Home And Family

If, like me, you love needlepoint canvases by a particular designer, eBay can be a marvelous tool for finding canvases, even ones which haven抰 been made for many years!

The key is to use the 揊avorite Search?tool to find the types of canvases you want.

You say,擨抳e done this and found nothing.? But there might not be any of the canvases you want on that particular day. You can save your searches and get emails whenever new items matching those terms appear.

So how do you create an effective search?

1. Find the category which most closely matches the items you want and search in that category. This cuts down the number of kits dramatically.

We抣l use an example of needlepoint canvases by Petei. So we want 搉eedlepoint canvas?as our category.

2. Identify the designer. If you have a canvas by the designer, look at how it is signed. In Petei抯 case, this is 揚etei? But it could also be some initials, or a company name. Write all these down, they become the starting points of your search.

3 Are there particular kinds of canvases by this designer you want? Write down the terms which describe these kinds of canvases. For example, I might want Petei Santas and not anything else.

4. Now start your searching. Make the broadest search first. This is going to be on the designer抯 name.

5. You get a long list of items both on auction and from stores (we hope). Use this list to find terms of items you DO NOT want. Write these down.

6. Go to the advanced search tool (at the top of the search results and use that to refine your search. If I have a very specific type of item I want, like the Santas, I would add 搒anta?to 損etei?in my search. If I wanted something less specific, I would use my list of things I did not want to exclude words.

The 揹oes not include?box can hold lots of words, but it can be tricky to use. It excludes EXACTLY what you tell it. So if you put in 搒antas? it will not exclude 搒anta?You many need to enter several close terms.

7. Continue to refine your search, doing a search, looking at the results and then adding words. Do this until you think you抳e defined what you want, run out of space, or have a manageable number of items meeting the terms.

8. Once you are happy add this search to your favorite searches (you need to be an eBay member to have this). Give it a short, recognizable (by you) name. I like to get email notices for the things of interest to me and since I started doing this I抳e found many items I want and won.

9. Email notices go out once a day, whenever there are items meeting the criteria. The first email you get will have the search you just did. Don抰 despair, future ones will just have new items.

The notice always tells you how many items have been found matching your search. There is a link to the complete search. I click on this link whenever there are lots of items (more than 9 or 10) or whenever several of the items look interesting.

If you like the description of an item you see in your email, click on the link. It takes you to the item抯 page.

Once you抳e found an item you like, bid on it as you normally would.