Ebay crap!

Thanks Don, that's a good tip. However, there are so many different user IDs selling complete generic crap that I can't even begin to make the search results useful. In other words, if it was just a few IDs that auto-list a bunch of generic junk then that would be beneficial (other than I have to take time out of my day to exclude their crap) - what if it's a matter of 10's or 100's of such ID?

Related, I noticed that the commercial posters are now invading craigslist too. Thankfully, it's not yet as bad as ebay where the commercial sellers are essentially putting their entire online catelog on ebay with a separate listing for each and every darn piece and part. For god's sake, if I wanted to buy retail, and pay retail prices, I'd just go to your website - a simple Google search will send me right there, so take your crap off ebay and go somewhere else.

Why is it when there's something good and decent, some commercial marketer has to go abuse it to pitch their own crap???

OK, I'm done complaining.

 

Actually, I've got probably half a dozen entries on my excluded sellers list now, and it's OK. Every now & then I have to add another, but then I'm happy for the following week!

 

I just got a 4.5" "Ferrari" horse emblem.....which is clearly a casting made from a 4.5" ferrari horse emblem and not even polished before plating givign it an uneven matte finish. Absolute crap.

 

For years I have used a custom saved search on eBay to eliminate the common small annoying items that pop up like matchbox cars, key chains, etc. I never thought to include a list of annoying sellers. I will add that to my custom search.

I have to admit, that it annoys the hell out of me to see people selling absolute crap, like photocopies of road tests from the '70s and CDs of pdf stuff. But on the other hand, I have occasionally found something awesome for a good price. I got a complete set of QV wheels for a reasonable price a few years ago, a new clock for the car in better shape than the one in my car, etc. So like Verell says, it's a big flea market and you have to sift through the crap to find the gems. On the plus side, all the crap makes the gems harder to find which means fewer people will find them...so maybe once you find that gem, fewer people are bidding on it.

Birdman

 

+2

I've been using targeted saved searches for years, but hadn't picked up on the seller exclusion feature!

Longest running search is for a Ferrari Picnic basket set that I saw in Ferrari of Dallas 8 years ago & didn't have $250 at the time(sigh). Had no idea they were so rare!

 

Slick; thx for the tip. Ebay really hid this one.

 

Nifty; had no idea would could 'negativ-ize' a search.

 

I've been doing this for years as well. Problem is, sellers come & go. Descriptions come & go. And the exclusion line is only so long (even using -(x,y,z) +(Ferrari,308). )

And every once in a while, I clean out the search. -Schumacher -helmut -trico mercifully disappear after an extended run.

And you always run the risk of missing a gem by running the same queries over & over. Oh well.