Do Buyers On Ebay Check All Sellers Stamp Sites For Items?

I tend to search through my favorite sellers before going out for more general searches. So as an example, if I see that KVGCollector has what I'm looking for, I won't look any further since I know I'll get great product and service. Also - having a very specialized collection of Australian stamps, I find I need to search by both SC and SG catalog numbers to find all the stamps being offered. I'm sure other specialty areas may require Michael or Yvert catalog numbers. Finally, as a buyer, I can't figure out this "Best Match" and tend to almost always use the "advanced search" feature.

I don't know if what I'm about to say belongs here or in a new post but here goes.

I'm relatively new to buying stamps on ebay and have more than my share of struggles composing an effective search phrase. Perhaps some of our more astute members can post techniques they have found to work well.

Terry

Terry,
Doing Multiple searches
Using parenthesis enables to you search for different items. For example, you can search for *(Scott, SG)* and ebay will return everything that has both key words in the listing. The words separated with commas in the parenthesis tell ebay to search "and." You can search for many words at once as long as you separate the search keywords in parenthesis with commas. For example *(Scott, SG, Unitrade)* and *(23, 41)*.

Eliminating Search words
To omit items from a search choose the keywords you don't want to show up in your search such as Washington or MNH. Your search should now be *(Scott, SG, Unitrade)* or *(23, 41)* -(Washington, MNH)*.

Searching for exact words/phrases
Sometimes you want to search on exact key words if ebay returns too many results. Try using quotation marks around your search keywords like this, *" Scott 23"* .
Don

Edit: changed 'or' to 'and'

Don, in your example for multiple searches, if the comma represents "or," wouldn't it return results that had either one of the search terms but not necessarily both? For that you would need "and," which is often the default when you enter two search terms with nothing between them. Maybe I'm missing something.

And try searching through a sellers store who has over 2500 items listed, its tiring after 10 page views. I tried searching for USA Cover Scott #24 and got a whole pile of unrelated material. Its difficult to get the right items in the ebay search results and time consuming to go through pages of items your not looking for.

rustyc,
You are correct, I've edited the post to reflect 'and'.
Thank you for the catch,
Don

ebay can make their search a lot more usable if they just added two item specifics fields in the sell-your-item form. 1. They should have a field for catalog publisher. This can be a drop down box that lists Scott, Michel, Gibbons, Yvert, etc. 2. A field for catalog number. If it were then possible to search using those fields, results would, in theory, be perfect, leaving aside for a second improper identifications, etc. They wouldn't need to be mandatory and of course wouldn't be used for things like collections and mixtures. Ideally a seller could select two or more catalog publishers and numbers so they could be found by searching for Scott or Michel, for example.

ebay searching used to be a LOT easier and more worthwhile before they eliminated wildcards with the adoption of the Cassini engine. They justified the change saying that "no one uses wildcards when searching" which was a big fat lie. They just didn't want hear the flak from the users. Many buyers were rightfully up in arms.

Previously, If I wanted to catch all the years in the 1860s, I could just search for 186*, etc.

Now I have to search for (1861, 1862, 1863, 1864, 1865, 1866, 1867, 1868, 1869).

Wildcards were also great for catching plurals and misspellings.

As a buyer, that single change is the absolute worst thing ebay has ever done in the 17 years I've been using the site.

It is a known fact. Buyers who frequently buy online will always gravitate back to seller they have purchased from before, if they had a good buying experience. Secondary to price. I'm sure if you are a frequent buyer on ebay, you can attest to this. For myself, I have a short list of sellers I always go to on ebay and it's not because of price. Why? Item is well described, clean and detailed scans or photos, quick shipping, item packaged well and follow-up. This is why I'm willing to pay 5-10% over another seller. It's not that I don't buy from other sellers, it just depends on what I'm buying at the moment.

Personally, I have been a seller for a long time and have a good idea how much it cost to ship something based on where the buyer is located. So a high shipping price is is a quick disqualification of a seller. Other issues that cause a poor selling experience is a delay in shipping, no notice that the item has been shipped and most of all, those Yahoo's that use inappropriate shipping boxes... can you say "Pop-Tart" box? REALLY.