wish i could afford a nice pushchair..

[WelshCat]

im so jealous of you all with your phil and teds and bugaboos etc!

i have a second hand mothercare xtreme which is held together with garden wire. DS is 19 months old and he isnt walking yet so i know i need another years worth of pushchair but i dont know what one to buy and im poor!

i was hoping to get him a new one, like brand new. but i bidded for a graco citi on ebay then read reviews saying it was pooooop so bailed on buying it (not good i know)

but i want a 3 wheeler with decent suspension coz the one i have now has lovely air filled tyres and it soo nice to push, its just broke. and it seems silly buying one just the same.

so what do it do? hold up a pram shop?

Car boot?

I sold by Quinny at one a couple of years ago

Free cycle?

look on ebay/ freecycle?

I got a 6 month old quinny speedi travel system with maxi cosi car seat off eBay for £62 !! Bargain of the century haha

newtothisstuff what thats soooo cheap!

i didnt think of freecycle, and ebay is so vast that without knowing which one i want it takes hours of trawling!

Gumtree is worth checking out, there are loads of pushchairs on my local one.

oh cool ok ill look now, im just registering on freecycle!

I bought a mamas and papas ultima travel system off eBay a couple of months ago for £51!!!!

The system itself is only 11 months old,still current model for sale in shop and best bit was car seat still has tags and wraps on and has never been used.

£850 quids worth of travel system for £51!! I'm well pleased with it!!!

I then sold my old Britax ultra travel system for £50 on eBay so in effect paid £1 for my new one.

I know this prob sounds very smug of me but there are definitely bargains to be had on eBay and the like.

My tips??

Watch listings that end in the middle of the night or very early hours of the morning, don't bid on them, just watch them and if it's something you really want, set an alarm and get up to bid on it, sounds crazy but it works!!

Also, never ever bid a "whole number" - always bid an obscure amount such as £51.23 etc, you are definitely more likely to win an auction as the extra few pence can seal it for you!! A lot of people are also very anal about placing bids for anything other than whole pounds!!!

Finally, know what you are prepared to pay at the very outside and enter that amount as your one and only bid in the last few minutes of the auction. If it goes above, somebody got there first and it wasn't meant to be, but believe me I've had a lot more success buying stuff this way than bidding pound by pound and "fighting" with one other bidder!!!

I have tips for selling too, but thats a whole new thread!!!

HTH XX

thanks for the tips!

im not very good at winning things on ebay, i just chuck in a max bid quite early and always lose!

freecycle is not working for me i cant get on the listings so im gonna keep scouring gumtree and ebay :)

only question is now, what pushchair do i get?

Freecycle is a pain IIRC you have to wait to be approved by a board manager ( are they like keyboard warriors I wonder??)!!

Gumtree is same parent company as eBay, so I do just tend to stuck with eBay, but also, have you looked at any of your local carboots?? I know you have to be careful with car seats, but pushchairs are fine and if they're a bit grubby, most of them have removable covers so strip it and bung em thru the washer!!!!

As for which one to get???? The pushchair world is your oyster!!!! I've gone for a pram which will double as a Moses basket downstairs but also has a pushchair seat which fits in same base and the car seat clips to it too, so it really will grow with LO from birth until I don't need it no more!!!

Good luck!!!!

I want a maxi cosi mura! ooh its so sexy!

lol i know freecycle is a nightmare it wont let me on!

i only need a buggy from 19 months to 3 years so im freeee to chose, lol im so excited now ill be on ebay all night!

GUMTREE!
What's your budget and general area? Can you travel to pick things up?
Seriously, look at these BARGAINS:
Bugaboo frog, £125, Edinburgh
Now that might be way out of budget/area, but wow :).
3 wheeler air filled tyres you say...
Quinny, the oldstyle Speedi? I think, not very sure. I THINK this might have a fixed front wheel...£30
Mothercare Urban Detour, £20
There are definitely bargains out there, you just have to look and sometimes be patient.
Maxi Cosi Mura 4, £75

Ebay. Most of mine have come from ebay or charity shops etc.

