Sunday, February 18, 2007

1) How to begin looking for Luther stuff.


SECRET NUMBER ONE. The first thing to do is take a look at what's out there. Anyone who has begun to collect items associated with Martin Luther and the Lutheran Reformation is quickly overwhelmed with the difficulty in searching for items for sale. Type "Martin Luther" in the search box on the eBay site. Wow. Thousands of hits, but many actually have nothing to do with Martin Luther or the Lutheran Reformation. If you're serious about looking for "Luther stuff," the first step is using the advanced features of searching while limiting the number of hits. If you are searching on Google, it is imperative that you select "Advanced search." Type in "Luther" or "Martin Luther" or "Melanchthon" or "Reformation" or whatever you're specifically looking for. Don't add too many words or you might severely limit your search results. Second, type in the following in the "without the words" box: "King, Vandross, Ingram, Johnny, Lex, Freddi, Burbank, Scottie, Clara". If you find many other entries that are similar in nature but have nothing to do with Luther or the Reformation, find the associated word included in the listing that would be the most unlikely to be included in a listing for Reformation items. Keep this "not" list handy and add and subtract to it as needed. If you're browsing on eBay, the box to add these words into is the "Exclude these words" in the "Advanced Search" option under the regular search box in the upper right hand corner of the eBay window.
Got it? Happy hunting!

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