My Pet Peeve For The Day On Selling Album Pages

We'll start this and hope it does not create issues with some sellers.

I search for some stamp albums and find all kinds of listings for a page or pages of stamps from a stamp album, quality album, old time album, etc.

I don't need all this stuff in my search but these sellers are gaming the system and manipulating search.

ebay could care less but some buyers like myself are looking for albums, not a page or stock sheet misrepresented by sellers using the word album.

Opinions please.

Agreed, it's annoying. I guess sellers are entitled to sell "album pages" etc but it clogs up the search.

Boolean Searching is helpful.

I assume your "complaint" is that your search for "Stamp albums" also returns listings with album pages and other types of albums that you do not want to waste your time looking at.

Keep in mind that the ebay universe is not limited to philately. And also that many listers and sellers of true philatelic materials are philatelially "naive".

It is the sellers job to create a description for their offerings that will attract buyers. They are not "gaming the system", they are doing the best that they can. It's called marketing.


It's your responsibility to work through the "noise" to find what you want to buy.

No one said it was going to be easy. Be glad you have a source like ebay where you might find what you want. Think of it as a treasure hunt. If you don't have time to search for a bargain, purchase what you want new from a dealer.

One of my peeves is sellers who list under the assumption that brand names like 'Lindner' or 'Lighthouse' are some sort of generic album type name for a hingeless album. Time and again I see listings for a 'Lindner' album only to find it's something like a cheap Harris album with mounts attached. I too find lots of stock books being sold as albums. Technically they are I suppose. Nothing to lose sleep over but annoying.

Well, many here routinely refer to Lighthouse's Vario pages as if they were generic stock-pages or as if all Lighthouse stock-pages were Vario.

On ebay, it can be quite difficult to find the right heading for your item, especially once you venture into areas you aren't familiar with.

Look at this guy;



Oops that's me.

I guess I'm one of the worst offenders. I not only use the words "album" and "collection" in almost every one of the 60 items I sell I list everything in 2 categories. Bidders need to know what kind of pages ie Scott, Minkus, Specialized and it's fair to say they're from an album and/or collection. I think it draws more eyes but that's what it's all about. ebay has no reason to have a problem with my titles.

Ken

Why not cut down the search by specifying a search by value? If you're looking for album collections and not just unused albums, looking at $200 and up items (for example) with search terms "album collection" weed out nearly all of the page-only lots.

Ken

I was not picking on you or any one else as there are many that do it world wide.

As far as your comment, if you just put Minkus pages, Scott pages, it means exactly the same but the word album would be left out.

Collection does not mess up searches but then there are people that call 1 stamp a collection to mess up that search as I use both.

An album should have a binder, pages, stamps optional.

A collection can be in anything, albums, stock books, pages, or whatever

Just for fun, do a search for Yugoslavia stamp albums

hy-brasil

I don't use values as it would eliminate the low prices items in auctions.

"Lighthouse pages" and "Lighthouse album pages" could respectively be read as blank Lighthouse pages with stamps on them and printed album pages with stamps on them. As Ken says, you're trying to hit as many things as possible in few words.

GeoffHa

Both of which are totally different than Lighthouse Stamp Albums which can or can't have stamps, but the empty album is not a collection and the album with stamps can also be called a collection.

Just for curiosity, how many posters here read the ebay boards. A common complaint by buyers is the ebay search does not work as it should due to everything being put everywhere and getting what ebay wants you to see or sellers that pay for a spot

There are very few album collections that start at 99 cents; set a minimum accordingly. If a collector, then you're probably looking for specific countries as well. A search can be set and saved for each country you need. Help yourself by using more specific search terms and tools.



You're trying to turn this into a general rant about ebay. If so, then you really should buy elsewhere.

No, I have nothing against ebay as I have been buying and selling on ebay since 1999 under multiple ID's

I am still referring to the way stamp sellers are listing their items. Please tell me that the item below is not gaming the system?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Norway-Sta...AOSwux5YRzi9

Here is another one from a major dealer:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Stamp-Albu...AOSwWWpZxlxa

Make sure you find the disclaimer at the end:

Please note Printed Country Albums do not include Classic 14-ring albums.

That makes these pages, not an album.


There is no end to this so I just thought I would start a thread to see what type of comments came up.

Nothing to do with ebay as the rest of the sites do the same thing as many list their items on more than just ebay.

hy-brasil

I never said I was looking for collection, I stated albums. (and I think I mentioned the difference in a previous post)

I already have searches set up by country and some by manufacturer as well.

My point is what people add to these listings to game the system and make a mess of the searches with unrelated items.

and many do start at 99 cents