Howdy all,

     I must admit I am a fan of ebay and use it for purchases as well as
artifact identification, etc.   I have found ebay to be a valuable tool although
one must be suspect of the validity of the seller's information.   Sometimes
they are highly knowledgeable collectors, more often they received their
information "through the grapevine."   It is fairly easy to check information against
other sources in most cases so this is not a major hindrance, but caution is
the key.
     In order to find items it is important to use as many different search
terms as possible and do multiple searches with different combinations of key
words to yield results.   It is often helpful to search in both the title and
description of the item as this will return more hits and thus a greater chance
of finding what you are looking for.   However, sometimes it is necessary to
go through 20 pages of items so patience is also important.   I personally
never use the categories as the seller choses the category for their auction (and
sometimes I question the motivating factors for these selections such as
placing antique machine tools in the automotive section for instance).   The more
creative you are in your searches, the more hits you will find but it is
certainly a hit and miss proposition.

Regards,

Stathi Pappas



______________________________________________________

Efstathios I. Pappas, MS
Doctoral Student
Department of Anthropology/096
University of Nevada, Reno
Reno, NV 89557
(775) 323-5730