[ARC5] Question about finding our treasures on eBay...

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

On Thu, Aug 8, 2013 at 3:44 PM, J. Forster <jfor at quikus.com> wrote:

> The eBay search engine really does not do what it claims. For (a
> fictional) example:
>
> Search 1:  Capacitor                  5500 hits
> Search 2:  Capacitor -ceramic    1.678,953 hits
>
> Excluding a search term CANNOT result in MORE hits. Something is badly
> broken.
>

Sure it can. You're doing something wrong which is basically adding ceramic
to the search. I've always used parenthesis after the minus sign, thought
this was a requirement. As in     Capacitor -(ceramic)    with multiple
exclusions separated by commas.

Just tried it both ways with the same result. Capacitor alone gives over
119K hits, -ceramic is only 72K.

Category searches are, IMO, the best way to search if you want manageable
numbers. The chances of some old radio bit being listed under clothing or
such is pretty low, yet using 'Navy' in any search will bring up a slew of
Old Navy clothing for teenieboppers.

The categories most applicable are Collectibles - Militaria and Radios,
Phonos, etc, and Consumer Electronics.

Then again, I only go there when I'm looking for something specific and
don't lose any sleep over the possibility of missing an ARC-5 connector I
need because it's listed under Exotic Birds or whatever. Not true for many
folks.

~ Todd,  KA1KAQ/4