Peeves about titles of eBay listings: what sellers should do

I think some sellers don't really want to sell their coins because the titles of their ads make it hard to find specific coins by searching. I do coin shopping on eBay primarily by searching titles. Browsing categories requires too much time to find what I want, and many coins are misclassified. I always order search results by price and go through them from low to high. My comments are directed toward sellers of US coins and modern (as opposed to ancient) world coins. Instead of listing gripes, I'll use the positive approach and say what they should do.

1. Always include the date and mint in the title. Not hard to find sellers who don't. Use the letter(s) and spell it out too; e.g. Carson City (CC).

2. State the denomination in as many ways possible; e.g. Indian head $5 five dollar half eagle

3. For world coins, put the country in the title. Not everyone knows that 10 som coins come from Kyrgyzstan.

4. Spell out the grade and use the abbreviation too. Use both the hyphenated and non-hyphenated abbreviations. Example: mint state 62 (MS62, MS-62). Use terms and abbreviations of both main grading services even though the coin has been graded by only one. Example: proof 63 (PR-63, PR63, PF-63, PF63). Include the abbreviation of the grading service if any; e.g. NGC, PCGS, ANACS, CAC. State the basic grade alone and also with qualifiers if applicable. Example: mint state 63 red brown (MS63, MS-63, MS63RB, MS-63RB). This can get a bit tedious where the grading services use different terminology, but as a seller, you don't want a buyer to miss your ad because they searched only DMPL when your ad title had only DPL.

5. Spell out and use abbreviations (where appropriate) for special characteristics. Examples: double die obverse (DDO); Bay Bridge; Morgan; struck through; seated liberty; toned, etc.

6. State the metal.

7. Use puffery words (e.g. stunning, gorgeous, rare, etc.) sparingly. Save puffery for the body of the ad.

Although it's not part of the title, another thing is to have great pics. Include close-ups of obverse and reverse, and if it's certified, pics of the entire obverse and reverse of the slab. Sometimes if the pics are crummy, but the cert. no. is readable, I can find better pics on the net. But the best pics in the world are useless if the title doesn't contain words that will bring me to the ad.

My suggestions may make for a clunky looking title, but at least I'll find the ad.

I really miss the search wildcard (*) that eBay eliminated a few years ago for mysterious reasons. It would allow finding ads that lacked complete titles, had misspellings, etc.

Cal

 

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Agreed. Some titles are very interesting to say the least.

 

I usually put as many keywords as possible in the description area. To avoid cluttering up the description too much I reduce the font size and change the font color to white so it doesn't even show, like this (hold down the left cursor and drag it from the arrow and over the next line or two) >> 1909s 1909 s san fransisco lincoln abraham cent penny copper small mint v.d.b. vdb victor brenner one in god we trust liberty design plain edge MS64 uncirculated unc BU brilliant See?

 

I think the basic problem is they have no idea what they are selling.

 

I totally agree with you. As the buyer you need to use the full power of the EBay search. For example, if I were looking for a 1899 5 mark coin from Prussia I would search for

("Prussia", "Prussen") (" 5 mark", "funf mark") ("1899A", "1899 A", "1899-A")

 

I just pulled that out of my head from memory. I actually have autogenerated RSS feed for all the German coins which I still need and I turn them on and off as desired. I am not sure of the exact syntax I use but it is something like that but much more complex.

 

Nice trick! Don't want to conceal too much though, or buyers may bypass the listing when it comes up in the search results.

Cal