discussion about eBay listings in forums

Laurin wrote:

@Mr. Underhill Could we please agree that only unsold offers are shown here? For me these sold auctions are not „interesting“ at all.

I think they create an interesting historical price record, but maybe a different thread for ones that are still available at the time of posting vs just being added for the price record would be useful?

The late Stu wrote:

Laurin wrote:

@Mr. Underhill Could we please agree that only unsold offers are shown here? For me these sold auctions are not „interesting“ at all.

I think they create an interesting historical price record, but maybe a different thread for ones that are still available at the time of posting vs just being added for the price record would be useful?

Totally agree! Thank you.

The late Stu wrote:

Laurin wrote:

@Mr. Underhill Could we please agree that only unsold offers are shown here? For me these sold auctions are not „interesting“ at all.

I think they create an interesting historical price record, but maybe a different thread for ones that are still available at the time of posting vs just being added for the price record would be useful?

Until recently there was another thread that the "Sold" items went in.

I believe (and I may be wrong) that if I post an in-process eBay listing, the way the site is configured, doesn’t the status of the listing eventually age to ended or sold or some other state?

So, if I am gone for a long while and finally catch up on past posts, wouldn’t I see many listings that are no longer active?

I guess you could have a thread for “interesting but ended“ listings, but not sure how to keep a current interesting listings thread clear of ended items…

LanceFormation wrote:

I believe (and I may be wrong) that if I post an in-process eBay listing, the way the site is configured, doesn’t the status of the listing eventually age to ended or sold or some other state?

So, if I am gone for a long while and finally catch up on past posts, wouldn’t I see many listings that are no longer active?

I guess you could have a thread for “interesting but ended“ listings, but not sure how to keep a current interesting listings thread clear of ended items…

I think that is exactly what happens, Lance. Many of the posts have Buy-it-Now so they of course being interesting Tolkien items means they will often sell quickly.

I personally don't believe there needs to be any change unless the MODS felt that some sort of auto move took completed auctions to a 'Completed auctions thread', but even that seems overkill, to me at least. It is only natural that items will become unavailable. In fact, that seems counter productive to me given the scope of this site is collecting. Some of us might think that certain information doesn't apply to us, but we never know when sold data might come in useful. Hiding it away somewhere else feels to me to be splitting valuable details into needless subsections.

A few administrative notes ...

• I agree that we should try to keep this thread limited to active, potentially interesting listings (eBay or elsewhere).
  
• There is another thread - New eBay listings submitted, where the bot (and others) can post non-interesting (eg ended) items
  
• The data "cards" that the site shows for many links (eBay, Abebooks, and a few others) automatically update regularly, so when the item sells, or the auction ends, any posts talking about that listing will show the latest data. So yes, an "interesting item" can end up showing as sold by the time you visit this site and see the post.
  

And generally, did you know? The site has an eBay-specific page where you can see eBay items sorted into Interesting, Recent, Active, and Ended categories? You can find it under the "Collect" dropdown at the top of any site page. There is a box where you can paste eBay links if you want to submit them but don't know which thread they should go in. Easy! The bot will post them to the "New eBay listings submitted" thread within a few minutes for you, even easier than posting.

• Interesting items are flagged by myself and the moderators (just posting in the "Interesting" thread is not sufficient, one of us has to agree that it actually is interesting). Items will drop off this list as soon as they are no longer active.
  
• Recent list gathers eBay items in reverse chronological order as they were mentioned here on the site (doesn't matter what thread) - helps if you saw something mentioned and want to find it again without digging through lots of posts. Status (sold, ended, etc.) doesn't change being on this list.
  
• Active list shows all eBay auctions that are still running (within the constraints of the API limit, usually within an hour of accurate), sorted with ending soonest at the top.
  
• Ended list shows items that have ended, sorted with most recently ended at the top.
  

Suggestions for more features and improvements are always welcome!

[EDIT] - I've just now noticed that with the new API that eBay is using, items that are Buy-It-Now no longer have an end-date, and are not showing up in the "active" tab. I will fix!

onthetrail wrote:

I personally don't believe there needs to be any change unless the MODS felt that some sort of auto move took completed auctions to a 'Completed auctions thread', but even that seems overkill, to me at least.

Maybe a special thread where the user could filter the posts they see based upon a flag/tag that is updated automatically by the site based upon a listing’s state? So I could set my thread filter to see only current listings and exclude all ended ones.

Just thinking out loud…

LanceFormation wrote:

onthetrail wrote:

I personally don't believe there needs to be any change unless the MODS felt that some sort of auto move took completed auctions to a 'Completed auctions thread', but even that seems overkill, to me at least.

Maybe a special thread where the user could filter the posts they see based upon a flag/tag that is updated automatically by the site based upon a listing’s state? So I could set my thread filter to see only current listings and exclude all ended ones.

Just thinking out loud…

Sounds like the "Active" tab on the eBay page would be useful for you? https://www.tolkienguide.com/modules/auctions/

I do use that 😀

I meant in general to encompass other site listings that you update the “cards”. Like AbeBooks.

If we are looking at one thread of “interesting listings” which can include eBay, AbeBooks, and other sites where you dynamically update a status, I was just trying to figure out a way to see only active listings in that thread.

But, I may be overly pondering a solution for something that doesn’t need solving..