As if we need MORE reasons to be angry with Ebay...

With their new search "functionality", it's no longer possible to search entire categories using only words to exclude.

In other words if I want to search the magic section I cannot simply type in: -criss -angel, -2-headed quarters, -david -blaine, -hypnotize -girlfriends, -L@@K (never quite understood the last one, but it's usually in the description of the REAL garbage on ebay...) in an (apparently) misguided attempt to filter out most of the CRAP you find there cluttering up the otherwise good categories!

I've contacted Ebay about this, and they've attempted to give me a way around this that simply doesn't work... And then nothing.

The wasteland of Ebay gets a just a little bit crummier...

Thankfully we have the Café. I spend more time buying or trading on here than I ever do with Ebay. Too many problems in ebay land. And if it was not for Ebay, my mom would have never been wasting time online bidding on auctions. SHE WON A HOUSE ON EBAY! And promptly moved to Kansas and lived there till she passed. I know its not ebay's fault for her spending the time online. I just like to blame others.

How about the search:

(a, e, i, o, u) -david -blaine, -hypnotize -girlfriends etc.

That should capture most everything. I assume most if not all descriptions should include at least one vowel.

Interesting concept. I'll have to try this out in some iteration or another -however I do know that ebay demands that all "*" searches have at least 2 characters before of after the asterisk...

Um... Wow! A house? That's a little extreme! I was tempted to buy a motorcycle on ebay once and ultimately didn't because of the perceived risks involved -a house is a million times more risky I'd say. I hope she was 100% happy with it...

Besides ebay, where else could I buy a miscategorized T. Nelson Downs token for 1904 for 9.00$ Or an Anna Eva Fay "lucky Mascot" coin from 1884 for 20$ ?

I have gotten some dammn sweet deals there. I suppose I'll have to "just deal with it"!

Like Brian, I always check here for Let's Make a Deal but very, very rarely even look at eBay.

Now that Paypal is the only method, it is a total waste of my time. My wife is a physician licensed under another name. We share computers and credit cards so PayPal is unavailable to us. Prior to that rule, I bought over 400 lots there.

Therefore, the primary reason I even look at eBay is looking for items stolen from our theater and offered for sale there.

I love magic auctions and flea markets but eBay isn't even on the "look list" anymore. They have the gift for disqualifying their most qualified buyers. That hurts the sellers! The sellers are their source of revenue. Duh! (Yep, I am old graduate university marketing professor and I have money to spend on magic. But not on eBay!)

Please do encourage magicians to use "Let's Make a Deal" here on The Magic Café. That really is Magicians Helping Magicians. (No fees either!)

Bob Sanders
Magic By Sander

I'll definitely put my vote in for the Let's Make A Deal section.
Some of the deals and gems I've found here at the Café have been surprising.
And EVERYONE I've dealt with here have been outstanding, not so much on Ebay
I'm afraid!

But I've also found some sweet deals on Ebay too so like Gaddy I just deal with it...

You guys make a very good argument. I'll look to that forum more often for "deals"...

It's too bad they've changed the searching approach.

I've found so much good stuff on eBay. For example, a used pink bathrobe, a rare mint snowgl......ay . . .