The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Hopefully I am not offending any of our members but, am I the only one who thinks that the multiple electric needle listings of multiple Ebay sellers are a pain in the Kiester! Over 40 pages of listings, all posted at the exact same time! It takes over an hour to get thru them just trying to see if I missed an actual Talking Machine Item!

Just my 2 cents, Bob S.

(PS: I'm glad I got that off my chest!)

Ticks me off too. I just put their seller ID in my search filter and none of that shows up.

It also irks me when 120 78 RPM records shows up in the "phonographs" category. There's a category for records!

Click here...
Then here...
Check off these 2 boxes, then enter the "excluded" seller ID here...
Then save your search on your favorites bar.

Agree. The phono section on eBay is often so clogged with crap listings that it's several pages until an actual phono can be found.

The other thing that bugs me is the huge dump of 78s in the "vinyl" records section from India and the UK. I see that eBay recently removed the "location" filter too, grrr.

I think that eBay should have a section specifically for ‘shellac’ records but I suppose people would still put them under ‘vinyl’. It seems most people these days think it’s all the same.

I agree with everything said so far but I'd like to add if I may that UK Ebay is also regularly clogged up with listings for individual needle tins, most of which are fairly common and not deserving of the data they use up. Searching for anything has become more difficult since many people don't seem to realise they are using the wrong section.

When all's said and done, this is a very First World problem admittedly!

I get irritated when I’ll go the vintage electronics section of eBay and its listings of crap modern suitcase turntables, sometimes it’s a whole lot of SAMS photofacts too. Or if I find something at a reasonable price I can’t get because it’s local pick up only and you live absolutely nowhere near the item in the listing! Or items that aren’t meant to be bid only items such parts I need for what I’m working on, so I gotta wait 5 more days for something only one person (me) needs to complete something!

Such problems... Does anyone recall the days before the internet, when you placed want ads in publications like the Michigan Antique Phonograph Society newsletter, ("In the Groove")? Parts were otherwise found by word of mouth. What a pain the butt those days were...

JerryVan wrote: Tue Mar 26, 2024 6:36 pm Such problems... Does anyone recall the days before the internet, when you placed want ads in publications like the Michigan Antique Phonograph Society newsletter, ("In the Groove")? Parts were otherwise found by word of mouth. What a pain the butt those days were...

Yeah, but on the other hand, there was SO much more available 'in the wild' in those days...

You can also filter results by putting a minus (-) sign in front of the filtered word, like this:
-needle
I bet the needle seller thinks that he is a real entremanure! (No I didn't misspell that.)

Among my least favourite UK eBay sellers are the one who lists nothing but case keys, and the ones who list common low value 78's individually. As for needle tins, I refine my searches to try to exclude them, but still they creep in.