Help Searching (And Selling) On Ebay

This thread is for everyone to add bits of helpful advice on searching and finding stamps and stuff on ebay. And perhaps to aid sellers in seeing what we search for too.

(Note: BidStart, DelCampe, Wensy and other sites use slightly different search engines so will be somewhat different.)

To start, I had mentioned in another thread that for searching worldwide on ebay the language barrier is sometimes a factor to be considered. You don't necessarily need to know the whole other language, although it does help when communicating with the seller (or buyer), to search for specific countries or items.

Example 'Canada' is (mostly) Canada around the world but on ebay.de (Deutschland or Germany) or German speaking people using ebay.com, it is Kanada.

Khj mentioned that it was in 'spelled' in ideograhs in Asian languages though. See this thread: https://www.stampcommunity.org/topi...D=7747#65393

Sometimes easy, sometimes more difficult.

Or if you enjoy cat and kitten stamps then cat is chat in French.

Or Japan in English is Japon in French on ebay.fr (France) or French Canadian also I think.

I am not much of a language expert but have only picked up some words here and there (and am constantly on the look out for new ones) that help me search for and find stamps on ebay around the world.

As you become more specialized in certain areas this is almost a necessity. Also it is a good trick to use while selling as if, for example, a Japanese fellow who didn't want to sell to Japan because he felt he could get a better price from English speaking North Americans (sometimes) sold in English on ebay.com, then a fellow in France buys from him (competing with me, darn it) , won, and later sold the items on ebay.fr (France) under the French name, because most people in France would not search for the English spelling.

That is just one way to use or a hint about the search feature.

And you can save your search terms for up to one year before you need to renew it.

(edit to correct ounctuation mistakes)

I find using Google translate to be useful for single words or a series of words. Then copy paste into your search. I find Google translate to be extremely useful when using foreign language albums and catalogs.

For translation of actual sentences, Google translate results should be taken with a grain of salt.

Kiloware: (stamps still on or soaked off of paper envelope pieces, sold by weight):

You can search for 'kilo*' and the asterick character acts as a 'wild card' returning all words starting with 'kilo' including kiloware.

You can search for 'oz' or 'ounce' which will find ounces also.

Sometimes the plural feature doesn't work though so be careful.

'lb*' (to cover lbs) or 'pound'

'gm' or 'gr*' or gramme or gram (metric measurements like kilo)
(tough one that is, so many variantions)

'on paper' or 'off paper'

The better sellers will include a couple of these terms to cover all search attempts.

Different countries tend to use different terms more than others sometimes.

Sometimes I let the seller know that they could use this term or that term as searching will give them better results and then next time I can find their products better. However, so can everybody else too.

Cats Kittens and Animals;

Generally Animal stamps can be found by searching for 'animal' or 'fauna' (as there is fauna and flora, animal and vegetable). When you get into the specific name for an animal then you can run into the languages.

When searching for 'cat' you get a lot of results with Cat value or catalogue value, so instead of just searching for the word cat, search for 'cat kitten' or 'cat animal' or 'cat fauna' (faune in French), or even one (or all) of the following alternative to English language spellings:

Different languages:
cat chat katzen katze gatos gatti
(Please note I am not including Asian or non-European languages as I am not learned in them.)

It would be nice to know sometime how to search for a Japanese stamp in Japanese or the simplified Japanese (and other languages).

Partly this worldwide searching depends on whether you yourself are comfortable buying form certain parts of the world.

Personally I have had no large problems and I have bought from a few different countries. I think if you try to understand first and judge later it helps. If you are friendly then the other person is friendly. It is not all up to them, it is also up to you. Respect returns respect.

You still have to keep your eyes and ears open but by reading feedbacks and the listings, after a while you will come to get a feel for what ssems good and waht should be treated more cautiously.

with khj on Google language translation service.

French translated from English is considered 'funny' to a French Canadian I found out.

If you do use it, it might be a good idea to mention that you are using it so as to pre-warn the receiver that the translation may not be quite correct.

It is understandable but not a fully correct translation.

Thanks for taking the time to put up all these tips, Puzzler!



A native speaker can ALWAYS tell when someone is using translation software instead of a human. Although the software is much improved, there were a few years when I had trouble getting any work done because I was so busy rolling on the floor laughing. Now I wish I had kept a compilation of the especially funny translations of common sentences. Now with the improved translation software, it's not so hilarious anymore, but just simply confusing sometimes.

Thank you for your always illuminating insights khj!

Another tip: you can look in the Category Canada but consider that in the United Kingdom, France and elsewhere Canada is not in the Canada category.

It is under British Colonial or Nord America / Etats Unis et Canada. Some folks lump USA and Canada together. To some we are still a colony! To others we are just another part of a continent.

