from expired strips! If there's any doubt about the efficacy of test strips, just walk away! If a pharmacy won't sell them, what makes it okay for you to buy them on EBay? Some unknowledgeable or unscrupulous sellers may try to convince you that it's okay to buy expired strips. Don't take a chance! False readings from expired strips could cause you to lose your eyesight or undergo foot surgery for no reason.

3. Shop for a good deal test strips!

At full retail, test strips go for about 85 cents to $1 a test. On EBay the average rate appears to be somewhere between 30 to 60 cents per test depending on the brand and model of tester you own. Make sure you calculate the entire cost of the auction! Some dishonest sellers will quote an extremely high shipping charge and if you're not being fully attentive, you'll be paying excessively for your glucose test strips. For instance, if an auction is for 100 glucose tests at $45 and the shipping is $5, that makes a total of $50 you'll pay for 100 tests. That amounts to 50 cents a test and compare to current market prices, that's a good deal. A different case would be $20 for 50 tests plus an unusually high $40 for shipping. That's a total of $60 for 50 tests. That works out to $1.20 a test! Ouch! At a pharmacy you'll only pay about $1 per test, so why would you bother to bid on this auction? The moral here is to always consider the shipping charge in the total cost of acquisition. If you're paying near what you'd actually pay at a pharamacy or more, then you'd better think twice and walk away.

4. Is the Box is Factory Sealed?

This is crucial because some corrupt individuals will exhange the new strips inside with expired ones! How do they do this? They carefully open the box, remove the new strips, and replace them with old strips and keep the good strips for themselves. To the uninitiated, the strips look fine as if they're new strips with a current expiration date but they are actually not! Don't buy opened boxes, or just vials that aren't in a sealed box. Besides, many tubes of strips once opened have a shortened shelf life. By way of an example, the expiration date may say two or more years into the future, but once a tube is opened the expiration date could be reduced to less then 3 months. Even worse, what if somebody opened up a tube of strips and infected them with their own blood. Then you touch them to your very own blood! It's then possible that you could get a vile and nasty blood borne illness! If the auction doesn't specifically mention that the strips are factory sealed, make sure you email and ask them! What may look like a great deal, may turn out to be a personal disaster!

5. Glucose strips are sensitive to heat and moisture!

Test strips need to be kept in a cool dry environment. If they're ever exposed to heat swings, it will affect test results. When you buy test strips from individuals, you're taking a chance that they didn't keep them in an environmentally friendly place. If you notice that an auctioneer states that they have been in a good environment, that may be a plus. It might be a good idea to ask the seller to send them in a speedy way like Priority 2 day mail or quicker service. Strips that sit in a hot truck or warehouse for 2 weeks will probably be ruined when they arrive. When they arrive you might want to run a control test on the first strip to make certain it's in acceptable range before trusting the results of the rest of the strips. This is definitely one time when prompt shipment is a definite plus!

6. Make a point to be sure the test strips really do fit your glucose monitor

A reliable seller will take care list the glucometers that the test strips work with. Ask the auctioneer if you're not positive if the strips are compatible with your device. Do not take for granted that one brand of test strips will work with all of their brand's monitors. Some boxes are colored differently which has a different meaning depending on the color. On the other hand, some firms have boxes of different colors and they don't mean anything and will work with the same meter. Don't go by color of the box at all. Rather, get the information from the seller.

7. Upgrade your old glucose meter!

If you're employing a glucose monitor and test strips that require 4ul (micro liter) of blood or more, then you need to upgrade that antiquated meter to something better. Many current glucose meters have test strips that use only 1ul or less of a blood sample to conduct a glucose test and are much easier to use than older machines. You may be going through unnecessary pain and trouble by using an old machine. You might could upgrade your glucose meter and make life a lot better for your glucose testing. Egads! if you're still using a machine where you have to drip a whole drop of blood onto a test strip! Yikes! The new machines with 1ul of a sample is like the size of a pin head and it sucks it in! You don't have to plunge the lancet so far in to get that much blood out so it makes sampling virtually painless. Also, many of the new monitors let you sample from your forearm where there are less nerves so you might not feel a lancet at all! Please, if you're still on an old machine, then upgrade! Your test strips won't be much more expensive if at all (usually they are the same price). Also, newer machines are inherently faster. Instead of waiting 15 seconds for a result, you could get a result as fast a 5 seconds with some of the newer machines. Also, you might could get a new monitor very inexpensive on ebay or sometimes even free after rebate! Some companies even have an upgrade program to make for a free or relatively cheap upgrade. It's silly to fool with old glucose monitors! Upgrade!

You can find out more about specific brands and models of glucose monitors and compare features at

Glucose Meter Tips

8. Bonuses usually don't mean very much

Some EBay auctioneers will add lancets or alcohol pads to their auctions. They're worth very little so don't let these incentives alter your decision on the value of the offer very much. On EBay you may discover that lancets and alcohol pads both sell for about $1 per hundred. Many of us using lancets, clean them with an alcohol pad and use them more than once... even many times (I'm not advocating that but some do it). You most likely have lancets running out of your ears, so don't let them sway your decision very much.

9. Patience is a virtue on EBay

I'll keep my eye on lots auctions and wait for one that stays at or below the price I'm willing to pay. Occasionally some fellow EBayer will outbid you and the auction will shoot way higher than the strips are worth. Let those auctions go by and don't let yourself be provoked into a bidding war and which will only lead you into paying more than you should. Set a definite amount of time that you'll watch for a good deal, like three days for example. If you still can't find a great deal in that quantity of time, then raise the amount you're willing to pay and go at it for another three days. Don't just bid on the first auction that comes along. There are plenty of fish in the sea, especially on EBay!

10. Take advantage of Buy It Now!

Personally, I set a price that's about 50 percent of retail. If Buy It Now test strips are at or below that price and the shipping is reasonable, I will usually opt to make a purchase. I keep plenty of money in my PayPal account just for this purpose. Once I make a decision to buy, I don't want to delay shipment with checks or money-orders.

In Conclusion:

The best way I can think of to offset the possibility of having an auction go bad on you is to do as much homework as you can about the brand of strips that you're interested in. Get to know the packaging and quantities your strips come in. Some strips are re-branded and so they have the product name as well as the name of the retailer on the box as well. Make sure that you follow the advice here and don't be afraid to ask the seller any questions. Finally, if in doubt... don't buy it. It's better to walk away and wait for another auction than take a chance that could be disastrous for your health.

More Information:

EBay has issued a general warning about medical devices and test strips that you can read here: http://cgi3.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewUserPage&userid=usfda

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