Brewing Master

Question:

To the selling vets out there: Do most people shop by category or by keyword searches? I sometimes wonder whether it’s worth listing an item (something minor, like a child’s sweater) under 2 categories — though I never do. I can see using more than one category if you’re selling a specialty item–something like a vintage Russian clock– but does it pay off to use multiple categories for ordinary things?

I think the cost outweighs the benefits on common items, or on items where almost everyone who would want it and who would search by category would be looking in the same category.  They also have to be different enough categories where a more general category search wouldn’t pull it up. Let me give you an example.  Frankoma made a lot of pottery for the Sunray DX Oil Company in Oklahoma.  When I get a piece, I list it under the Frankoma category in Pottery & Glass, and under collectibles as an oil company advertising piece.  That way I get the people who browse the Frankoma category, and people who browse the oil company collectibles categories, and they aren’t the same group of people.  It’s a cross-collectible, and listing in two categories can be very effective in those situations. If you had a hobnail Fenton Bell, you could list it in the bells section under Fenton in the Glass category, or in hobnail section under Fenton in the Glass category.  Both are correct, but listing in both is pointless.  Most people are going to do a search under the entire Fenton area, and pull up everything, although listing it under bells would probably yield a better price.  The odds of getting any more money by listing it in both categories is pretty small.

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declared: To the selling vets out there: Do most people shop by category or by keyword searches? I sometimes wonder whether it’s worth listing an item (something minor, like a child’s sweater) under 2 categories — though I never do. I can see using more than one category if you’re selling a specialty item–something like a vintage Russian clock– but does it pay off to use multiple categories for ordinary things?

i only list in two categories when they are separate main categories. i.e. a signed astronaut book might be listed in both bookssignednon-fiction and collectibeshistoricalspace. when searching i nearly always search the entire site by keyword. robert "there must be one night in your life that you will remember forever. The must be one night for everyone.  And if you know that the night is coming on and that this night will be that particular night, then take it and don’t question it and don’t talk about it to anyone ever after that.  For if you let it pass it might not come again.  Many have let it pass, many have seen it go by and have never seen another like it, when all the circumstances of weather, light, moon and time, of night hill and warm grass and train and town and distance were balanced upon the trembling of a finger."

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To the selling vets out there: Do most people shop by category or by keyword searches?…

Perhaps you should be addressing the BUYING vets out there. Lumpy — http://www.digitalcartography.com

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To the selling vets out there: Do most people shop by category or by keyword searches? I sometimes wonder whether it’s worth listing an item (something minor, like a child’s sweater) under 2 categories — though I never do. I can see using more than one category if you’re selling a specialty item–something like a vintage Russian clock– but does it pay off to use multiple categories for ordinary things?

When buying I always use keywords I don’t list under 2 categories, but have spotted that books about pubs and breweries do better in the "collectibles/breweriana" section than under any of the books sections. Feathers

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I buy and sell on ebay and I always keyword search to buy. The categories search is only used when I’m shopping for one thing – antique postcards. I noticed a while back that a percentage of postcard sellers don’t actually use the keyword "postcard" in their title!

     Just look for "PC".  Then try to sort the postcards out from the computers.  <g Chris

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To the selling vets out there: Do most people shop by category or by keyword searches?… Perhaps you should be addressing the BUYING vets out there.

I see your point and it had crossed my mind, but they’re not the ones fiddling with earthshattering "to-list-in-multiple-categories or not-to-list-in-multiple-categories" dilemmas. They’ve also done their market research. I suppose I could have created two threads, one to buying vets and one to selling vets, but the variety of helpful responses this one generated made it clear that it’s not necessary to file a general question in two separate categories. <g

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Do most people shop by category or by keyword searches? I sometimes wonder whether it’s worth listing an item (something minor, like a child’s sweater) under 2 categories — though I never do. I can see using more than one category if you’re selling a specialty item–something like a vintage Russian clock– but does it pay off to use multiple categories for ordinary things?

I personally shop for specific items I want by specific searches, but if I’m interested in, say, new yarn for Barbie dresses, I do a "going, going, gone" search in the yarn category to see if something catches my eye.  (That’s how I picked up some really cool purple fur yarn recently.) http://members.aol.com/kimmurphy/ Kimberly’s Barbie Collection: http://members.aol.com/kimmurphy/barbies.html

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To the selling vets out there: Do most people shop by category or by keyword searches? I sometimes wonder whether it’s worth listing an item (something minor, like a child’s sweater) under 2 categories — though I never do. I can see using more than one category if you’re selling a specialty item–something like a vintage Russian clock– but does it pay off to use multiple categories for ordinary things?

I almost always search by keyword.  However, once I FIND something, I will often take a peek _at the category it was found in_ in hopes of finding related interesting items. Also, I DO browse by category for entertainment.  Particularly if I see some interesting category that appeals to me.  And sometimes I do find things there that I bid on. What this says to me is that it’s probably not worthwhile using multiple categories. — dpbsmith at world dot std dot com (replace "at" with at-sign and "dot" with period and remove spaces)

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Do most people shop by category or by keyword searches

I buy and sell on ebay and I always keyword search to buy. The categories search is only used when I’m shopping for one thing – antique postcards. I noticed a while back that a percentage of postcard sellers don’t actually use the keyword "postcard" in their title! When I sell I have ever only entered items in a single category. Hope this helps, Kar

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"Doomella"  wrote in a message … Do most people shop by category or by keyword searches? I sometimes wonder whether it’s worth listing an item (something minor, like a child’s sweater) under 2 categories — though I never do. I can see using more than one category if you’re selling a specialty item–something like a vintage Russian clock– but does it pay off to use multiple categories for ordinary things?

     Most people do whatever they feel like at any given time.      I have several items I buy on a regular basis.  Some I search for by title, because I know exactly what I want.  Some I search by category beause I don’t know exactly what I’ll find, but I want something in the category. I also have a list of sellers that I check, because even though they have wildly different things at different times, everything they have is a bargain.  I just keep checking them until they have something I want.      Now, to answer your question as a seller, the item I sell really only fits one category as far as I’m concerned, so that’s all I list it in. Chris

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Doomella said To the selling vets out there: Do most people shop by category or by keyword searches? I sometimes wonder whether it’s worth listing an item (something minor, like a child’s sweater) under 2 categories — though I never do. I can see using more than one category if you’re selling a specialty item–something like a vintage Russian clock– but does it pay off to use multiple categories for ordinary things?

9 times out of 10 I do a keyword search… maybe even 99 times out of 100 in fact. — NEOPETS!!!!! http://www.neopets.com/refer.phtml?username=fredajones

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The only time I didn’t keyword search was when I was looking for an item that is commonly called by several names. For that one item, browsing by category was just the ticket.  For most other stuff, I don’t think the category makes a huge difference.  Sometimes I will go one category down then keyword search to help weed out the crap. Tony

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – To the selling vets out there: Do most people shop by category or by keyword searches? I sometimes wonder whether it’s worth listing an item (something minor, like a child’s sweater) under 2 categories — though I never do. I can see using more than one category if you’re selling a specialty item–something like a vintage Russian clock– but does it pay off to use multiple categories for ordinary things?

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To the selling vets out there: Do most people shop by category or by keyword searches? I sometimes wonder whether it’s worth listing an item (something minor, like a child’s sweater) under 2 categories — though I never do. I can see using more than one category if you’re selling a specialty item–something like a vintage Russian clock– but does it pay off to use multiple categories for ordinary things?

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