# Ebay Etiquette



## TheSaint (Nov 11, 2010)

Hi,

Over the years of using eBay you get to see quite a few interesting auctions.

However the method of listing varies a bit, for most sellers, they understand
which keywords to include in their auction so it can be found by the most amount
of potential bidders.

This includes adding "schwinn" to non schwinn bikes, lol!

I tend to look at "prewar schwinn", "elgin bicycle", "shelby bicycle", and so on....

What happens a bit, even from experienced sellers, putting their item in a "lottery"
listing, to only be found if you put in the exact keyword to find their items...

Elgin is a watch brand too, if you type in Elgin by itself you'll get watches and more instead of bicycles. 
Type in Shelby and watch your screen lockup as eBay Motors loads up with a zillion of
Shelby cars.....

So its nice to find Shelby bicycles when you type in "shelby bicycles", elgin bicycles when you type in "elgin bicycles", and so forth. 

EVEN putting "bicycle" in a part listing will help get it found!

Right now, a Western Flyer Airflow on eBay pops up only after typing in "shelby airflow" because the seller included shelby in the header description. This same listing does NOT have bicycle in it, you wont find it unless you include "airflow" and "shelby" 
or "western flyer" and "airflow". 
If you used "shelby bicycle", "western flyer bicycle" you would NOT see this auction.

It would be so much nicer and easier to find if the seller put "bicycle" in the header
description...

The same for a recently sold "Elgin Robin", no bicycle in the listing, you could look at "elgin bicycle" all day long and not see it... If you were in the market for an Elgin Robin bike you could have been sincerely distressed to miss out... 

So what do you do, get lucky and prey upon these "mis identified" listings that no one
else sees, or can you send a quick email to the seller asking hey you're missing out on a bunch more viewers of your items....

just my 2 cents,

thesaint
redondo beach, ca


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## kz1000 (Nov 11, 2010)

I will sit at the computer at times and type in all different ways and even purposely misspell words and I find treasures all the time that way. If a seller can't spell what is he is selling or does not promote it properly he does not deserve to get top dollar.


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## HIGGINSFOREVER (Nov 11, 2010)

You are so right about the keyword (SCHWINN),It seems like a seller cant sell his mud flap if he dont say fits schwinn and others.or sell a horn,lite,seat,reflector or any thing you can bolt on a bike sure as hell it will fit a schwinn.I e-mailed a seller about fenders that he was selling as n.o.s.schwinn and asked him if they were marked a.s. anywere on then.He said no but he was sure they will fit any schwinn.Look on any page of lets say grips and count the schwinn word.


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## twowheelfan (Nov 11, 2010)

i used to search the misspellings of words like schwinn, (swinn , schinn,schwin, etc.) or monarch ( iknow that there is a bike called that but...)  used to be a good way to get stuff when the auctions were 7 days or less.


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## slick (Nov 11, 2010)

I usually narrow down my search to bicycles only. I have 2 categories I search under daily (ok hourly) where everything pulls up, including that Airflow that I would love to come home with me!!! I'd tell you guys what I search under but then i'd miss out on all the good deals!!!!!! Ha, sorry gang!


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## bairdco (Nov 12, 2010)

i search stuff with oddball spellings all the time. i get my best deals that way.

what i hate, though, is when someone clogs up a category with a bunch of junk that says "fits" Colson, Shelby, Monark...  you get the picture. and it's stuff that was never factory on most of the brands mentioned. 

i mean, sure, your 35 old kickstands may "fit" on my colson, but none of them are the real thing...


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## jwm (Nov 19, 2010)

I just searched "Schwinn bike". Interesting. There are some folks out there in serious need of a tap from the cluebat. $10k for some old rat ten-speed that someone thinks is the FIRST MOUNTAINBIKE? 

Get a forking grip!

JWM


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## IJamEcono (Nov 19, 2010)

Let me ask this: I've just recently started selling some things on ebay. I just sold a sprocket, crank arms, and bearings with it. But I didn't clean them before I shipped them. I figure I'd rather clean things myself when I got them..so I assume others do too. I had mentioned in the ad that they would clean up well, as they should. But is there an expectation that individual parts will be cleaned before they are shipped? I mean, we don't clean entire bicycles before we ship them. Thoughts?


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## Andrew Gorman (Nov 19, 2010)

jwm said:


> I just searched "Schwinn bike". Interesting. There are some folks out there in serious need of a tap from the cluebat. $10k for some old rat ten-speed that someone thinks is the FIRST MOUNTAINBIKE?
> 
> Get a forking grip!
> 
> JWM




Follow the suggested links from that auction- it's actually a pretty cool story.  Maybe not a 10 grand story, but interesting.  And there are other interesting bikes on the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame site as well.  Auction is #320617959047


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## slick (Nov 19, 2010)

My thoughts go like this. If it's clean, with a very good quality photo it will sell for a good amount of money. If the photo is taken poorly or from far away with bad lighting, I don't bother because it might be a bad deal or damaged where you can't see. What you think is rare probably isn't in most cases. If the "rare" one goes for big money, wait a week or two and more "rare" ones will pop up and sell for less. Don't get me wrong, there is really rare stuff out there we just have to have (i've payed excessively myself!) but odds are another will turn up even if you have to wait a few years? It's supply and demand at it's finest. Two guys need it NOW and bid it way up and everyone thinks there item will go for that also. Timing is key also. If your item ends while people are at work, or very late at night, it will probably sell cheap. I honestly love ebay because without it some of my classic cars wouldn't have the parts they have because i never would have traveled out of state with the one in a million odds to find that part at a swap meet, so it's helped me immensely. It's stimulating for the brain to see so many things you never knew existed! Ok enough rambling. That's just how I see ebay.


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## abe lugo (Nov 19, 2010)

is there a way to search the collectible bicycle area and the sporting good section simultaneously?


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