Got an eBay message from the "Vocabulary Police" on one of my listings
I received an eBay message telling me this is not an album:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/186016837198
My understanding of album (by definition) is a multi-page thing where you can put things (like stamps, photographs, and in this case coins).
It folds over itself instead of opening like a book. Does that make it any less of an album?
(Looking for feedback before I reply, I feel a lot of snark coming on, but I don't like to be snarky and wrong at the same time). If there's a better definition for this "album" let me know, I would consider updating the listings because accurately described items are easier to find in search.
C.
45 comments
reallynicestamps
·2 years agoIt's from some rando?
Ignore it.
And put the rando on your BBL.
You have 82 keystrokes for your title.
Use all of album folder folio .
For the same reason my Lord of the Rings books are Titled as Tolkein Tolkien
steve_stuff
·2 years agoThis reminds me a feedback - if I remember right -
"I bought stones album and got a cd copy"
Didn't check your listing to see album to hold what - We would search xxx folder and album and put the one that got the most returns first
house*of*paws
·2 years agoHi @sin-n-dex
I checked a number of definitions for the word 'album' ... and, interestingly, NONE of them mentioned a collection of coins. For that reason alone ... I would put both 'folder' and 'album' in the Title of your listing.
Example of a definition of Album:
noun
soh.maryl
·2 years agoYou were sent the message by an actual eBay employee?
Does that imply that an employee reads over every listing? Have never heard of that.
toomuchstuffagain35
·2 years agoThey already explained it was another user, not ebay.
mam98031
·2 years agoI don't think they meant an Ebay employee, it was likely just from some random Ebayer.
soh.maryl
·2 years agoOK -- that does make more sense. Thank you.
evry1nositswindy
·2 years agoMaybe call it a folio? Or just ignore that person? It's your item.
luckythewinner
·2 years agoI received an eBay message telling me this is not an album
Why would the opinion of a complete stranger matter so much to you?
sin-n-dex
OP2 years agoIf I call it an album and no one else does then no one will find mine in the search. That would mean I should stop calling them albums.
I intend to update the template and add terminology to it, but the question was whether or not the gizmo in my listing was supposed to be called an album.
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a_c_green
·2 years agoColloquially, people do call these albums, but I don't think you should lose sight of the fact that they are referred to as a folder right there in print within the pages of the folder itself. I would just add a mention of "Folder" to both the listing and the description, and be done with it.
mam98031
·2 years agoI'm with @luckythewinner on this one. It seem much to do about nothing.
You have sales history that clearly shows that using the word "album' hasn't caused you any harm. It absolutely makes no sense to me why you are making this a bigger deal than it should be.
If you are concerned, as I suggested in a previous post, use both words in your listing. But come on, this hasn't likely hurt your sales even one little bit. Why the thread??
sin-n-dex
OP2 years agoI like to be correct and thought someone might know. I don't read the inserts in these things, but I went to look at it after several people pointed out it's called a folder on the item.
I've gotten lots of "corrections" over the years on my listings. I generally don't start threads on them (and some might be quite controversial to someone who is a stickler for things like accurate history of a location). Pending on what it is, I either ignore or correct.
I've always thought these were albums, that's what our shop calls them... but I wondered if an album might be a specific type of book that holds coins, that doesn't fold onto itself like these do.
C.
mam98031
·2 years agoIDK, from your sold items it appears you had no issue selling these types of items using the word Album.
When in doubt use your ISBs [item specific boxes]. When we use the search function it searches the title and the ISBs. So searchable words that don't fit in your title, create an ISB and put them there.
mam98031
·2 years agoI'm not sure this is really worth any effort. Folder or album, each should be fine. You might consider both just to have your basis covered.
slyders_finds
·2 years agoThat's bizarre. I don't understand why they are worried if you call it a folder or an album. I would caulk it up to Collector Nerd OCD trying to be self righteous.
1786davycrockett
·2 years ago@sin-n-dex
Back in the 1950s, we called them "albums."
I recall having 2 Whitman Lincoln Cent albums, as well as a postage stamp album (which I had acquired as a premium from cutting out the red "sicle" balls from Popsicle wrappers), plus a matchbook cover album.
Albums -- folders.
Six of one -- half a dozen of the other.
Sounds as if your eBay "friend" is quite the nit-picker.
Bet they yell at the TV set during "Wheel Of Fortune," too.
