EBAY queries?

[epic610]

i have found ebay to be often overly-intuitive in trying to find certain items. what categories and what phraseology is best for searching out different kinds of hats? in other words, how do you go about searching for vintage hats and making sure you uncover everything on the system?

 

[John in Covina]

The E-Bay Puzzle

E-Bay and Searches

This is an interesting topic because it exposes the weak link in E-Bay, the seller. It is not uncommon for a seller to have absolutely no idea what they are selling and I am not talking hats here. Recently In a search for some item I come across East German ?¢‚Ǩ?ìCome-A-Long?¢‚Ǩ? a chain with holders that operates similar to a handcuff. It was described as a tie holder! The inability of a percentage of sellers to correctly or adequately list the item they are selling makes the search harder but can provide opportunities for the diligent searcher.

Now they thing is you have to break your search down to certain elements and then look at each element. Many people don?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t know what a fedora is and the proof is to search for ?¢‚Ǩ?ìfedora?¢‚Ǩ? and look at the hats that come up, Homburgs, Straw Boaters, and the occasional cowboy hat. If you punch in ?¢‚Ǩ?ìfedora?¢‚Ǩ? and have the search for ?¢‚Ǩ?ìall categories?¢‚Ǩ? all sorts of stuff will come up from computer programs to perfumes and all sorts in between. E-bay provides secondary filters that will winnow it down to only ?¢‚Ǩ?ìclothing?¢‚Ǩ? or only ?¢‚Ǩ?ìmen?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s?¢‚Ǩ? or only ?¢‚Ǩ?ìvintage.?¢‚Ǩ? You may select these but if you?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢re in a hairy pursuit of a specific item it is good to search each category even though there will be stuff you?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢re not looking for in the resulting list.

Terminology matters, say you are looking for a Dobbs Hat Box, searching those three words together will invariably result in a list of Dobbs hat Boxes. However, some people will not know or remember that a hat box is a hat box and may call it a container of some sort. If you can come up with common alternate descriptions you should try those. Also you could try putting in Dobbs or Dobbs Hat and weeding thru the list. Also some people are selling the hat and box together, if the hat is total crap, the price may remain low and you could buy the combo simply for the box you needed. So there are filters to help you, but you have to do the due diligence for an intelligent search. Sometimes you need to go thru a big selection like Hat, because you never know when someone has tied selling a great hat they know nothing about to some other bizarre item.

When ever something is made idiot proof, we seem to rise to the challenge and find better idiots and the E-bay listings are proof. So now we all know that good clear pictures with as much detail is a good thing and a good description is a boon to searches, but when these two are not quite up to snuff, it can provide opportunity for the astute. Let?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s say you on a hunt for something and you find a listing, poorly worded with a fuzzy picture. You?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢ve poured over the picture like a bomb run expect back at HQ. You realize that what the seller has is a legendary Manicotti Brand Fedora in that Burnt Sienna color with Bunrt Umber ribbon. Now come the challenge, is the listing poor because the seller doesn?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t know what he has, or has the seller cleverly disguised his poor condition hat in an attempt to portray the listing as the work of an incompetent or inexperience seller? If incompetent you may have an opportunity since the regular crew of buyers may not realize the items potential and pass it up. So now comes the gamble, but in a situation like this calls for a lowball price, not to get too high without better information.

Happy Hunting!

 

[fedoralover]

Search words:

Borsalino
Stetson
Dobbs
Resistol
Cavanagh hat
Cavanaugh hat
Knox
mallory hat
biltmore hat
Adam hat
Adams hat
Fedora
men's hat
mens hat
mans hat
man's hat
vintage hat
vintage felt hat
beaver hat
Panama hat
Champ hat
Lee hat

probably a few others but that should cover most of them

fedoralover

 

[Twitch]

Yeah, after the initial "fedora" key word the "vintage" can be followed but I've found same as others here that ads of vintage hats or items do not show up using "vintage" coupled with any other word in a search. You may just have to wade throught 917 "fedora" items to be sure.

 

[PutALidOnIt]

I generally use the boolean modifiers to narrow the search, e.g. exclude what I am not looking for. Example - I want to see Stetson hats (not perfume or other cosmetic stuff), and I don't want cowboy hats or western hats (even though using "-western" may eliminate some Open Roads or Stratoliners to the oblivious eBay seller) so my search looks like this...
stetson hat, -cowboy, -western
The worst one is if you want to find a Disney!!! Here's my search for a Disney fedora...
disney hat -mickey, -minnie, -goofy, -christmas, -pooh, -princess, -girls, -boys, -new, -pin, -pins, -dog, -cat, -walt, -lion, -tinkerbell, -eeyore, - tigger, -kids
I continue to add excluding modifiers, but you get the idea.

Once you see a recurring title word that you know you don't want, you can really trim the listings down to a more searchable size.

 

[John in Covina]

Removal modifiers

This is a good post. It is one thing I rarely do but it can elimate alot of what you're not looking for in the listings. When I am going thru ebay I may put in for Parker Pens and list pencil as a removal term. Works well, keeps those nasty mechanical pencils off the list.

John in Covina

 

[zeus36]

When looking for Fedoras, I always remove the word "Linux" from the search. Also "leather" and "wool" are removed.

 

[Solid Citizen]

Finding the good stuff on Ebay isn't the problem escalating prices $$$ & bidding to win @ these new price levels is. Peter :rage:

 

[PutALidOnIt]

Escalating prices

You're right, Solid, but I think that it is the nature of the "collectible" beast.

I collect (read 'accumulate') guitars and amps. A few years ago, a mid-'60's Fender Telecaster or Deluxe Reverb Amp could be had for about $300 apiece. With the number of collectors increasing, and the advent of eBay, the Telecaster is in the $4K to $8K territory, while the amp is at about $2K to $3K!

A more classic example is a bit of an anecdote; I was killing a lunch hour at an upscale reseller in Palm Beach about 12 years ago and I overheard a well-heeled fellow dickering with the salesman over the price of a nice '55 gullwing Mercedes. The cutomer couldn't get him to come down from the $100K price! I'm not one of such means, but I don't think you could touch a gullwing or even a 300SL roadster for under $300K now...

If it's a classic, the price will go up! Maybe those '60's stingy brims at $20 will end up being a good investment in 10 years...