Not that kind of help, they gave up long time ago. What I need is did anybody make a brass version of the center entrance brill and Jewett Trolley's? The ones with the arch windows. We are talking traction.
The warning is, if you sell and you take an offer. Dont send back a counter offer with knowing if there are any other items that are the same as yours, or in better shape for the same counter offer price. I was lookng at a center door interurban. on guy had it for 129. but it was in many pieces and his poor pics made it hard to se if the whole thing was there. the motor looked like it was toast too. the brush springs were bent up and what looked like an attempt at fixing. I figured 70 was a good number for its contion and possible replacement parts hunting. like a new motor and all new drive line. Which i didnt see any part of. He countered with 110. another seller had one completely assembled, motor ran butdidnt move (had one of those wire spring belts most ikely bad). for 115. not much of a no brainer. go for the complete one. for 5 more. i got neither because I had a think. and decided to dig for more of what I wanted(which is the question above.
This brought me to a new frustration with ebay search function. i u sed. streetcar, interurban, trolley. by digging, in the list at the bottom of items that has the might be interested in list. I found many other interurbans that did not vcome up in the search. .even though they had the search terms I used. No idea why they were skipped over. Making up wierd terms and phrases was bad enough. now the system skips over even the correct ones. How many items have i missed that I was looking for because of that?
Shane
A pessimist sees a dark tunnel
An optimist sees the light at the end of the tunnel
A realist sees a frieght train
An engineer sees three idiots standing on the tracks stairing blankly in space
I have no clue how ebay searches work. I'll type in a very specific search entry and I'll get hits on things that aren't remotely related to what I entered. I sometimes look at the unrelated items to see if they have anything in their description that matches what I entered and can't figure out why it came up as a hit. I never even gave a thought to items I missed that should have been hits. ebay is pretty much a crapshoot. You sometime find great bargains but you have to sift through a lot of junk and buyer beware is the number one rule.
Ebay searches have been near worthless for about two years. I think the mess up happened when they changed all the categories in the Toy & Hobby section.
I often search the terms "Rail Graphics", "Donald Manlick", and "Don Manlick" looking for custom roadname decals.
I also sometimes just browse the Parts And Spares section of Model Railroads And Trains. I will way-too-frequently find listings with the terms "Rail Graphics", "Donald Manlick", and "Don Manlick" in the auction title, but they do not come up with my search.
It is very frustrating.
The same was true with "Fine Scale Miniatures" kits when I was hunting a couple of them.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Many times the misses are because of where the item is listed, but the real proublm now is the listings are limited, used to be if you worded it a certain way and got 10,000 hits, you got to see 10,000, not anymore.
I laugh at the ads for absolute junk that start the title with RARE!!! thinking we are idiots and everything is a collectable,
So, here is the problem:
I am searching for HO in Model Railroad Parts & Accessories.
The first two results are O scale!
SeeYou190 So, here is the problem: I am searching for HO in Model Railroad Parts & Accessories. The first two results are O scale! -Kevin
This is not necessarily ebay's fault. In the item description the seller mentions twice "HO" and once "1/87 scale". I once complained to eBay that my search for Santa Fe brought up lots of non-Santa Fe items. They explained to me that their search routine would look for Santa and Fe. If the letter combination "fe" would be anywhere in the item description, this would give a hit. Now I am looking for "Santa Fe" and the problem is gone.
When posting a listing there is a second area that Ho would have to be selected. If it it isn't then the listing posts by what ever is selected there. In your case, it was o scale. No matter how ,any times Ho is stated. The listing also forces you to use an old posting so forgetting to change something is easy. At least for me, I am not allowed to start from scratch any more.
DrWThis is not necessarily ebay's fault.
Sorry, Dr, I totally disagree. eBay changed their search engine a couple of years ago by doing away with the subcategories under "Model Railroading". It used to be that the user could choose specifics like scale or road name or type then create a search that didn't go outside that scope. (I would actually create a specific bookmark so I didn't have to do that each time.) Now you have to do it manually (not a huge deal) but you get a LOT more errors. Even if I create a "saved search" for a specific model, eBay throws in different road names, different scales, different types.
No, the eBay search engine used to be better before they decided to "improve" it. Now you have to do MUCH more word play in the "Shop by category" text box to find things that you are looking for and you STILL have to sift more false hits.
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
I use picclick.com to search eBay
Seems to get better results
Here is my advice on how to get around eBay search algorthims.
1) Use quotations around the specific item you are looking for as mentioned previously.
2) Use the saved search function eBay offers so you will get notified when new items are listed. I use this to check daily on the items I am looking for.
2a) Split this up in to multiple searches to be able to look for hidden items from newbie or ignorant sellers. If I am looking for a Broadway Limited Pennsylvania 2-10-0 Decapod for example, I have several searches saved to scour the website to find one. I have a saved search category for 2-10-0's, another for Broadway Limited, BLI, DCC Sound, and steam that covers all of my bases for the most part. If you want to get really intricate you can further delve in to the subcategories so I am not stuck with O, N, or other unrelated examples cluttering up my search wasting my time.
3) Modify the search function to look for items at the lowest price point to see what is the cheapest option. eBay will automatically try to filter the search to only 100 entries if the search is well over that but I would ignore it since it tries to filter out spare parts but it also leaves out whole locomotives or rolling stock so I would not trust it. You have to select to ignore the auto 100 filter.
Based on this I have been able to find deals paying well below market value that are otherwise hidden away because of eBay's new algorthim and the seller's ignorance of the product.