Up until a year, or so, ago I had a saved search for Ebay brass, simply "brass model railroad trains". Now, items being imported brass is only about 20% of this search's offerings. Everything from Bachmann train set items (overpriced frequently) to lots of Lionel stuff fills the search. I find my self stopping after a short search as I just don't like going through all of this drudge.

My question....is there a way I can get back mostly brass imports with just a few tolerable Athearn with "brass flywheels" to encroach the brass section? I have my hard earned money anxious to spend! I need a more concise search.

Thanks,

-Andy Carlson

Ojai CA

If it were only that simple.  I just tried Tim's suggestion and got lots of returns but little brass. This has been going on for several months.   Several years ago eBay took away the "brass imports" category.  It was an effort to put more items in the search returns.  Several months ago, they changed the search again in order to increase the amount of items in a search return.  Someone upstairs decided that narrow searches were a bad thing.  EBay search is now almost completely useless for searches like HO brass models.  The returns are so numerous that you have to spend a ridiculous amount of time scrolling to find your items.  That is what a specific search is supposed to eliminate.   Another search I used to use was just the word custom in HO scale.  The returns were in the 600 to 700 range.  It was easy to keep up if you searched daily.  I just ran that search and got 12000 returns, almost none had anything custom about them.  All the searches for items like resin kits, plastic kits or almost anything else we would normally search for have a ridiculous amount of non related returns that make searching almost pointless. I'm going to work on a steam era model.   
Steve Solombrino

Hello friends,

 

yes, unfortunately they finally made their search engine almost useless. I am still there though because of lack of an alternative - that means an alternative in size. ebay is a trade mark since decades, so it will be VERY difficult to convince enough people to go to another platform. Keith Wiseman tried that two or three times during the last couple years.

 

Greetings

 

Johannes

 

Gesendet: Dienstag, 09. August 2022 um 15:49 Uhr
Von: "Tim O'Connor" <timboconnor@...>
An: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io
Betreff: Re: [RealSTMFC] looking for brass freight cars on Ebay

Steve

Wow, you're right they've really screwed it up. I haven't tried to sell on Ebay for over two years and I guess
I won't be using it any time soon.

However, I did an 'advanced search' for OMI [Overland] BRASS (material checklist) and HO (another checklist item)
and with those filters it found a small number of Overland brass auctions. Same with W&R and ORIENTAL as the search
term. I'm sure these are not the only listings, but at least I didn't get 10,000 or more ridiculous results.

In a sign that Ebay doesn't even believe in their OWN searches, at the bottom of the page they show GOOGLE search
results for your search terms !! What a bunch of amateurs run that place now. Since I see Youtube ads frequently for
automobile auctions for Ebay, they've obviously opted to cater to big ticket items and just let everybody else fend for
themselves.

It's time to find another auction site, and move all model railroaders over there !!! :-D


On 8/9/2022 6:50 AM, up4479 wrote:

If it were only that simple.  I just tried Tim's suggestion and got lots of returns but little brass. This has been going on for several months.   Several years ago eBay took away the "brass imports" category.  It was an effort to put more items in the search returns.  Several months ago, they changed the search again in order to increase the amount of items in a search return.  Someone upstairs decided that narrow searches were a bad thing.  EBay search is now almost completely useless for searches like HO brass models.  The returns are so numerous that you have to spend a ridiculous amount of time scrolling to find your items.  That is what a specific search is supposed to eliminate.   Another search I used to use was just the word custom in HO scale.  The returns were in the 600 to 700 range.  It was easy to keep up if you searched daily.  I just ran that search and got 12000 returns, almost none had anything custom about them.  All the searches for items like resin kits, plastic kits or almost anything else we would normally search for have a ridiculous amount of non related returns that make searching almost pointless. I'm going to work on a steam era model.   
Steve Solombrino

--
Tim O'Connor
Sterling, Massachusetts