Marx and Ebay Search Categories

Congratulations on the good buy.  I don't recall ever doing what you mention, but I do know you can try misspelling words, e.g. "Marks" for Marx.

I have been doing this for some time.  "Vintage and Antique toys" is a very valuable search category for tinplate trains.  

Also, the "Other" general category under the trains section - and for the same reason.   People often do not know what they have, are selling something found in the attic, etc.

Prices are often much lower - mostly because other bidders haven't found the listing.

The "Lead toys & figures" section under "Vintage and Antique toys" is a great source for 54mm Timpo, Britains, and other vintage lead layout figures to go with your tinplate.  But the best prices are always under "Other".  I have snagged some very good deals this way.

Try searching like THIS.

ADCX

You can almost measure the so called intelligence of search engines with that. What is entertaining are the goofy HO engines listed under O Gauge as well as pressure gauges. I found out a" trolley" is a luggage carrier or a portable tea table. Some listings are mind boggling and another source of entertainment.

I saw two lamp posts, one of which was missing a base, rusted like tin cans in the creek described as in good condition. Whats then considered as a bad condition, a loose pile of shrapnel, rust flakes? Accuracy all around seems to be some sort of a rare, random result.

I've found some good things listed under "standard gauge" that were really prewar O gauge. I assume the seller assumed that O is the standard? What ever it takes to find a bargain. 

Tim

As toy train enthusiasts, we sometimes don't realize how much specialized knowledge we have of the field, that would not be at all obvious, for example, to a random housewife who found a box in the attic.   Prewar O Gauge and Standard Gauge are often confused: they are both old and bigger than familiar "modern" (HO) trains, and one pile of rusty tubular track can look very much like another if you don't already know what you're looking at.

Years ago, I mistakenly bought some prewar O Gauge tinplate that was listed in the Standard Gauge category and never mentioned that it was O Gauge.  My learning curve: now I don't assume anything.   But ironically, that was what got me into prewar O Gauge, after being exclusively interested in Standard Gauge most of my life!

bertiejoa, you are right that there is also a lot of cross-listing on purpose:  if something may be of interest to different collectors, an item will frequently be listed in several categories to increase exposure.

Of course, none of this explains some of the truly odd things that crop up in the Standard Gauge listings that just have no business being there.  Just keeping us on our toes I guess.  Makes for entertaining browsing.

Lionel misspellings.

Yesterday, I went searching for bargains in G gauge and about 15 HO items were in the gallery probably due to the reasons listed above but it can work to advantage in that one thing I did notice is that the category search criteria of vintage | antique toys turned up quite a few items there were not listed in model trains, the majority of which were vintage O with either zero bids, or under-priced for the market. My favorite goofy risk factor that impacts both buyers and sellers is the infamous "it's in perfect condition..has not been tested." A bit contradictory in my book. Or the decently priced item whose photographed looks like it was snapped in a dense fog bank listed as new. My favorite quirky observation is you have a situation where four items are in the gallery one next to the other. All of them list the item as rare and yet they are as common as house flies. How in the world did they determine that? I write this off as the other side of the ignorance factor, this time on newbie buyers..falling for a "come on." 

one of my best Marx finds, an electric cast iron Joy Line set w/ Power House transformer, was listed under HO.

needless to say, there wasn't nearly the competition that might have happened had it been listed under Marx O scale.

Beautiful, Overland. I like to look for Hornby and Meccano things - and often find nice items under Collectible Toys too.

i have a nice gray 1666 engine & tender on ebay if you are interested. 

Ill have to post a picture of my latest find in a unexpected Ebay category  a Marx Erie maroon flatcar with two vintage, metal, yellow and red  Tonka trucks as the load. As a part of this lot was a Unique Arts Boxcar ( which has been hard to find as a separate sale item), six inch Marx barrel and stake flats, an engine, the red GP hopper

along with tank car parts. Cost? $49.00..simply amazing. Category was Vintage Toys.

Glad I re-visited this thread. Good suggestions about doing searches under “vintage toys, “collectibles,” "HO" and the like. I don’t spend too much time on eBay, but I do check out listings under “tinplate trains” every couple of weeks or so.

Looks like these other categories have yielded some great stuff.