Ebay Sellers who list mugs without the keyword Tiki

Here's an example of a mug that would have gone for a lot more money (In my opinion) if it had been listed as a "Tiki" mug.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2114700858

A good example for the beginning mug hunter...Be clever with your search terms. Believe it or not many people listing Tiki mugs don't know what they are. I think it was another Hawaii Kai mug that went cheap because it was listed as a "drinking stein" with, as I recall, not even a descriptive word such as Hawaiian, tropical, or polynesian.

Similarly, as I posted before, when junking at thrift shops always check the vase and bowl sections. I've found several mugs in with the vases, and scorpion bowls etc get grouped in with all bowls.

Stop giving away the secrets of Ebay mug hunting!!! hahaha!

I have a long list of words I use to find the mugs... you wouldn't believe how strange some of them are! I never look for tiki mugs under 'tiki'. Too darn expensive. Now, show me an "aztec voodoo stein" and I'm buyin'.

I search for "tropical" when I have lots of time. Often you'll find items listed as "tropical" and they are awesome.

I've even found tiki mugs searching under 'scary face cup'. Go figure.

Occasionally you can make some pleasant little discoveries using "Face Vase" as your search words.

Hey!
Quit giving away all the "secrets" of ebay searching...pretty soon I will have NO chance of winning anything...:)!

Well, at least I have a few of my own tricks, like searching under "bidders" for what others find. Oops, I shouldn't have written that, should I?

Cheers,
midnite

ps. a few items left, check it out!

http://cgi6.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewSellersOtherItems&userid=cpt.midnite&completed=0&sort=3&since=-1&include=0&page=1&rows=25

Also consider searching for misspellings. For example, there are currently 38 "Hawaian" items, and 13 "Bambo" items. Searching for misspelled items use to really work well for me when I collected "Mars Attacks" merchandise misidentified as "Mars Attack" items.

"Tikki","Teeki" & "Teki" work too...

I'm convinced that there are so many people searching for mis-spellings & alternative terms these days that hardly anyone looks up 'Tiki'!

Trader Woody

Head vase, teeki, teekee, ugly face, OMC, Ren Clarke (for the elusive upside down decaptitated frat boy mug), hawaian vase(yes, with 1 i)... I think it's okay to share the secrets here as we all are devotees!
Holden
(best buy ever - searched under hawaian jar and found an old Stephen Crane piece for $1)