You can get some very nice things on ebay for not much money....my Bugaboo was from there, about £100. I went for an old model (Frog) because I like it better anyway but basically it's cheaper. People want the newest stuff and the older things, even if they're really nice, go for far less.

Big wheels is good with an older/heavier child. Far easier than a Maclaren or whatever. Look out for Urban Detour style ones, Quinny Freestyle, that sort of thing. Search by distance to you so you can collect and not pay postage.

Babylon's tips are exactly how I got my nearly new P&T Sport with all the accessories for £100 ish. It ended at 11.45pm and I stayed up especially to watch it, there were no bids for the last half hour. It was also just after the Sport had been superceeded by the Explorer, so Sport was 'old' and less desirable than new model Explorer.

It is also the time of year for NCT nearly new sales. You don't need to be a member to go, and there are great bargains to be had.

snapesonaplane i didnt think of looking outside my area, loool. the mura is probably gone now but she even says on the add courier is fine! silly me!

and yeah big air ish wheels is my plan, im a little in love with the mura but it looks kinda short in the seat so i dunno if a bigger baby would be able to sit up with the hood up.. also i didnt think of looking for older models! im so dumb...

whats an NCT nearly new sale?

also Flightty is the frog good? im looking at it now!

oh i would be gutted for the seller if I got something for £50 that was worth 800 odd. I dont think I could cope with that! Id have to offer them more.

The frog is ace, might be short in headroom for an older toddler...also it's not as sturdy as some prams. Three wheeler all in one, without detachable seat unit, is stronger bet. I like the frog for little ones.

oh, ok so i wont get a frog then! grr the maxi cosi mura is prob too small aswell.

any ideas on good pushchairs for toddlers?

The eBay tips are good, but don't wake up just to bid on a pushchair, use a sniper such as goofbay.com which will bid for you and you can specify how many seconds before the end you'd like it to bid. I do it at 3 seconds to go.

I wouldn't be too fussed about looking on Freecycle. You need to be refreshing the page all day and then there will be loads of competition for anything half decent so you're unlikely to get something that way.

Do your research, ask us for suggestions and you can then search the usual sites: eBay, Gumtree, Preloved, Pushchair Trader and local pushchair sellng groups on Facebook.

cool. ok well im searching gumtree, and ebay. but i dont know what pushchair would be good now.

thats the only problem, you dont get to see them or push them before buying. i love my urban detour but its too fricking big!

If you think the UD is big then you'll probably think the Mura is too big as well. Look here for photos, details and a review of the Mura3. If you clck on the green reviews and information tab at the top then you'll see photos of children in the seat.

oooh ok cool thanks. any suggestions then anyone??

hmm, the 17 month old looked too big for the mura!

I have the Mura it's great and not too small at all. My DD is 19 mo and theres loads more room. My NDN's DD is almost 3 and she has been using my Mura as she has just got a dog and her DD can't manage the whole walk and she sold all of her pushchairs.

The only downside - and it may not be relevant is that is fold in two parts, you have to take the seat off so not good if you use a bus, but it dismantles v. quickly and down quite small so no problem in a car.

I have debated selling mine (I'm not yet sorry), and have watched a few on ebay and they go for a snip (hence I'm not selling mine yet!), so if you do want one keep an eye out [busmile]

I'm struggling to type here with a wriggly toddler climbing all over me or else I'd be more helpful!

What do you want from your pushchair? Where do you go/live? Are you especially tall or short? Do you need it to go in a car? If so, how big is your car? How much can you afford? Do you need any accessories eg footmuff? Do you fold your pushchair regularly? Does it need to freestand in your hall or similar? Do you need a one hand push or one hand fold? I'm assuming you want parent facing and you've already said you like air tyres.