People in other countries like to collect (generally speaking of course) their own country first and others second. So Canada (and USA) and stuck somewhere under North America.

At this time ebay has not standardized the categories across the world for stamps.

So, if you only look in categories and are searching for other countries than your own, you might miss a lot of listings.

Using the search feature will help immensely in finding and returning more results for you. However, there are those who do not put the country name in the listing title, so sometimes you are best off searching using words and also looking in the categories, just to cover all the bases. Unfortunately.

The categories would be a lot better if they were mostly standardized across the board on ebay worldwide. And then specialized. Then it wouldn't really matter what language you used, the category could mostly always (allowing for mistakes and human error) be trusted to locate a certain stamp.

It is nice that some countries get so specialized with their own stamps (USA, France, Germany, probably many others) but it is a touch difficult and unwieldy, not to mention frustrating at times, to find that stamp you want.

Standardization would help sellers and buyers alike and make the ebay experience a bit more trustworthy and enjoyable. Gee, I wonder who I could write at ebay to send a letter or email like this?

Stamp Catalogue numbers:

Argh.

That is a word you will use often if you search worldwide. Because there are so many different specialized catalogues (catalogs) (and perhaps rightfully so, to provide attention to specialized areas) there are many different ways to number the same stamp.

For example, my avatar stamp, origianlly issued as a Canada year 2004 Scott Catalogue (Sc)(USA and Canada) #2063 is known in the Stanley Gibbons (SG) (from Great Britain or the United Kingdom) Catalogue as a #2294. I tried to deduce by association the numbers of Michel (Mi)(from Germany) or Yvert et Tellier (YT) (from France) catalogues but have had no success so far.

It is an adventure I tell you. Each country has a different catalogue number and a slightly different description for the same stamp.

Even the word stamp in English is Timbre in French and Sellos (I believe) in Italian, Mark (I think) or Briefmarken in German. There is always something new to learn.

Holy smokes, and I haven't even cracked the Indian subcontinent yet. Or even attempted Asia or South America. You ever try searching in Russian? Argh. But it's fun. It's a blast. You're finding stuff that other people don't find, and only because they don't look under the right name or category.

If you do not have the catalogue for a certain region of the world it is always nice to ask here on SCF and most often (ask nicely) someone will help you with the number. (Not in this thread/topic, start your own separate thread/topic so you know when someone answers you and attention is zeroed in on that question. Better chance of an answer that way.)

So, is there a general worldwide number for a stamp? Well, yes, if the stamp was issued after 2002 and the country belongs to the Universal Postal Union and the seller on ebay uses this number and you know the number (which hardly anyone does.) So, short answer, Nope.

Nice post Puzzler.

It is a problem with catalog numbers as collectors in North America generally use Scott, and in English Europe and Down Under Gibbons. That is where "A picture is worth a thousand words" comes in handy. Most ebay listings have pics, but on Stampwants, quite a few without.

It is up to the vendor to put a good photo and a description that should include the year date and set description.

My "Lua pene" worth.

Good points Bee See. Good pictures are important.

Here is a little tip for sellers too. Certain characters are not recognized by ebay's search engine (or search program).

Formatting and math characters not affecting search:
# - / : + & ‘ ( ) [ ] ><
(Also using the character ‘!’ usually comes up as ? in listing titles.)

This helps in searching for stamps in that you don't have to worry about the number sign or 'hatch sign' '#' in front of catalogue numbers.

If you search for #2063 you will find '2063' and #2063'. Also (2063) and [2063] and /2063 and :2063:.

Be careful of the >< characters as they are also used in HTML language in programing how the page displays and may not be allowed by ebay.

So a title like
Canada 2004#2063/Personal Stamp

It doesn't look very readable or nice, but with ebay's title length restriction of 55 characters, sometimes you may need to 'scrunch up' some words and I feel it is better to get rid of the spaces rather than abbreviate some words. It's easier to read squished characters than try to speed read through titles using unknown abbreviations.

And if you search for '2063' or 'canada person*' or 'canada 2004' that title will be found. Try it. Experiment with the characters in you title and then after a few minutes to allow ebay's computers to get it up and running, do a search and see what comes up or doesn't show at all.

Think about what people will search for, the words they might use.

And, as a buyer, think what words the seller might use too. Watch to see what other sellers use to describe their stamps and include some of those terms in your search next time.

It's fun to see new stuff come up that didn't before.

On ebay, try to host your own photos as ebay pictures services are not really good and use a scanner instead of a camera unless the item is really, really big. I still see folks with camera shots for stamps. Delcampe has better pictures services and you don't need to host your own there.
Will

More on this thread:
https://goscf.com/t/8060