Can someone explain the logic behind this eBay sale?

[Prof]

The second listing put Babe Ruth in the title. More eyeballs. Simple as that.



Last year, I missed out on an album of cards for about $230 that was just called 'trading cards.' It had some 1940s sports and non-sports in there. I was watching it, but wasn't around when the auction ended.

The buyer clearly only wanted the non-sports cards, because a few months later, they went for sale again from the original owner... but, just the sports cards this time.

One star card was sold solo and the others as a group. All were labeled better, and went for $900 total. (I didn't buy them.)


I was mad at myself for that one.


Bottom line, search engines need to be able to find the cards.

[53toppscollector]

I can also say that in just the last few weeks, I have missed my chance to bid on an item I wanted because I had the tab open, I was watching the item, and with a few minutes left, I got distracted and didn't have a chance to bid.

For example, I had this item open yesterday, ready to bid $200 with 3 seconds left, got a phone call, and by the time I clicked back onto the tab, the bidding had ended. Big time sad.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/204074001665

as with everything in life, timing is (mostly) everything

[ngrow9]

Originally Posted by 53toppscollector

I can also say that in just the last few weeks, I have missed my chance to bid on an item I wanted because I had the tab open, I was watching the item, and with a few minutes left, I got distracted and didn't have a chance to bid.

For example, I had this item open yesterday, ready to bid $200 with 3 seconds left, got a phone call, and by the time I clicked back onto the tab, the bidding had ended. Big time sad.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/204074001665

as with everything in life, timing is (mostly) everything

You've got to use http://gixen.com

[obiwan1129]

I've missed out on a few things myself. Keyword searches are an art form. When I was working on my orbit gum pin run, I played around with all kinds of variations on Saved Searches in Ebay.

Let's say I wanted Gabby Hartnett's pin. Many sources online show the pins as 1932-1934 Orbit Gum. There is of course the numbered PR2 versions, some of which are skip numbered and the unnumbered PR3. Gabby is only in the PR3 set. Here are some of the various keyword combinations I used:

1932 Orbit Gum PR3 Hartnett
1932-1934 Orbit Gum PR3 Hartnett
Orbit PR3 Harnett
Orbit Hartnett (This tended to include the Tatoo Orbit cards)
Orbit Gum Hartnett
Hartnett pin (Lots of extraneous hits)

I may have even used Hartnet with 1 T, can't remember now. The day it finally hit, I had 2-3 emails from Ebay that morning. When I saw the Inbox I knew it was listed and jumped in.

Bottom line, you have no control over how people will list it. I constantly find errors in listings for cards, wrong years, etc. If it's really something you're looking for, play around with the search terms.