Why do people list things on eBay as something that they are clearly not? (MLP)

[Neon Sparkle]

I just wanted to point out that as I was browsing eBay just now, I saw a FS Pink Celestia listed as Vintage G1 in the title. What I don't get is how this person apparently knows enough about MLP or has done some basic research to know what the term G1 even means, yet they are listing something that is clearly not G1 as if it were.

This irritates me as I've seen it done alot with other things on eBay as well, it's like people are just tagging random things with popular keywords to get people to see things they might otherwise miss, but what if I told a family member I wanted G1s for Christmas or Birthdays or something, They might see something like this and think it's what I'm talking about.

I just wish people wouldn't try to pass things off as something they're not.

[Yurusumaji]

As you mentioned, it could be a way to trick people into buying something that isn't what they think it is. Maybe someone is looking for a friend or family member and they don't know any better.

It's just another reason I don't buy from eBay.

[corra]

this really does bother me too, I find people will often tag one single pony as a lot so I find myself still sorting through single ponies when i only want to see lots. So frustrating!!

[karrie91]

A lot of people do it because they sometimes have other items in their store that they are trying to advertise. Others do it to trick people into buying something that they aren't really looking for. 

[egyptiondragon]

some people don't know the difference between say a fakie and a real my little pony so people don't know the different gens the just know a colorful plastic horse with symbols on their bum as my little ponys

[babystarz]

All we can really do is report auctions for keyword spamming, but I don't know how seriously eBay takes that. It annoys me too. I see a lot of stuff that has obviously been purposely mislabeled with a term that describes a more popular item. A lot of FiM stuff, for example, was labeled with the D name that shall not be uttered last week.

[Zenobiaa]

This annoys me so much. I've been trying to find my grail on eBay and it's so annoying typing Pony (the non-censored version) and among the Pony items there's random obviously-not-:muffin: Pony ponies. I'll see ponies named, say, Skywishes G4 HTF followed by names of popular but unrelated characters among bronies ( Pony, DJ-PON3, ect. So it'll say "Skywishes G4 HTF DJ-PON3, Pony, Luna" or something along those lines) that have NOTHING to do with the listing besides bringing more attention to it by tacking on commonly searched ponies. >_>

[Lorelei Redfern]

its annyoign when you type lot as one person said and it pops up as lot of 1.   

[Elisto]

I don't understand that strategy of tagging something with something it's not. Sure, it might bring more people to your listing, but if that's not what they're looking for, it's not what they're looking for, so I can't imagine it actually helps sales. Yeah, maybe someone who doesn't know would make a mistake and buy it, but I'd be surprised if that happened too often, or if all the sellers who do this are actually trying to trick people.

[kakenterprise]

its annyoign when you type lot as one person said and it pops up as lot of 1.   

This is a big pet peeve of mine.

[Lyra]

Perhaps they were putting up multiple listings, using a previous one as a template,k but forgot to change the picture or other details?

[Sugar]

Perhaps they were putting up multiple listings, using a previous one as a template,k but forgot to change the picture or other details?

Saw this the other day, with the image of a Sparkle Pony tagged as a Merry-Go-Round pony, meh.

But I have noticed, in the brief time I've been flicking through auctions on eBay, that a lot of people either a) don't know what they're talking about and make mistakes based on ignorance, or b) know perfectly well what they're talking about and make deliberate errors based on duplicity.  It's a lot of caveat emptor, I guess... and the prices on ponies lately are (largely) just disgusting in North America!  I found ponies in the UK for cheaper, even considering exchange and shipping, than here.   People will take advantage of anything if they can, sadly.

[majikarte]

Saw that a while ago. Reminded me of a time I found a Pokémon shirt with fourth generation characters being called vintage.

[tulagirl]

I don't think they are trying to misrepresent the item, they are trying to sell in a way that gets the most views and exposure. Its keyword spamming and you can report this on ebay.  Ebay pulls key word spamming auctions all of the time. I am just not sure if they will understand why its keyword spamming...so a call to ebay may be better.

[RedLynx]

That is annoying.  I also get sick of all the "rare" and "htf".  Some list all G1s as rare.  Annoying!  Oh and don't gete started on the people stating mint and excellent then listing faults.  It's perfect...except for the blue mustache.  Uh huh!