Super Soaker Central

What price you can expect to pay for a water gun on eBay has been somewhat of a point of debate for the past few years. Soakologist made a guide from his memory of the prices you can expect on eBay, but some people doubted the accuracy of his prices.

I set out to periodically check eBay for completed auctions to find the average selling price. Here I did something different too. I have the average prices for summer and winter. People have long said that water guns on eBay are less expensive during the winter, and this study verified that. While it does lack some data, it is better than nothing. And it will improve as I gather more data.

The prices listed are overall prices including shipping except where the ** is. ** indicates that there was only one auction in one of either period and that auction had no shipping information. * indicates that there was only one auction, but it had shipping information. When one auction of several had no shipping costs, the average shipping cost was added to that one. Obviously, more information would be beneficial.

The table lists the price in summer and winter (Sprice and Wprice), the average number of bids (Sbids and Wbids), MSRP information from here and supersoaker.com, and how many times more expensive water guns were during the summer (S/Wprice).

The statistics were only taken for water guns on the search term "super soaker." I know that water guns outside of that term rarely are expensive and sometimes a high-demand one pops in there. I would suggest checking out all terms you might think would cover the water gun you intend to get.

The statistics also were indescriminate of the mark of the CPS 2000. I'll look into checking the mark of the single auction I could look at later.

High-demand water guns such as the CPS 2000, CPS 2500, CPS 3000, CPS 3200, Monster, Monster X, and Monster XL go for far higher than the sane are willing to pay. Wait until winter to buy on eBay for these water guns and be sure to look locally! You wouldn't believe what you could find locally. And also be sure to check other search terms on eBay if you are stuck there. I've heard of CPS 2000s going for $30 in less seen search terms during the winter.

Strangely however, the CPS 4100 (essentially the same thing as the Monster) does not seem to sell very well. While I do not have the numbers in front of me at the moment, I remember that the asking prices were high, perhaps higher than some are willing to pay. The CPS 4100 sounds like an easier to obtain Monster to me after seeing this. Certainly, you're likely to pay over $70 including shipping, but that is cheaper than the Monster and comparable.

Between the CPS 1000, CPS 1200, and CPS 2100, the CPS 1200 is the best deal in price. And the best thing is that these water guns are relatively common on eBay.

The XXP 175 does not sell well despite the fact that it's a pretty neat water gun. After looking at these numbers, I'm interesting in buying one.

Water guns such as the Flash Flood and Aquapack Devastator sell for more than they do in stores. I would not suggest getting these water guns for eBay for that reason. Also, medium XP class water guns sell for relatively cheap, but I believe the store prices of comparable water guns today would be cheaper.

Unusually, the CPS 2100 and XP 270 were more expensive in the winter than in the summer. Where that occurs, it likely was due to the low amount of data here combined with outliers.

Despite a few individual problems, this study verifies previous thought. Water guns are generally cheaper during the winter. Larger CPS water guns are cost about 50 to 100% more during the summer. Buying water guns in the winter makes sense then to save money and buy more guns. Perhaps some smart people could buy water guns in the winter to sell them in the summer.