Do you wonder if you are missing great items? You probably are.

If everyone thought the same, chances are you would always find the items you were looking for.  But because we don't, sometimes great items go unnoticed. Maybe the seller is using other word to describe the thing you want.

The trick is to come up with alternative ways to describe what you want- and alternative ways to hunt for  it.

Let's say I am looking for a seersucker suit. My first effort would be to type in "Seercusker suit". Well, actually, I would try to spell it correctly. That was not done on purpose, but it shows how easily we can be defeated. Sometimes eBay will help us with our spelling, but sometimes we may be way off. So, rule number one is to try to spell the way others do.

And then, rule number two is to try to spell other ways. For instance, if you were looking for Audubon prints, you might also look and see if anything had been listed under Audabon or Audobon.

But let's get back to that suit. Searching for "seersucker suit" will get us a lot of suits I don't want- ladies' suits, bathing suits, baby romper suits. But, there in the list might be one actual man's coat -and-pants seersucker suit. When I find it, I can  click on it.  At the top of the listing, I see that it is listed in Men's Clothing- suits. I can click on that category and  search for "seersucker" and find maybe a few more. If  I search titles and descriptions, I may find one  that somehow seemed not to merit the word seersucker in the title. Maybe the seller thought the brand name was more important. Maybe they slipped up and misspelled seersucker in the title.

Then, if I am smart, I will search for other attributes of a seersucker suit that might help me.

Because, you see, I may recognize a suit as seersucker and the seller may not. The seller may only know that it's striped, or cotton, or crinkly, or a summer suit. SO, if I look at all of the suits that include cotton, or crinkly or summer in their descriptions, I might find the perfect suit, being sold by an unaware seller.

It also helps to look for brand names- again, not just the brand you know you want, but other brands that may be close. Being general is always a good start - you can be specific later.
 
And this is especially true of things that aren't quite so easily described.  Imagine you want a nautical chart of a certain part of the Maine Coast. You could look for "nautical chart" or you could look for "Maine" but you should probably also look at MAPS and maybe look for certain areas or place names, such as  Penobscot  or Ellsworth or Portland.

Sometimes it is useful to look for the wrong thing. Let's say you really want  a stuffed hawk.  You are in luck., I just found one. But maybe the person who is selling all of the stuffed birds calls them something else. Maybe you wanted a PLUSH hawk, not a taxidermied one. So you might search for Plush Hawk, but maybe you could look in the toys category for ANYTHING  with Hawk in the description. Or you might want that taxidermied one. What if the seller thinks it's a falcon, or an owl, or a buzzard? Maybe you need to look  in collectibles -  birds  and just see if there is anything you like. Maybe you thought it was a hawk you wanted, as I always thought I wanted a banjo when I was 4 years old. It was actually a GUITAR that I wanted and I was lucky enough to have a mother who figured that out. Maybe you want a crow, and only after you have looked at a few dozen stuffed birds will you recognize that.

And then, bang you can start looking for and at crows- and there may be some in other areas, like Halloween decorations or  decoys, or carvings, who knows? Maybe my seersucker suit is hiding in VINTAGE CLOTHING , instead of men's suits.

My best advice is to think about your search from at least three different  perspectives:

1) try to imagine other names for the thing you want

2) try to imagine other areas or categories where it might be

3) try to search by descriptive attributes, rather than simply by name

Try to work from the general to the specific and then back to the general again. When all else fails, you might want to browse. At worst, it will be an enlightening trip through a lot of items. Chances are you will find something of interest. 

One other tip: Search occasionally through completed items- to get an idea of prices and to get an idea of who sells the thinsgs you want. Several sellers will concentrate on a particular area, such as vintage clothing, or  antique furniture. When you find a seller who has sold something like what you are looking for, go to his or her current offerings. Do not be afraid to ask if he or she plans to listl another widget like the one they sold before. If they don't have any, maybe they know who does.

I hope this guide has shown you some new ways to think about your searches. Please take a moment to vote for its helpfulness. And, if you  stil have time, please check out some of my dozens of other guides, such as my two different Month-O-Movies guides, or my Mostly Useless Guide to Fame. They were written to entertain and to explain. I hope they provide good service.

Thanks
WT