Many sellers who know what sells well may add misleading brand names to their header, with a set of ??? behind the name, so that more search engines pick up their auction items. This is not a good practice, because it can be very misleading to buyers.

For instance, a seller has a large batch of cheap plastic playset items they bought from a garage sale, and they are fairly worn and rather dirty, and they are worth maybe $1.99 on the current market. But because they came from a garage sale, the seller touts them as "vintage". Vintage means that an item is 20 to 50 years old. A playset bought in 1998 is not vintage. It is simply "not new".

Many sellers state baldy in the header "Marx??? Auburn??? Timmee???". And then they go on to state in the item description, "No maker's marks, but these look like they might fit in with your Marx playsets", etc. 

OR, they state in header, "MARX TYPE" playset figures.  That means these are plastic "sorta like Marx maybe but probably not because I just wanted to add "Marx" into the header for the search engines".

A collector who is just skimming for some neat vintage items may not know what the items in a Marx or Timmee playset look like. Often, newbie collectors jump in and bid, and end up with a big lot of items that contains absolutely nothing from any of the touted makers shown in the header.

Complain to eBay? About what? The seller didn't state that the items were actually Marx or Timmee or Auburn. The seller left an "out" by making it "questionable" with all those ???.

I have seen many a genuinely vintage farm or fort set on eBay, containing a few of the original pieces, and maybe the original box, but not at all complete, with odds and ends of other playset figures tossed in to make it look better. The seller touts it as "complete Fort Dearborn", or "complete western town set", and the bidding wars start. But if you take a good close look at the bags of figures (often they are bagged and just photographed inside the ziplocks), you will see that there might be half a dozen Archer or Ajax or Timmee or Peyton horses with assorted riders from different sets, as well, and the "complete" set has only a small number of the actual items that go in the original set on sale. Sometimes these partial sets go for a hundred bucks or more, and then the item arrives and the disappointed buyer finds out the set is not complete and original as touted.

Of course, it IS possible that the seller hasn't got the foggiest idea of what a "complete" farm or fort set contains. But if you advertise it, you darned well better know that what you are telling your bidders is correct, to the the very best of your knowledge.

If you are a newbie buyer on eBay, and you are concerned about the validity of someone's claim that an item is "Marx" or "Auburn", ask questions.

If you do not know if a set is actually complete by looking at the photos, ask the seller for photos outside of baggies, spread out on the table so you can see them. If the seller refuses to show you, beware. Reputable sellers will normally email you extra pics if you ask.

I have seen a number of excellent items on eBay that are well worth the money asked, but the seller didn't even know what he/she was actually selling, so the item description is a bit garbled. I will often send the seller a comment about what the set actually is, and what the brand names are, so that they can be more informative in the item descriptions. 

Not all sellers who add ??? to their item headers are trying to dupe buyers. Often the sellers don't even know what the item is, so I will usually try to send the seller a comment stating that the header is incorrect, and many will revise the item, or add to the item description that "an eBayer kindly informed them"...etc.

EBay is a great place to buy and sell. But eBay wants happy buyers, and happy sellers, so if you see ??? in the header, be sure to ask questions! If the seller won't respond, avoid bidding. If you know an eBayer who is familiar with the items you are looking at, feel free to ask advice. Most of us were newbies to collecting, and got taken once or twice (or dozens of times!) so please don't be ashamed to ask for help. There are eBay forums set up for such things. Check them out.

And always check out a seller's feedback. A feedback score of under 95% may indicate unhappy buyers or sellers, so check to see if the seller has neg feedback, and then READ it to see if someone just zapped them to be vindictive, or if they have neg feedback from a number of folks over a period of time. (Note: a seller who only has a total of 25 feedbacks can have one neg toss their feedback into the trash, so keep that in mind when reading feedback. Keep it in perspective.)

Feedback also can be inappropriately used to blackmail buyers or sellers, so read between the lines. One neg feedback from a year back might have simply been a fluke. Ten negs over a period of 5 or 6 months means you might want to avoid bidding. If all the negs are from one bidder, you might have a case of buyer's remorse.

So when you see an item header that leaves a lot of guesswork to the bidder, Caveat Emptor. Be careful. You want to enjoy your eBay experience, not regret you ever decided to dabble. Have fun, and ask, ask ask!