posable Shrek toy

SHREK DOLL -- BRAND NEW!!


ended - Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Auction grade: C

Starting bid: $5.95

Final selling price: $5.95


Up for sale in this eBay auction is a fully posable Shrek action figure toy. The seller claims that this is brand new in the box.

For starters, the auction's title could use some extra work. The seller needs to add "toy", "plush", "NIB", "posable", and even "poseable". If the box was in perfect condition, then the word "mint" could also be added to the title.

It's interesting that it's written "poseable" on the box, yet technically that word is misspelled. The correct version is "posable". Dictionary.com confirms this information. It's also interesting that other types of posable Shrek action figures use the correct version of the spelling.

The auction's description isn't bad, but then again it's not outstanding and doesn't make me want to place a bid. The seller keeps calling it a doll despite recommending it for "action figure lovers" at the end of the description. The seller should have just stayed neutral and called it a toy or even a plush toy (only if it's soft). Dolls usually aren't fully posable like this one, and action figure collectors usually don't like it when people refer to their items as being "dolls". This is the same thing as when people refer to grocery store shopping carts as "buggies". It may not necessarily be wrong at times, but using an overgeneralization of a term just makes a person sound dumb.

It would have been helpful if the seller could have given us a rough measurement of the item's size. Is this one of those massive twelve inch tall figures, or is this one only half that size?

GI Joe aircraft carrier - USS Saratoga

GI Joe USS Saratoga Air Craft Carrier Military MINT


ended - Thursday, April 10, 2008

Auction grade: B+

Starting bid: $25.00

Final selling price: $0 - no bids


Up for sale in this eBay auction is a vintage GI Joe USS Saratoga toy aircraft carrier from the 1980's.

The title isn't bad and the seller has the right idea of using relevant key words, but some changes still need to be made.

First, "Air Craft" needs to be together in one word. It's an "aircraft" carrier, and that's how most people are going to search for that item.

Second, this may be in excellent condition, but the seller shouldn't use that exclusive "mint" term for an item that has been used. It's not even mentioned if this comes with the original box.

The problem is that on eBay and other online stores, mint is used to describe the highest state of perfection with an item. Those are items that are still sealed in their original factory packages and haven't been touched or used by another person. This can still be used to describe items where it's absolutely necessary to remove the item from the box just to take a picture.

Since this auction is labeled as "used", the seller can use similar phrases such as "excellent", "perfect", and "like-mint", but not "mint" by itself. Save that term for unopened and unused items.

Again, throughout the auction's description the seller keeps mentioning that it's in mint condition. It may be in perfect working order and in excellent condition, but it's not mint. Sorry. Again, like in the title, the seller needs to refer to this as an "aircraft" carrier, not "air craft".

I like how the seller mentioned the manufacturer and the overall dimensions, but this description would look and read a lot easier if it wasn't a mass of sentence fragments. Use a little spacing and make this neater and easier to read.

"moving satellites" --- The seller is most likely referring to the various radar dishes and other antenna on top of the aircraft carrier. I doubt that this carrier has any orbiting objects out in space.

Overall, this auction looks pretty good, and a few minor changes will help bring in extra potential buyers and help with the overall accuracy.

Like every other boy back in the 80's, I used to play with GI Joe action figures, too. I had a few of the larger aircraft including the Cobra Night Raven , Tomahawk, Cobra Condor Z-25, and later the massive Mobile Command Center and Crusader Space Shuttle with Avenger Scout Craft (my personal favorite.) It was always hard to compete with that spoiled kid down the street with the USS Saratoga in his basement (forgot his name as it was 20 years ago and when we lived in a different state). My Mobile Command Center was pretty cool, but it wasn't added to my collection until later when we found it accidentally marked down too much in a store ($20 instead of the usual $80+). This makes me wonder how many of those toys and other 1980's action figure playsets are still sitting in various boxes in the attic at my parent's house.