Sorting out ebay

[Strider]

Does anyone know if there is a way to eliminate some of the junk listings on EBAY? I know there are a few pearls among all the listings, but, some times it is just too overwhelming to look at all that chinese cr p! Any ideas? Scott E.

[Stephen]

you can cut the search way down by going to the search options on the left side, go to the bottom search from lets say 150 to 1500 add a zero if you got the change, it will cut the search of Japanese Swords from 3833 to 168. you might miss one or two starters of real swords at a hundred but if its good it wont stay there long the next time you search it should show.

[Stever]

The search I use works pretty well, though some stuff still gets through, and I probably miss some stuff. Here it is:

 

("Japanese sword",nihonto,katana) -chen* -tsuba -fuchi -kash* -hand* -fold* -forg* -func* -prac* -steel -ryu* -san* -gladius -bugei -hanwei -ninj* -stand -shell -gsx* -suzuk* -arf* -elek*

 

I also set typically set the minimum price somewhere above ~$200.00. That alone weeds out a lot of crap. Add any extra items you want to see in the bracketed list (such as tanto, yari, whatever), but the three that I show seem to catch most of them.

 

(edit: added some exclusions to the search)

 

Cheers

[Brian]

I use this url:

(Edited out)

Still gives you lots of junk, but much less. I don't feel you can filter out fuchi, kashira, tsuba etc..as everyone uses these in their descriptions.

Unless you search only titles..which then pulls up only auctions that everyone else sees, and the bids go high.

Very important to filter out everything under $100 or $200 or so...as this gets rid of a heck of a lot of junk.

 

Regards,

Brian

[Stever]

Thanks for the info, Brian (though the link doesn't work ). I've read every single post on this board and in the Nihonto forum on SFI, and this question comes up every now and again, but the answer is usually limited to the price ranges and sellers' country. Just wanted to see if we could get the ball rolling on a less superficial discussion (especially since I just *knew* my search was missing some good stuff!). I was just searching titles, but now I'm going to go try and build a new search (better, stronger, faster...lol).

 

cheers

[Brian]

Ok..so the url truncating feature doesn't like those long links

Basically, in the search box, you type the words you are looking for, and then use -(chen,hanwei,cold,beijing,etc,etc)

An example: Japanese sword -(chen,hanwei,cold,dvd,warrior) etc etc

My exclusions are: chen,chanwei,cold,paul,beijing,dvd,PSP,warrior,cowskin,sushi,scissors,suzuki

There are many more you can add, but if you add things like habaki, kashira,tsuba etc..then you will lose all the genuine listings that have those in them.

Once the search page loads..then use the left hand value filter between say $150 and your max. When that page has loaded..just bookmark the url, and load that page every time you want to search.

You can refine from there by country or other words.

Remember that ebay seems very search specific, so swords will not find sword and nihonto will not find Nihon-to (am I correct here?)

I haven't checked if wildcards (*) will work in a search.

 

I am sure i still have a lot to learn about searching..but without more specific searches, you are just wasting time.

Btw..once the page loads..i usually don't even bother opening any auction that is low priced and has no bids. it means others have already written it off for you (exceptions do exist of course..but this is 90% true)

 

Brian

[Stever]

I knew about exclusions, but didn't think to put them all in a bracketed list to save on space (but I did with included terms!?). Wildcards work great, which is why I have chen* (gets chen and chenness, for example) and such in my criteria. I had just been searching on title, due to running into the limit of search terms and still being overwhelmed with crap. Good point about the zero bids/low price auctions. I also only look within a certain price range and amount of time remaining to cut down on sheer numbers as well.

 

Anyone know of a way to exclude items in certain countries? It seems you can choose just one, or all, but not a select list.

 

cheers

[Grey Doffin]

To exclude certain countries (China) I search USA only and then Japan only (and I suppose I could check on Europe also).

If you exclude listings under a certain amount you miss out on my sales; I always list with a $5 starting price. No one should miss out on my sales.

Grey

[Stever]

May I ask approximately what percentage of the ones that you start at $5 sell below $200?

 

thanks

[Grey Doffin]

Approximately none of the swords that I start at $5 sell for below $200.

Grey

[Brian]

Grey,

 

Indeed...which is why they won't show on the first few searches, but as soon as they reach that lower limit (and considering that most of us search daily) then your auctions will show up on the searches, while the lower stuff never shows up.

Trust me, they don't get missed

Of course those days I am looking for fittings etc, then the limits get lowered, and I add exclusions such as blade to only find the fittings.

 

Brian