eBay bargain spotting

kizziedog

Originally posted by Philnet :-
I've tried 'Wylex MCB' on fatfingers and I agree with j600, nothing came up. My favourite site at the moment, for friendly design and its not in title search is goofbay, it seems that fatfingers hasn't moved fast enough in what is (now) a pretty quick moving market. The problem with being in this field is also that once your idea is public, all the others (or at least those that are actively being developed) can adapt it into their sites.
There is also a difference in that some of the search websites seem set up simply as search tools to quickly grab a few customers until the fad dries up, whereas others seem to genuinely want to help improve the eBay experience.
I'm mainly associated with apnretail but I can see how some of the other sites are trying to add value and move beyong the simple misspelled search idea.

It is a little bizzare. If you try "Wylex MCB" in Fat Fingers you get no search result. However, when you enter all lower case, i.e. "wylex mcb", you get a result of 3 items found.

liquid8

After using a desktop based piece of software that generated mis-spells that had to be copied then pasted into the ebay search engine I came across http://www.deal-spotter.net (a general ebay resource site) which has a mis-spell generator page at http://www.deal-spotter.net/spelling.php

Pros:

You can choose to have the original search term in the search (though I don't know why you would if you're trying to sniff out the spelling clangers).

When I tested it against others it seems to throw up spelling variants that some others miss. I searched recently for stratocastor (a Fender guitar model) and it revealed 3 items that fatfingers didn't pick up.

If feeling you're entrepreneurial you can actually buy a clone of the site and earning some adverstising revenue from others that use it to search.

Cons:

It (and the other sites that I've tried) still don't generate as many spelling variants as the desktop program that I use as a backup - although https://www.deal-spotter.net is easier to use!

liquid8

'Stratocaster' - Doh!

I did spell it correctly in the searches but in my haste to post here it seems I had a senior moment:-D

Interestingly it's not necessarily the number of results that come back from each engine that automatically makes it the best.

Of the 7 returns from https://www.goofbay.com none of the listings included the 3 thrown up by https://www.deal-spotter.net.

Obviously different spelling variants are being generated depending on where you search - this would indicate that even in the 'misspelling niche' there will always be some that slip through the net despite the technique becoming more widely known.

riverhall_red

There seems to be a lot of MoneySavers from this board already using and praising the tools at Goofbay. They seem to launch a new tool that is very useful every week.

Check out this post :

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=195128

Personally I think what sets Goofbay out from the rest is its tools. All the my search can do this, mine can do that does not really set the sites apart.

Not only can you find bargains with Goofbay but you can weed out potential scammers that ebay do not provide any tools or help for. Check out the tools :

http://www.goofbay.co.uk/tools

I have heard on the eBay boards that scammers are actually using spelling mistakes to lure people to think they are getting bargains when in fact they are set on scamming you because you think you have bagged a bargain.

So if you are using one of these sites be aware, only Goofbay seems to offer the tools to check the private feedback, shill bidding, even private auctions bidders on a particular bargain IMHO.

rcb7

Thankyou Martin, for the useful Goofbay tools, very Handy!

Real_Radix

I'll take it as a compliment that my FatFingers.com site has inspired so many imitators

Thanks to kizziedog for noticing that 'wylex mcb' worked better than 'Wylex MCB' - that bug is now fixed!

And searches like 'Dream Theater' will now find 'Dreamtheater' too.

There's always plenty of updates going on - either behind the scenes or on the Download page. My personal favourite is the Firefox plug-in that lets you do a 'FatFingers search' from the Firefox search bar.

sams247

I hate to seem awkward......... but it seems to me using these misspelt sites that I do come across the same sellers. Could it be that people have caught on that a good way to actually be found and recognised is by deliberatly misspeliing?

Timmy

sams247 wrote:

I hate to seem awkward......... but it seems to me using these misspelt sites that I do come across the same sellers. Could it be that people have caught on that a good way to actually be found and recognised is by deliberatly misspeliing?

Being a part time seller that was the first thing that sprang to my mind when I spotted this thread! Thinking about it though, it's only likely to be bargain hunters that find your items so I doubt it's going to improve sales.

mintymoneysaver

Thanks to fat fingers I got a lovely monsooon(!) dress the other day, I was the only bidder...

BingoMum

They are all very good, my favourite has always been www.bargainchecker.co.uk for speed and results!

gooffbay just seems to come back 'An Error Occurred' whatever I search on?

BM