Searching for Misspelled eBay Auctions? Advanced search techniques

Following the launch of our Christmas competition to find the worst misspellings on eBay I’ve been asked by several people how I found the example that I used to illustrate the sort of misspellings that we’re looking for.

In case you haven’t seen the competition, within just a few minutes of searching I found the following item:

“Abercroibe and fich blue polo shirt , size small“

If you look closely you’ll see that the seller has managed to misspell not just the word ‘Abercrombie’ but also the word ‘Fitch’.  The item has now finished and, not surprisingly, it failed to attract a single bid !

But how did I find this ?

Well let’s take a step back and look at how people use eBay to search for items.  As one of the top online shopping destinations on the Internet, people search eBay in two very distinct ways.

The first way is to carry out very general searches such as ‘cell phone’ where the user is just looking to see what it available before they decide what it is that they want to buy.  As a result these searches generally contain fewer words and normally don’t contain a brand name.

The second type of search is usually more specific, in other words contains more words, and usually contains a product or name such as ‘motorola razr v3′.  This is because the buyer has normally done their research, usually by performing the first kind of search or by reading reviews elsewhere on the web, and has shortlisted one or more items to buy so they are looking for a specific model.

It’s these people that are the closest to making a purchase because they know what it is that they want.

Now, if we put ourselves in the sellers shoes we want to ensure that as many people as possible look at our listing.  How do we do this ?  By ensuring that the brand name and model number (including any common variations) is included in the auction title.

Which brings us rather neatly back to where we started.

How did I find “Abercroibe and fich blue polo shirt , size small”  where, if you look carefully, you’ll see that the seller has managed to misspell both Abercrombie and Fitch ?

The answer is simple: by searching for a brand name that is plentiful on eBay and by searching in a methodical way.

Here’s the search process that I used, step by step:

1. Initially I searched for the word ‘Abercrombie’ and excluded the word ‘Fitch’ to limit the number of items that I’d have to look through.  Note that excluding ‘Fitch’ only prevents the correct spellings appearing, not misspellings of ‘Fitch’.  I then filtered my results by clicking ‘Clothing, Shoes and Accessories’ in the filter search box on eBay
2. I then reversed my search searched for ‘Fitch’ and excluded ‘Abercrombie’.  Once again, I filtered my search by clicking on ‘Clothing, Shoes and Accessories’ in the filter search box on eBay
3. Then I just looked through the listings, looking for misspellings on ‘Abercrombie’.

Now you’re probably thinking that this won’t work for brand names that only contain one word and you’d be right.  But if you carry out the more specific searches that I mentioned above, such as Nintendo Wii or Motorola Razr then you will find items.

It’s certainly true that you won’t find many items where the seller has managed to misspell all of the important words in the auction title but that’s part of the fun

And if you’re stuck for brand names to search for, be sure to sign up for my weekly email of commonly misspelled eBay brand names.

Don’t forget to post any items that you find on our misspelled eBay auctions competition – you might win a $50 eBay gift certificate with runners up prizes of $30 and $20.  It ends on December 31st and, although we’ve had quite a few entries, there’s always room for me.  To see the sort of items that people have found click on the item number in each of the comments.

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