[RESOLVED]ebay listings dont match pictured item

Started by Jazz 342, September 07, 2012, 09:20:13 PM

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Jazz 342

September 07, 2012, 09:20:13 PM Last Edit: October 16, 2012, 08:31:32 PM by shmax
I have a 25th anniversary Titanium Optimus Prime http://shmax.com/product_details/5369/optimus_prime
but looking at the eBay listings its calling up values of the heroes of cybertron PVC figure

shmax


I have a 25th anniversary Titanium Optimus Prime http://shmax.com/product_details/5369/optimus_prime
but looking at the eBay listings its calling up values of the heroes of cybertron PVC figure


Hmm, now that's a tricky one. I tried changing the search parameters such that "cybertron heroes" appears (with quotes), but then no results turn up. Does the term "cybertron heroes" actually appear on the packaging anywhere? eBay'ers don't seem to be using the terms in their auction titles.

Jazz 342

Not that I've noticed.
Also I've found another item with the same problem,  but this one may be more difficult to fix... the burning fallen that was a Target exclusive.   http://shmax.com/product_details/5981/the_fallen
Seems that due to the name of this one also being part of the name of the series leads to data being pulled randomly from eBay.

engledogg

#3
September 08, 2012, 08:21:27 AM Last Edit: September 08, 2012, 09:20:52 AM by engledogg
Cybertron Heroes is the name of the 6" line.  Robot Masters is the name of the 3" line.  Not sure why eBayers wouldn't use them, but those ARE the name of the sub-lines. 

Actually, looking at that listing...Titaniums used to be a stand-alone TF line (in terms of our TF database, but when line expansion comes, it will gain upper-level status as there are Marvel, Star Wars, and Battlestar Galactica Titaniums), but when the TF Titaniums, as a line, got axed, they had some stuff that got released under Universe (perhaps as that was the current line at the time). 

This Prime is one of them, along with his casemates Thrust and Hot Zone.  So, I guess there are a variety of factors that could give wonky numbers.  The similarly-named "Heroes of Cybertron" mostly-PVC line doesn't help things either.  :(

Yeah, having the guy's name (The Fallen) as part of the toy line sure doesn't help things.  Could there be a way that we look for "The Fallen" to appear twice for any toys of "The Fallen"?  Even a "the fallen the fallen" search on our own database still turns up the entire ROTF line.

MIKE
engledogg
Dumba$$ that used to buy everything...not so much anymore.

Jazz 342

I believe its officially called burning fallen or something like that, I did an eBay search with that term and it worked. The shmax title doesn't have burning in it.

Jazz 342

I really hope I'm not annoying you guys, I'm only trying to be helpful and being new, I just notice things as I've reviewed my personal collection.  As such, you have FOC shockwave listed as 003 shockwave and getting no hits with the eBay search,  if shmax could add FOC to the title it would have eBay hits.
Again you guys rock!

shmax


I believe its officially called burning fallen or something like that, I did an eBay search with that term and it worked. The shmax title doesn't have burning in it.


Are we talking about this item (we don't have a photo of it on shmax, so I'm not sure)?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170901300975

If so, we definitely try not to include any terms in the product title that aren't explicitly called out on the packaging.

That said, I was able to greatly reduce the number of false positives for this one by:
1. Fixing a bug that was causing generation of the "blacklist" to fail
2. forcing "voyager" and "exclusive" into the search terms

Better?

shmax


I really hope I'm not annoying you guys, I'm only trying to be helpful and being new, I just notice things as I've reviewed my personal collection.  As such, you have FOC shockwave listed as 003 shockwave and getting no hits with the eBay search,  if shmax could add FOC to the title it would have eBay hits.
Again you guys rock!


Please provide a link to the item you're talking about. It really saves me a lot of time when you do that. Thanks much.


shmax


http://shmax.com/product_details/10370/shockwave


Ah, I see what you mean. Engledogg, should we have a "Fall of Cybertron" node in the toyline tree?

shmax


engledogg

Nope...no need for any new subcategory.  The line is just plain ol' Generations...and the toy is called Shockwave (not Fall of Cybertron Shockwave).  If we would create a Fall of Cybertron node, there would be nothing to counterbalance it for the regular toys that will be released that aren't FOC-related.

As for the item in question, I'm not sure why we're not getting results. 

An eBay search for "Generations Shockwave" turns up 78 current results:
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trksid=p5197.m570.l1313&_nkw=generations+shockwave&_sacat=0

"FOC Shockwave" would only produce 15:
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=foc+shockwave&_sacat=0&_odkw=generations+shockwave&_osacat=0

and most of the results for "Fall of Cybertron Shockwave":
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=fall+of+cybertron+shockwave&_sacat=0&_odkw=fall+of+cybertron&_osacat=0

are shared by the "Generations Shockwave" search. 

