Searching eBay for antiques, vintage and collectables

Part two of my guide to buying antiques, vintage and collectables on eBay takes a look at how to find the special object you are looking for.

eBay literally has millions of items for sale and there are several ways you can look around:

1. - Search
2. - Browse
3. - Have eBay notify you when a specific item becomes available

Today takes a look at their search facility, tomorrow the Browse option and on Monday I’ll look at setting up eBay to mail you when a rare item is listed.

Here are two searches to look at:
Simple – art nouveau tile
Complex – victorian 18 carat gold emerald ring to fit size M finger 

If you know what you want the easiest way to find it on eBay is to use the search facility.
Art Nouveau tile:

Go to www.ebay.co.uk. At the top of the page of the left hand side underneath the eBay logo is the search box. Type in Art Nouveau tile and press the enter button. This brings back 114 results today – you can see a tiny picture of most of these tiles down the left hand side. Want to see the best ones first? ( or the cheapest?). Click on the Price column and they will be shown in ascending or descending price order.
By the way typing art nouveau tile, art nouveau tiles and “art nouveau tile” each brings back a different set of results.

There are occasions where a search like this will bring back far too many results to be useful. Try Royal Doulton – today that brings back over 20,000 results. Now we use the left hand column to help filter the results or add more works into the search box. You can add in a date or product type for example. These additional sort terms down the left hand side only work if the seller has filled in the proper boxes when they listed the item – you need to experiment a bit, try out different options to see which brings back the most items you want to see.

Now lets try a more complicated search:
victorian 18 carat gold emerald ring to fit size M finger

Again go to www.eBay.co.ukand use the search box at the top. Now we need to consider carefully what we enter into the box as today that particular search phrase will bring back zero items and I am sure there are some listed.  Try Victorian 18 emerald ring or alternatively Vintage 18 emerald ring. you will get a few results on each search . If you tick the box called “Include title and description” ( located just under the search box) you will find many more to choose from.

You can also use the search box to type in and eBay item number if you happen to know one you want to look at. The “Advanced Search” enables to  search for items for sale by a particular Seller amongst other options

Have a play around with search – Try searching within categories ( more on categories tomorrow) and also try “International searches ” and searching close to home for larger objects such as antique furniture.