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Mad I feel like griping. Must be PMS. But what really fries my craw (is that some sort of fish?) is when sellers put all sorts of words in the description that have nothing to do with the item so that when you do a general search for something you get all kinds of smutz! ALSO when the listing has so many misspellings that the item couldn't come up on any search! And I really like to see a picture of the item, even if it's a book. If they can insert all sorts of graphics and other falderall, can't they insert a picture too? Gosh, I've used up my dictionary resources for today. Now I can go back to real words. Big Grin
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Well, Moosemaniac, I must say that you did invent a few new words in that outburst. Smile But at least you know what you're talking about. The sellers you describe are numerous and couldn't spell their way out of a kindergarten class. Anyhow, I think part of the solution to your problem is to refine your search so that you are looking for as few words as possible. My two main search patterns are for one word (e.g., author's surname) only and the rest of the search pattern is composed of exclusions. This cuts things down to a manageable size, particularly if you search for exactly the same thing every day and select "newly listed items first." I wind up spending 15-20 minutes per day searching and I've found that I can often come up with things other collectors in my field overlook -- without the garbage "catchwords" that some sellers put in their ads to draw more viewers. Try it!
Well, heck Adam, you are such a tease! Just what kind of monster sniper support are you to do such an unkind thing to us?

Now I do use only one or two words in my search, but when I look for landscape professional and the seller spells it lanscape perfessional I just can't find the darned auction.
Moosemaniac, you wrote "Now I do use only one or two words in my search, but when I look for landscape professional and the seller spells it lanscape perfessional I just can't find the darned auction."

I can see one problem right away. You're searching for complete words. Did you know you can substitute an asterisk (*) for a group of letters? For example, you could search for lan* pro* and that would pick up "landscape professionals." But try cutting your search down to just lan* and see what you get. I think you could narrow your results down further by using excluders that are based on things you don't want that appear as a result of your search.

Tell ya what -- I'm going over to eBay right now and see whether I can formulate something that'll work for you. Watch this space for further developments. Cool
I didn't know you could do that in a search function. That'll sure come in handy.

Moose, I can't stand the mispellings either. I understand that not everyone is a spelling bee champion, but criminy. Another one that bugs me are the sellers that will copy/paste text off of a website or document regarding their item, easily 750+ characters... allruntogethersentences in some cases... you can hardly dig through the text without falling asleep on the keyboard.

Well anyway, rants are cathartic.
Moosemaniac and Lisa:

Moosemaniac, I spent a half-hour on eBay trying various search patterns for "landscape professional." My best results, which weren't too bad considering that in the best of times that word combination isn't gonna turn up on eBay very often, were attained by searching for "landscape" and screening out the obvious connection to fine art by using excluders such as "art, artist, oil, painting, frame" and so forth. I came up with a manageable number of hits, and using the preference "Newly listed items first" made it downright easy.

Lisa, remember that the asterisk has to be at the end of the letter combination you're searching for. Example: "*scape" won't get you "landscape". Also, the asterisk approach doesn't seem to work with excluder words.
I repeat, 'by using excluders such as "art, artist, oil, painting, frame" and so forth.' You do know how to exclude certain words or terms from your searches, don't you? You type them, with a space in between each one, in the window that appears directly below the "Search for" window.
I'll skip talking about bad spellers as I am dyslexic and I can't type either. (The year I took typing in high school I was also on the vollyball team and had 4 broken fingers in that year. My typing teacher call me a "mercy case" when she passed me.)

Anyway Moose, to make your life easier you can put a minus sign in front of a word in that little box.

ie: "lanscape professional -art -oil -painting"

Air

Having said the above I ALWAYS check my spelling when I sell on ebay. When I post on a board well...
Naked cats on ebay? Oh my!!! I collect cat figurines and always see listings by boo-boo's who can't spell, for stripped cats. STRIPED cats, folks! Typos are one thing but this is ridiculous! Poor spelling is a major pet peeve of mine. Ebay should include a spell-checker when you list an auction. What these sellers do not realize, other than how dumb they look, is that their listing will not show up on searches and they will not get the maximum exposure for their products.
... I often do searches with intentional mispellings and every once in a while, something shows up - minus bids - unless someone is scanning those extensive listings and is finding items that way. I got a brand new Corelle 20 pc. set in my pattern for only $9.99 because the seller grossly mispelled the pattern name and nobody found it. Yet this same pattern, when spelled correctly, draws crazed bidders each time something goes out there. I was thrilled, I think the seller was somewhat disappointed though."
and find auctions that are essentially "hidden" to anyone who is only searching on the correct spelling.

I have a bigger peeve with people who insert phrases or metatags that have NOTHING to do with what I am looking for -- they just do it to get their auctions pulled up. The worst offenders are those idiot "ebay hates this CD" crap bunch--I add -cd on all my searches (that means if cd is included skip it)--it works great unless I actually need to search for a CD type product. One thing I like is a clothing line for baby girls called Baby Lulu. I can't tell you the number of auctions that include "reminds me of Baby Lulu" or "just like baby lulu" (and trust me, they never even vaguely RESEMBLE baby lulu) just so their auctions get viewed.

There seems to be more and more bozo's on ebay lately. Everyone's NPB lists seem to be growing. sigh. Mad
Personally, I use the misspellings to my advantage, also.

However, some people describe their items in the most nonsensical ways. Razz F.Ex.: In an auction, of a pin depicting a tern (seabird):
I don't know what kind of bird it is, but it is either a chimney sweep or a kittyhawk.

So it's either Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins or the Wright Brothers? Big Grin She just HAD to say what it was, even though neither of her possibilities have ever been birds!

Astrid
Well, miss...priss, they say that one good tern deserves another. Wink I'm a book collector, and one of my pet peeves is that some sellers will proclaim an edition to be "early" or even a "first edition" when it was published 40 years after the author's death, and written nearly 40 years before that. As you say, if the seller doesn't know, he or she has no business making statements like that. They don't fool me, but I wonder how many new collectors are gullible enough to believe the incorrect description and buy something that isn't what it was advertised to be.
I am an English major and if there is one thing I cannot stand it is misspellings! When I read they jump out of the page and slap me in the face (it feels that way anyway)....and let's not get into the misused apostrophes....(ladie's, 2 shirt's in this lot, etc).

Shall I began my rant on puctuation (or lack of it)?

Then again, writing (and I mean putting words together, not necessarily pen and paper) is a dying art. Soon we'll all be drawing elaborate depictions of us thowing spears at buffalo on our cave walls...

Oh Well.
Pardon me, Rickdogg, but "tons of errors?"

As I proofread my posting (again), I found a total of one "error", which I inserted deliberately to make a point. I doubt you could find even that one!

And to say that my posting had "tons of errors" is impossible. It's only a couple of short paragraphs.

If I must explain, when I began my rant on puncuation, I was referring to those folks who write like this:

"this is a great item i had it for more than 2 years but my mom told me to get rid of it and i figure its better to sell it to a fellow ebayer than end up in the trash it has great features they all work fine i ship ups only dont ask to combine shipping pay within 7 days or negative feedback will be posted have a great day tony"

Am I offended? If you couldn't tell, yes.

By the way, Rickdogg, when you write, "... big-bus-fans post has tons...," you have to put an apostrophe after big-bus-fan and before the "s". The "s" indicates posession.

Have a pleasant day. Wink

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