Carlos Cortez and His Rhythm Kings
“Mambo Costa Rica” b/w “Rose of Tangier”
scum stats: who knows
So I’ve just noticed a kink in the results that eBay spits out for its searches and it’s pissing me off.For example, I search the term “detroit” under the category “records” probably every other day for the past ten years. I know what titles spit out as if they’re ingrained into my soul. This specific search is, by all means, my shit.
Within the past week or so, searches started being populated with TONS of Motown releases, all previously unseen by me and none of which have the word Detroit anywhere in their title or description.
Additionally, I use the “vintage Detroit t-shirt” search regularly. Again, I’ve come to know what to expect with this query. I rock vintage Detroit shirts regularly.
But in this same week or so, that search is absolutely littered with Detroit sports jerseys of all stripes and vintage, NONE of which are actually t-shirts or even have the term t-shirt in their title or description.
Had acquaintances relay stories of searching for blues records and their searches being filled with blue colored vinyl pressings, or searching for a rare 78 of Lewis Black “Corn Liquor Blues” and instead turning up tons of comedy albums by the comedian of the same name.
I feel like this is bullshit and is only further pushing me towards Discogs and Etsy to get my vinyl and vintage shirt fix.
So in celebration…I share with you a record from a Detroit label I’d MUCH rather show up without explicitly even searching it. A mambo on Fortune is a sight to behold. I’ve definitely got room in my life for more of this.
For the giveaway…write in the comments what you’re go-to eBay searches are AND what you’re seeing differently from them lately, if anything.
Winner will get a blues record or a blue vinyl record or something that is only tangentially connected to what they’re actually looking for. Good luck.
Search for Power Records. Still find comic book and Ice-T records.
My usual search for “records for kids” seems to be a bit… confused. However my search for “birthday hat for dog” was a complete success and boy is the hat I’ve ordered doozy!
@MrFantastic That’s something else I search for quite a bit. Terminator 1 & 2 rare memorabilia. :) And why won’t they make the shirt I want?! lol
@MrFantastic LOL LOL :) :) :)
Pretty sure we can blame Skynet
“Jack White Detroit” in hopes someone will put up a copy of the gig poster from the Masonic show of the lazaretto tour. I was lucky enough to find one shortly after that show but it was pretty badly beat up in transit. I have never seen it for sale since but I can tell you that search will generate a few very expensive posters from the Masonic shows on the blunderbuss tour, some Jack Morris baseball memorabilia, a knock off(or not?) goober and the peas shirt, a very expensively priced Hentchmen w/ JW “some other guy” 7”and for quite some time there was a partial roll of of yellow toilet paper stolen from the TMR Cass bathroom. I always wonder if someone actually bought that TP since I haven’t seen it in some time.
A specific James Philip Co mid century modern coffee table…… I’ve come across 2 in a year and a half checking almost everyday. One guy wouldn’t ship it from NY no matter what ideas I came up with or money I offered him. :) The other was sold literally 4 hrs before I checked that day. I’ll keep checking almost every day till I find it and continue seeing all the results that are not the MCM table I want. :)
1. that song is lovely and it allowed me to get up and dance in my office. 2. I teach information and digital literacy along with writing, and you’re experiencing what many of my students call “AI Bullshit.” Searches are being reprogrammed with “artificial intelligence” elements in the algorithms, and it’s learning that “Detroit” equates to Motown and tigers baseball and whatnot. We used to be able to use Boolean Operators to side-step algorithms and the AI BS, but searches are no longer recognizing them because programmers would prefer to tell you what you want rather than allow you to make an exact request. You can try Boolean Operators in eBay and see what happens, but I’m not optimistic. My searches are usually for “Fluevog 9.5” and “1984 Padres” and “vintage fabric” and “fiesta ware” and “string bubble lights” …good luck with the searches and the frustrations created by technology designed for the lowest-literacy user. It’s only going to get worse! ?
I always look for old Pyrex (Pre-1980) and aluminum Christmas trees from the 60’s. Haven;t seen any weird changes lately…
always looking for White Stripes stuff and seeing a bunch of bootleg T-shirt’s from China as of late, along with stuff copies of posters as well. for some reason trying to search completed auctions is damn near impossible too! what gives eBay