Sunday, April 6, 2008

Treasure Hunting on eBay

The informationist in me understands the importance of keyword searching. Computers are a bit stupid in this one respect. Most search mechanisms can only produce results for the exact word you type into a search box. Therefore, if there is a typo in an eBay title or description, the result list will not include that auction. Listings with errors are viewed by FAR less people, and generally will sell for much less then a properly listed item. You may be surprised how many listings on eBay contain such mistakes. How does one find these buried treasures of eBay? You could run multiple searches for every possible misspelling or typo, which is quite tedious and time consuming, OR you can check out the following very cool websites:

The first tool for "sniffing" out such listings is TypoHound.

Type the item or keyword you are looking for into the TypoHound search box and it will generates a search with the following typos:

  • Character typed twice
  • Character omitted
  • Characters swapped
  • Key next to correct character hit
  • Key next to correct character and correct character hit
Another such tool for your arsenal is Missing-Auctions.com

This tool offers some advanced search options such as limiting a search to a specified category, "buy it now" items, searching both title and description, and more.

Both sites are excellent ways to find extraordinary eBay bargains! Yo ho!

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About Me

I am a recovering lawyer, who has been working as a research librarian for the past 15 years, in both a private law firm, and law school setting. I have recently quit my day job to pursue my interests in junking for fortune & glory full time. I am equal parts informationist, and treasure hunter. I have been going to thrift shops and estate sales my ENTIRE life. My two interests are quite complimentary. I am an excellent "finder", whether it is digging for information in databases or the net, or searching for buried treasure in a thrift shop or attic. I hope to build this space into a meeting place for fellow thrift shop aficionados who are looking for a treasure map of sorts when traveling through the US.