If we're searching for "003 Shockwave", I can see how that may limit results, but even then, a search for "003 Shockwave" on eBay yields three results:
http://www.ebay.com/sch/Action-Figures-/246/i.html?_nkw=003+shockwave

MIKE
engledogg

Dumba$$ that used to buy everything...not so much anymore.

shmax


Nope...no need for any new subcategory.  The line is just plain ol' Generations...and the toy is called Shockwave (not Fall of Cybertron Shockwave).  If we would create a Fall of Cybertron node, there would be nothing to counterbalance it for the regular toys that will be released that aren't FOC-related.

As for the item in question, I'm not sure why we're not getting results. 

An eBay search for "Generations Shockwave" turns up 78 current results:
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trksid=p5197.m570.l1313&_nkw=generations+shockwave&_sacat=0

"FOC Shockwave" would only produce 15:
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=foc+shockwave&_sacat=0&_odkw=generations+shockwave&_osacat=0

and most of the results for "Fall of Cybertron Shockwave":
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=fall+of+cybertron+shockwave&_sacat=0&_odkw=fall+of+cybertron&_osacat=0

are shared by the "Generations Shockwave" search. 

If we're searching for "003 Shockwave", I can see how that may limit results, but even then, a search for "003 Shockwave" on eBay yields three results:
http://www.ebay.com/sch/Action-Figures-/246/i.html?_nkw=003+shockwave

MIKE
engledogg


Something does seem a little suspicious when you break it down like that. I found that the code that creates the search string was choking on the parentheses in the "Generations (2012)" toyline name. I'm now tossing the parentheses (and their contents) out, and things seem a little better. Still, I'm not seeing as many results as I would expect, so something may still be a touch janky. I'll work on it...

http://shmax.com/product_details/10370/shockwave

Tripredacus

Do you really need to call it Generations (2012) ?? Why put the year in the name at all? It is already in the figure record on the search results page on the release date. If I look at the master US listing in the product tree, there is a Generations (2012) but no other Generations listing. I know there is another Generations, but it is a sub-category of the Transformers (2010) category.

Anyways, I'm not a fan of including years in the product line name like that, but that's just me. I'd say kill the 2010 off of the Transformers category (again, there is no other Transformers category anyways), then take the Generations (2012) and put that into the Generations sub-category and ax the year off it. There are a few other ways to deal with it, this product is basically

Transformers
- Generations
-- Fall of Cybertron

Any way you look at it.

engledogg

#14
September 11, 2012, 08:18:54 AM Last Edit: September 11, 2012, 09:23:18 AM by engledogg
Originally, we did it to keep it separate it from the first iteration of Generations, sorta like what was done with Universe and Universe (2008) as the two were very different lines. 

Adding years to the names of category has nothing to do with the year of the toy release...it is/was simply a way to differentiate it from previous lines with the same name.  The addition of the year is a pretty rare occurence in the database.  That's why you don't see Dark of the Moon (2011) or Revenge of the Fallen (2009) or why Smokescreen is under Universe (2008), even though he was released in 2009.  Stuff in parentheses isn't generally a problem. 

As far as Transformers (2010), goes that's always been a bit of a nightmare, in terms of organization.  Transformers 2010 was pretty much the "fan-accepted" term for quite a while (in fact, you'll find it referred to as both Transformers and Transformers (2010) on the Wiki), but it could make some sense now just to call it "Transformers".  There are several things that complicate the situation, involving the subcategories.  Technically, and we've been over this before, only the Deluxe Class figures were technically "Generations" figures.  But, they share the same packaging with the 2010 Activators.  So, what do we dump those Activators into?  A new high-level category called "Activators", on par with "Generations"?  Or leave them where they're at?

What you're describing above, about Generations, is a possibility.  Instead of having Generations (2012) as its own line, we could incorporate all that stuff into the first Generations listing, just treating the 2012 offerings as a transition in packaging.  (Note: The Chinese Import TRU exclusives should be in the original Generations line, as should the MP figures.)  But, Generations seems to have progressed beyond just being a subcategory of only Deluxes as this appears to be one of Hasbro's top level lines, especially with the addition of the Voyager size class, with Prime being the main line.  That's sorta why we gave it top-level status as it was different enough from the technically Deluxe-only Generations line from 2010.

Fall of Cybertron is NOT a true subline, so we likely won't be creating a new node for it.  Just like the War for Cybertron (which was present on some of the packaging) toys didn't get a node of their own, I'm thinking that should these shouldn't either - unless it would turn out that ONLY FoC characters are available in this new packaging, then that might warrant a subcategory (and would actually help with the organization).

I'll work on this a bit to try to make everything a bit more...organized.

MIKE
engledogg
Dumba$$ that used to buy everything...not so much anymore.

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