eBay listings rant

[69sprite]

Gang, Question time.

Do you all find it as irritating as I do when(ok, IF) you go out to eBay and search on 'Austin Healey Sprite' just to see if someone listed some whiz-bang that desperately need or you can't live without out only to find that the majority of listing are trinkets and trash items that someone slapped an AH/Austin Healey/etc badge on or that they are listing of things that that someone has a belief that it is total 'unobtainium' and they want some amount equal to the GNP of some European countries?

Maybe I have a bad skew on things, but some examples of this are the myriad of key chains, photos, rain panchos, tee-shirts, etc (for trinkets and trash)...and then something like the guy that has a bug-eye front end that needs work and is asking $2k, or the guy with a Judson supercharger asking almost $2K...and then there is the guy that has a nice looking Bugeye that he just restored... really nice car, but are BEs really worth $23K over the internet?

Thanks for listening...and please feel free to help reset any bad skewed viewpoint I have mentioned here...

Larry

 

[mightymidget]

many times I have wished for reverse filters or vendor blocks on eBay.
same crap on cable TV, gotta go through the stink to find the good. I guess this is why we enjoy this hobby so much.....all the stress.

 

[nomad]

Nice to know this is bothersome to others besides me! Ebay ain't what it used to be and I'm sure it is hurting sales there. Try typing in Lotus Elan and see what you get. Maybe half a page of items that actually pertain to the car out of over 5000 items listed! Ebay dosen't care cause They can hype to their stock holders how many listings they have and besides that they have no competition.
Recently sold a car there and when I had a problem my live help was from a country with english I couldn't understand. In the past I got helpful US citizens.

Kurt.

 

[Boink]

Still, it's amusing to see something with some sort of mega-reserve offered, oh, say, $500 and go unsold. Feelers is feelers, and I ignore them.

 

[dklawson]

Just like you, I find the myriad of "junk" that shows up in my eBay searches annoying. If you were not aware of it, you can put mandatory and exclusionary words in your search to filter some of that stuff out.

For example, maybe you want to search for Austin-Healey but you do NOT want to see 2000 listings for T-shirts, watches, hats, etc. You can create a search string like...
+"Austin" +"Healey" -"watch" -"shirt" -"hat"
That string will only produce hits for items including the words Austin & Healey
and will exclude items with the words watch, shirt, & hat.
+" " means the text between the quotes has to be in the listing
-" " means the text between the quotes cannot be in the listing

It's cumbersome but it does work. I often find I create a search string with so may exclusionary terms that it scrolls out of the text box. It's a pain but it is helpful in dropping that original "5000" item list down to a manageable "1500" or so.

 

[Whitephrog]

My saved search looks like this.

(sprite, frogeye, bugeye, "MG Midget", "Frog eye") -MB -haynes -levin -pokemon -elf -fairy -yugioh -soda -coke -cola -sea -shower

Gets rid of most the bull.

 

[69sprite]

Thanks guys for making me feel as if I am not being too unreasonable in my view on things...

Someday, maybe I will invent a DWIM search mechanism for websites. I thought about inventing a DWIM processor for computers and software all those years I worked for Big Blue....

(for those that don't know DWIM..... stands for "Do What I Mean"). If we had those, we wouldn't make all those errors that occur, then if I just search on Austin Healey Sprite... it would be intelligent enough to only go out and find the actual part or item I am looking and forget about everything else that tempts and distracts me from my primary goal!

Larry

 

[BillW103]

When I started my car 3 years ago A serch for Austin Healey Sprite brought up 20 to 25 pages. Now you get 50 pages with fewer usable parts.

 

[Guest]

Oh Larry do I feel your pain. I can't stand it!

 

[Silverghost]

One thing I've done when doing a search like that is clicking on the sort box and clicking highest priced first. That tends to reorder the results to put the trinkets at the bottom of the list. It is a flawed way, but it works, sort of.....

 

[HealeyRick]

Yep, this is truly outrageous. Instead of going to tons of flea markets looking for what you want, or talking to bunches of buddies, or answering blind ads in the local newspaper or penny saver, you'll have to make a couple of extra mouse clicks to find what you want.

 

[Guest]

One thing I've done when doing a search like that is clicking on the sort box and clicking highest priced first. That tends to reorder the results to put the trinkets at the bottom of the list. It is a flawed way, but it works, sort of.....

So smart and such good easy idea there is no way possible I would have thought of it.

 

[RaserX]

Hey....! I sell thousands of midget shirts and key chains on eBay all the time..... Lol.

No wait, I mean I scroll through thousands of shirts and key chain adds... JK
It really is annoying.

 

[OopsClunkThud]

Beter that than action figures and running shoes for $1200

 

[Boink]

I saw a Bugeye currently posted and bragged about it not having any Chinese parts. What, no Rucas erecticals?

 

[Guest]

I saw a Bugeye currently posted and bragged about it not having any Chinese parts. What, no Rucas erecticals?

:lol:

 

[jlaird]

Must be all orginal.