12345jamesstamps
·2 years agoMaybe add the word "empty album"...
sin-n-dex
OP2 years agoI thought that was in the description (yes, I know no one reads those). I put no coins in the title to make it blatantly obvious. Too many posts in here about people who buy stuff and are upset it doesn't come with something they think they should be getting (even though that thing is not part of the listing). I just read a post about colouring books that don't come with pencils when no pencils were offered...
I suppose stating "empty album" would do the same thing as saying "no coins". I think on my stamp albums I've stated they are empty albums.
C.
dirk12955
·2 years agoMy experience,
Whitman Folders
Dansco Albums
Capital Holders
Plastic flips
2X2 cardboard holders
But when I had my coin shop(s) I wouldn't have corrected a customer
for calling a Whitman folder an Album. No more than I'd message an eBay
seller for mixing the terms. Who cares?
I thought an Album was played at 33RPM and came in Mono or stereo.
I guess that's for another thread.
sin-n-dex
OP2 years agoLOL, the part about albums being things you play gave me a chuckle...
At the shop where I work, we don't correct customers unless they're looking for information and want to be corrected. Generally we just let the customers natter on about whatever... if we know what they mean, that's good enough.
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stuff4divas
·2 years ago@sin-n-dex I can c y u would call it an album, but it does self describe itself as a folder. I would have both descriptions on the listing if possible.
sin-n-dex
OP2 years agoI'm going to update the template before I list more, but I probably won't bother to fix what's listed unless I randomly stumble upon them when working on my store.
I found out SixBit had corrupted a bunch of my listings on eBay (a couple months ago SixBit synced with eBay and a lot of photos were deleted so my 4 page stamp lots only showed the last page of the lot). Created a big crisis for me recently... Until I fix those (they're down, going to fix and then relist), I won't bother with anything minor for right now.
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wastingtime101
·2 years agoI think the term album is fine. I'm not a coin collector. If I had something like that I'd search for comps using the terms album, portfolio, and folder to see what came up, what most other sellers called it, and whether or not I could find anything official from the manufacturer. On the inside it does have the term "coin folder" printed so I'd definitely include that in my listing title, potentially with other key words (like album).
This person messaged you to nit pick on the term album, but did not tell you what they think it's called? I'd ignore the message.
sin-n-dex
OP2 years agoI'll see if I can revise the template for new listings going forward. I have some 50 of these to list when I get time. Even if I can't put it in the title I can probably add to the description to explain this. My template has "Whitman Vintage Small" (for those ones) and "Whitman Vintage Large" (for when I have the bigger albums that I sell for more. The ones that get me are the brown albums. They're made by several different companies and sometimes I get the wrong make, even though each company makes the same basic design of album (it's just the gold lettering on the cover that's different).
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slippinjimmy
·2 years agoYour post makes it sound like a message from an "eBay user" not "eBay".
If that is an accurate assumption why on earth would you reply?
sin-n-dex
OP2 years agoIt is an eBay user (I said eBay message in the title, but I meant eBay message from another user).
I usually do reply unless I go straight to blocking... sometimes I'm quick to react and things aren't what I thought they were.
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12345jamesstamps
·2 years agoCoin holder of dimes....something like that.
I love the phase "vocabulary police"....so funny.
There are a very few who are snarking on here....as we both know who he is. I kinda think the ones who are snarking actually don't sell anything anymore. LOL. And they use these paste and enter eBay rules on posting.
tobaccocardyahoo
·2 years agoWhy do you care what it should be called?
The correct way of dealing with this is to block the source of the message from buying anything from you.
A response is useless, and if the goal was to annoy you, you will trigger the a*hole's victory dance.
sin-n-dex
OP2 years agoIf I'm annoyed, it won't last long... I suppose the point of asking was to determine if the member was giving me actual information that would help me improve my listings. Seems like he isn't (unless I want to add folder in the title, and I'm not sure I have room for that... stating "no coins" is pretty important or some fool will buy one expecting coins).
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chevymontecarlo88
·2 years agoI remember these from collecting coins as a youngster and we referred to them as "Albums".
That being said, it does say Coin Folder on it.
gloryglorygifts
·2 years agoI'm old but we used to call them coin collecting folders. It's in the right ebay category so I guess the problem is with your title and description?
