In this solo video, Laurence Edwards shares his recent eBay find—a lot of 50 used 5‑frame Langstroth nuc boxes—for £600 (£12 each). He walks viewers through each part of a nuc—galvanized roof, pine boards, ventilated screen, pre‑wired frames (some with foundation), frame feeders, detachable box with galvanized runners, solid wooden floor and entrance hole—estimating the retail value of each component (e.g., roofs ~£5‑£6, pine board ~£0.50‑£1, frames ~£5 total, feeders ~£5‑£6, box ~£10‑£15). He highlights the appeal of buying used wooden equipment, notes the old wood smell, and points out minor defects like a damaged screen. Edwards warns about typical eBay risks: unknown condition, missing foundation, and shipping challenges, especially in North Wales. He mentions the seller’s large inventory of used and new Langstroth gear and offers to connect interested viewers with the seller. The video ends with the cost reveal, a call for viewers to share their own beekeeping bargains, and a teaser for another cheap‑hive tutorial.
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What is your best bargain beekeeping find? In this video, I'm going to show you mine. So we all love browsing through eBay. We want to find bargains. We want things cheaper than they are on the recommended retail price. And when you overlay that with beekeeping, it's fiercely competitive, and there is so much junk on eBay. But I know pretty much Every single person watching this video will have gone onto eBay browsing for cheap beekeeping deals. I think I snagged a pretty decent one this year. In this video, I'm gonna show you what I ordered from eBay, tell you how much it cost, and I'll tell you why I think it's a really good deal. I'm also gonna throw you a bit of a bone as well. So if you're in the UK, hold on till the end of this video, 'cause I'm gonna point you in the direction of an amazing deal on eBay. Right, this is my super bargain eBay deal. Did I just go and buy a single nuc? No. Did I go and buy a National nuc? No. I went and bought 50 Langstroth nucs. So I'll show you through this nuc top to bottom, all of the components, and then I'll let you know how much it cost me at the end of the video. Right, so here are the wooden nucs that I bought. You can see they're used, but I don't mind buying used equipment as long as it's wood and as long as it's been looked after well. You can see though it's very basic construction, and there's a few really interesting things about this nuc. One, the construction is very, very simple. 2, the smell of the wood is incredibly old. It's really, really old wood. And then the final one is it's got these nifty little clips that I'm already cursing because they are an absolute nightmare. But looking at it straight from the top, we've got a brand new galvanized folded roof. How much do you think one of those is going to set you back on their own? I reckon new you're talking maybe £5. Something like that, probably a little bit more actually from some of the manufacturers. That just slots off like that. Really glad that just slots off because it means it's a little bit easier to manage. And then we've got a flat piece of pine. So everything here is made of pine. You can see that it's used, got a little bit of damage here but no rot whatsoever. So you've got a pine board there. In today's prices, that's probably worth kind of 50p or a pound just on its own. A nice thick 15mm piece of plyboard. You take off your plyboard and you've got a really well looked after and quite well made ventilated screen on the top. So this is galvanized mesh again. It's ply, just needs a little bit of sanding down, maybe re-oiling, or maybe I'll paint these up. This bit here I wouldn't worry about. That's probably the worst out of the whole batch, and it's not rot. You can see it's rock solid there. Just a bit of a manufacturing defect, or it's taken a bit of a knock. But you can see there pretty nice ventilation board. You've got a lapped joint there, so happy that it's reasonably well made. And then it's just nailed on, so I might need to strengthen these up a little bit, but for my purpose they're absolutely fine. In terms of buying one of those new from a manufacturer, you're probably talking between £5 and £6 just for one of these. Okay, maybe they're made a little bit better than this, but this is fine and it saves me having to make it up. And then this was the deal breaker for me here. I've got all of the frames in place already. So of course there's a disease risk, but I've got pre-wired frames, and some of the boxes, not that many, actually contain a little bit of foundation in them as well. Really happy with that. You look at the frames, the frames are in good nick. They're really well wired together as well. They just need a little bit of tightening and they are good to go. You try buying assembled pre-wired frames, and as an absolute minimum, you're looking at about £1 each. So 5 frames there, that's about £5. And then on some of these as well, I've got a frame feeder inside as well. You look for a Langstroth frame feeder and you're talking between £5 and £6. Some of the frame feeders I've got have seen better days, but with this whole batch, I've got enough for every single nuc to have a frame feeder, 'cause I do need a way to feed them. So then onto the box then. I've got a fully detachable 5-frame Langstroth box. Really nice that that comes off there, not secured onto the bottom. Again, I've got nailed and lapped joints. Happy with that. No rot on it at all. Good thickness of pine there, nearly up to an inch thickness, so really good quality wood. No rot whatsoever. And then inside I've got stapled-on galvanized runners to give you the correct top bee space for a Langstroth. Everything's looking good so far. If I had to estimate how much I think that box there would cost, you're probably talking over £10. Maybe more than that, maybe £15 for a box like that. You can see how the costs are stacking up already. And then at the bottom, I've got a really nice solid floor, and it's not made with ply either. So the floor is completely solid, made with solid wood. Over on this side here, I've got a little hole for an entrance. You can plug that up just with a cork if you need to move it. Overall though, I am so, so happy with what I've got here. So there you go, that's my bargain beekeeping box. Really good find on eBay. How much do you think it cost? I'll let you know at the end of the video. Just a few warnings before we get there though. Some of the stuff you get secondhand on eBay is absolute rubbish. It really is. The tat that I see being sold, you're always at risk of something coming that isn't what you expected. Even with these ones here, it said some of the frames have foundation in, some of the frames don't have foundation in. I've gone through most of them now and most of the frames don't have foundation in. I'm taking that risk on, as you always do on eBay. You're always taking the risk, and you never know what's coming until it turns up on your door. The other problem that I have on eBay, and you'll definitely get this in the US as well, is that I struggle in North Wales because everybody is so far away, and generally people aren't willing to send stuff. Luckily, this auction here, they were willing to send it. We agreed it in advance, and they palletized it all up and sent it to me on a really speedy delivery. Now, before we get to that final bit at the end where I tell you how much it cost, I'm going to throw you a bone because this seller has got a lot of equipment left over. And when I say a lot of equipment, I'm talking in the region of thousands of boxes is what he originally had. It's Langstroth equipment, it's used equipment, but you can see here it's good quality used equipment and it is going for an absolute bargain price. And he's also got stacks and stacks of new equipment as well. Don't ask me how he got hold of it, I do not know the backstory, But I've seen the list. They've seen it on the beekeeping forum. Lots of people have got bargains here, and I know there's a lot of bargains left to be had. So if you're interested in this equipment here, drop me a comment underneath. I'm not going to put the guy's contact details up because this video could go on for years. I don't want him getting peppered with calls three years down the line. Contact me if it's still available. I'll put you in contact with him. Right, finally, how much did I pay for my batch of nucs? I bought 50 nucs plus a few little extras. But for the purpose of this video, I paid £600 for 50 nucs. How good is that? It's £12 per nuc, and it's got the frames included, and some feeders included, and some foundation included. Really good, top-quality used equipment, all wooden so I can scorch it, eliminate that disease risk, and I've paid £12 per nucleus. There are lots of bargains to be had out there. Definitely get looking. Stick it in the comments below. What's your best beekeeping bargain? And if you're the kind of person that likes to save money, do things on the cheap, check out this video here on how to set up a bait hive for under £2.
