Hubley die-cast Lockheed Electra

Twin Engine Hubley Airplane


ended - Saturday, April 26, 2008

Auction grade: B

Starting bid: $25.00

Final selling price: $37.00


Up for sale in this eBay auction is a vintage die-cast toy airplane manufactured by Hubley Manufacturing Company. Specifically, this is a Lockheed Electra from sometime in the late 1930's. It's not stated, but this actual die-cast aircraft was most likely manufactured in the late 1940's after World War 2.

Starting out, the auction's title could use some adjusting for better eBay search engine optimization. Key words such as "Lockheed", "Electra", "vintage", "model", and even "die-cast" can be added. If needed, "Twin Engine" can be replaced with a better search word or phrase. Then again, since the seller already paid for use of the subtitle, those additional key words can also go down in that part of the title. Maximize your key words and phrases to make your auction appear in as many relevant search engine results as possible.

The auction's description isn't bad. I like how the seller goes into brief detail about this die-cast model airplane. I would like to have seen the seller give us the airplane's basic measurements from nose to tail and along the wingspan. It also would have been nice if the seller could have done some research and given us the general age of the metal toy. My basic research shows that it was probably manufactured sometime in the late 1940's, but that's just my educated guess.

The other correction I would make to the description is when the seller talks about the item's overall condition. While the aircraft looks pretty good in the pictures, it still shouldn't be considered "excellent". The seller even admits it when he mentions the paint chips.

"The plane does have a few small paint chips."

Looking at the pictures, I would presume that some of the paint chips are missing, most likely from the aging process. In the pictures it looks very good, but I wouldn't go so far as calling it excellent.

The pictures are great. The seller gets extra credit from taking the time to show use lots of different angles of the aircraft with the main landing gear raised and lowered. There's just no sense of scale in either the pictures or the auction's description. Judging by the relatively low shipping cost, I would guess that the aircraft isn't that large or heavy.

Overall, a few minor changes in the title and description should bring in more potential buyers. I'm a little bit mixed about the starting bid. If this aircraft really is rare and in excellent condition, the actual value of it would probably be three or four times the price of the starting bid. That's another reason why the seller needs to do a little more research and sell the idea of this being a very old and antique collectible item.

Old baby doll carriage

Old Metal Baby Doll Carage


ended - Thursday, March 27, 2008

Auction grade: D

Starting bid: $9.99

Final selling price: $9.99


Up for sale in this eBay auction is an old, metal baby doll carriage / stroller. There's no indication of the age or general condition of the stroller.

The auction's title needs a lot of work. First of all, the seller needs to know how to spell "carriage" correctly. In addition to that, the following key words would be most beneficial for search engine results: "stroller", "child", "vintage", "antique", and a word I hate to use because of its general overuse in other applications, "buggy".

The current title is bland and looks unappealing, and the lack of key words will prevent it from showing up in most default searches.

The auction's description doesn't add much to the desirability either.

"Old metal doll stroller. The wheeles are wooden. I don't know much about this item."

So as a potential buyer, right now we don't know anything about the stroller's age, general condition (it looks really shoddy in the pictures), manufacturer, or even if a particular type of doll was made for a stroller of that size. If the seller's mother-in-law is somewhat of an antique dealer, she should have been able to provide some kind of information about the stroller. At least we know that the wheels are wooden.

I like how the seller used a ruler to give the buyers a sense of scale in the pictures, though the main picture doesn't load correctly for me. Also, the ruler doesn't line up anywhere near the end of the stroller in the second picture. I would have been nice if the seller at least gave us the stroller's basic dimensions (LxWxH).

Overall, I'll be very surprised if this item sells on eBay. The main problems with this auction are with the poor title and lack of information regarding the stroller. By not having any information and charging at least $18.94 ($9.99 starting bid + $8.95 shipping), it's going to be hard to make the sale.

20 toy military aircraft

Die Cast U.S.A. Toy Fighter Planes New 20


ended - Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Auction grade: C

Starting bid: $14.99

Final selling price: $14.99


Up for sale in this eBay auction is a small collection of twenty toy military aircraft. These are die-cast metal and look to be about 1/64th of their original size. I know that because I used to collect those exact toys a long time ago. I'm an aviation & military history dork :)

The title looks pretty good, but the seller will benefit by finding ways to add words and phrases such as "military", "bomber", "metal", "American", and even something like "LOT of 20".

The auction's description definitely needs some work. Here's exactly what it says:

"Up for your bids is this Really Neat set of 20 Fighter Planes. These are New, Never been played with. Just taken out of box to take picture. No broken parts. Absolutely a Must Have for the Military collector."

The first problem is the almost random capitalization of certain words. It makes no sense and I can only assume that the seller doesn't know how to write correctly. The same is true for the sentence fragments in the description.

My next problem is the way that the seller uses the generic "fighter planes" description for all of the aircraft in the collection. That is certainly not true. I know that the description on the box says "20 PC FAMOUS FIGHTER SET" and most people don't know or care that it technically isn't correct. This is just a seller trying to pass on some merchandise to the next person.

The description is another excellent place to use more key words talking about the different aircraft in the collection. Comments about the military would be useful as well as aviation in general. I'm willing to bet that there are some people that would enjoy setting up a display case with such aircraft, but they're going to have a hard time finding this auction.

The last problem that I noticed in the auction's description is when the seller mentions "No broken parts." That's a lie. Looking at the UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter on the right side of the picture, the rotors blades are bent and broken. Those blades are plastic and it's very easy to bend and brake them with improper packaging. The winning bidder is going to be very sad when they examine that chopper and see the damage. This picture is evidence that it's already broken while still in the seller's possession, yet nothing is mentioned.

Just for fun, here's a listing of all of the aircraft in the picture: F-15, F-18, F-4, F-16, F-111, B-1, F-117, A-6, E-2, A-4, AV-8B, F-14, UH-60, A-10, B-52, SR-71, X-29, F-22, A-26 (not positive about that one), and a C-5. Five of them don't even carry any offensive weapons, and four others are bombers. That leaves the rest of them as fighter and attack aircraft.

That's just me being technical. From a selling point-of-view, if you don't know anything about military aircraft, then you would have a very hard time trying to identify the different aircraft in the collection. For this being a small collection of toys, that really isn't necessary. It would be better to leave that blank rather than guessing and incorrectly identifying some of the airplanes.

A final note is that there isn't any mention of the shipping costs. The seller only says that the shipping amount is the total weight and distance to your zip code.

Overall, this isn't that bad of an auction for toy aircraft. I know that I'm overly picky about certain aspects of auctions and items. The title isn't bad and the picture is pretty good. I like the way the seller neatly spaced out the different aircraft and all of them are visible in the picture.

I do believe that the seller is turning away business by not accepting online payments through PayPal or even Google Checkout. By making people mail you their payment and waiting days (even over a week at times) before the item is even mailed out will discourage people from making a bid.