The bots must be hard at work today because I got a priority message telling me that something was in the wrong category. I have absolutely no clue how it got in there. Most of my items are buried under Collectibles>Religion & Spirituality > Christianity > Jewelry, which is where they should be.
sin-n-dex
OP2 years agoThe message I got was from another eBay member, not a bot message from eBay.
I use templates to list these and they should all be under "supplies". I don't know which subcategory offhand, but I would have picked something appropriate to describe what I have.
C.
gloryglorygifts
·2 years agoOoohhhh, well at least it's nice to know someone is looking out for you. I thought it was THE vocabulary police, not the one with the small t.
sin-n-dex
OP2 years agoI was trying to be funny. I was going to say "grammar police" but it was about the word I was using, so I figured vocabulary police was a more appropriate term.
I suppose if I just said "received a message from another eBay member" it would appear to be a boring post.
C.
robbie31415
·2 years agoWhitman describes it as an album.
I'd kindly tell them you are simply relaying the description as it is described by the manufacture.
I'd suggest they contact Whitman if they are incorrectly describing their products.
sin-n-dex
OP2 years agoAt the coin shop we refer to them all as albums, all different kinds... different manufacturers.
Anyway this is good info. I tried to search to see what Whitman calls them but I didn't get anything conclusive since they are showing me pictures of current albums and not the vintage ones that I sell. I did notice on eBay there are 579 matches for "vintage whitman album" and many of them look like what I have.
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a_c_green
·2 years agoUm, no... Whitman describes it as a folder: "This folder for United States dimes has been designed..." (Photo 4 of the OP's listing), plus "Coin Folders Available in this Size" (heading in Photo 3).
That said, I would certainly think of it as an album, too, but as Whitman is calling it a Coin Folder, the word "Folder" should definitely be in the title of the listing, alongside "Album" so that both can show in search results.
chapeau-noir
·2 years agoI thought those were 'folders', too - we called them that when I collected pennies as a kid, anyway.
But yeah, seems kind of a picayune thing - 'album' works just as well.
toomuchstuffagain35
·2 years agoUpvote for use of picayune.
(oops, this isn't reddit lol)
sin-n-dex
OP2 years agoI did a search for Whitman Vintage Album (which is kinda what these are, they are from the 1960s). I see 579 matches, some of them are like books (or more appropriately albums). I see some as "album folders".
And here comes the snark... I pointed out to the person who messaged that many other people call them albums and asked him if he's taking the time to message every seller to let them know what they're selling is not actually an album.
I get messaging someone when their listing is wrong (and I appreciate that), but messaging me when I use the same terminology as many others leads me to wonder if said ebayer has nothing better to do than message on hundreds of items. Kinda like that guy that sent me dozens of messages to correct the "lot number" of my listings when the "lot number" is just my internal reference to find the item. Has no bearing on what someone else calls it.
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ittybitnot
·2 years agoAnd here comes the snark... I pointed out to the person who messaged..
@sin-n-dex
LOL. When I read your OP, I thought you got a message from eBay, not some random member. At least you know whatever your term was, it was visible and seen, which is a good thing. Use both terms from now on, after you make note of the 'policeman's' ID' for future reference.
I remember years ago when I sold here and was basically a newbie. I would get lots of "HOW DARE YOU ASK SO MUCH FOR THIS?" type communications...i.e. auction for $200 opening bid.....LOL...let it run and got $1000+.....no worries.
sin-n-dex
OP2 years agoI actually sell a lot of them. We get collections in them all the time, the coin shop staff take the collections out to try and package (or melt) whatever it's appropriate to do with those coins. They give me all the "albums" and I go through making sure there's no bad damage or writing or anything making it unsellable. The more rare the type of album the more tolerant I am of faults. We don't see many Cent albums because the shop will sell those off as whole collections in the album, but Dime and Quarter ones are so frequently seen I take nothing less than excellent for listing.
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fern*wood
·2 years agoI see similar ones listed as folders, but I can’t imagine making an issue over this either way.
sin-n-dex
OP2 years agoI guess it kind of acts like a folder (folding onto itself). To me a folder is a cardstock thingy I put in my filing cabinet to hold receipts and invoices.
An album by my definition (which is not necessarily correct) is an empty book-like thing that you can put collectibles in. I didn't think it mattered how an album opened and closed... but I'm asking in case I'm very wrong to call it an album, in which case I can update the listings and listing template. I've got a bunch more to list, so at minimum I can do them differently if this isn't an actual album.
C.