Well I wouldn't know Marghab if it bit me on the tush...so I'll speak to this in generic terms.

Keyword spamming hurts us all. Misrepresentation of items hurts us all even more.

Just yesterday, I was ironing fabric in preparation for listing and I lamented to my husband that I wished I could use 'Eames Era' for a particular print fabric but I would not. The Eameses children seem to have clamped down on the use of their parents' names...and good for them as it was being bandied about and misused a great deal.

So when I list, it'll be with Mid-Century Modern as keywords - more letters, but correct for the fabric and not misusing the Eameses name.

The list of KWS abused words for my area of sales is long...and while I try very hard not to commit KWS, many others do not. And what happens is that the buyers get tired of clicking into an auction for barkcloth only to find some random decorator fabric that couldn't be barkcloth if it tried, etc. What eventually happens is that the buyers burn out and stop buying on eBay - bad for all of us.

The other thing that happens is that the buyers purchase thinking they are getting barkcloth (because the pictures are so bad they aren't sure) and/or marghab and or whatever the mis-represented item du jour is and they do this once or twice and the seller isn't forthcoming with a refund, return, etc. to rectify the situation and before you know it, we've lost another customer - burned by a bad seller one too many times and gone for good.

Yes, buyers have recourse through eBay/Paypal, but no matter what side of that equation you're on, you're often made to feel like a criminal and there are hoops that must be jumped through and no one except the scammers (and they would be criminals, wouldn't they?) wants to do that more than once.

I have to tell you that I long ago quit policing the listings for KWS and mis-representation. I don't have enough life left in me and eBay doesn't seem to care until a buyer files a complaint. So yeah, you can try to educate sellers and you can report until you're blue in the face, but in the end, eBay will do nothing unless it costs them a lot of money...and we just don't matter that much...we're too small a percentage of eBay's total sales. In fact, I'm surprised this board still exists.

Outside of obvious kws, such as listing a Bulova watch and talking about Patek Phillipe and Rolex in the description, they're not going to pull them. They don't have the knowledge base to do it. I think that is right on....and there is no way they will ever have the knowledge or be able to hire enough people to do that.
And just because they get some complaints from other eBayers...how do they know it is not just someone wanting to get rid of a particular competition? It's a fine line.

I know some people do it deliberately and deliberate or not, it hurts everyone in the long run. I don;t like it, but I honestly do not see any way around it. Frankly, if people are foolish enough to shell out big bucks for things about which they know nothing, well....they deserve what they get. I have worked in antique shops and seen people buy things that were mislabeled....as one dealer working in a group shop, you are not allowed to say anything...sometimes we would try to warn people tactfully....if asked outright about what something was, I would as tactfully as possible indicate I didn't think it was such and such...and still watched people buy anyhow.
The truth is, it happens all over with old things...it is up to buyers to learn. That does not justify people who deliberately mislead, but I really do not see how eBay, or any other company in their position, could possible police it all.
Sorry, probably not the answer you wanted.


meowmeow

So even the Eameses' heirs have given up trying to police that KWS. Kind of a shame if you think about it, but I'm still not going to use it...

I have seen things listed as in the "I love Lucy style" or something being really Ozzie and Harriet.

what Id like is the power to eliminate categories or sellers in a search. you can guess that I search for embroidery related stuff.

run a search and seller X shows up with fifty items i do not want id like to block mr/ms X from my search. it would cure the keyword spammer from my end at least.
although i do have a list of category specific searches - but i'd like an ebay wide search with the ability to ignore some categories. as a seller sometimes will list in a different area as a better place to sell. for example an antique book I had been searching for did turn up under collectible paper. the seller listed neither its title or its author. I spotted by chance key word. but in the same search also had cars and computers cluttering the results. sigh.

I think this should be the NAVT tagline:

Caveat emptor, y'all.

A lovely blend of Latin and Southern vernacular which says it all.

Hey, when HH was new and in its heydey, our social group never went out until after the show on Saturday nights. Granted, we lived in TN, but we never considered ourselves to be hillbillies; we were the sorority, fraternity, country club people. lol


"Gloom, despair, and agony on me..."