Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire e-bay tips

I'm not an avid E-bay person. Wondering if others had some best practices to find what I want on there.

Specifically looking for pre 1970 Harley Engines for sale WITH a title. Near as I can tell, pre 1970, titles were based on engine, not frame so I can put this possible engine into a new frame (non buggered) without having to have it titled as "Special construction" and all the BS that goes with that.

I can't seem to find an easy way to filter on such a gremlin. Ideas?

Im not a ebay specialist, but I have learned a couple things. One handy thing is when you do your initial search and it finds a bunch of stuff you dont want, you can add those names with a minus symbol in front and it will remove those from the search. If that makes sense

Thanks. Way back in the day there used to be an app that would let you search all Craigslists and not just specific geography pages - kinda wondering if there's an overlaid e-bay one to do what I want.

If I could find a flathead with title to build a bobber on - I'd like to eventually but I don't want to bother with a WISDOT inspection if I can avoid it.

Search by specific engine, Harley Davidson Panhead, Harley Davidson shovelhead
You'll have to contact the seller and ask them specifics or they might be able to give you a lead if they don't have what you want

That's what I've been doing - I'm trying to narrow it down from there, ones with a title because a lot don't and it's wasted time. Just trying to get the search more specific with a high confidence of result.

Search with +title and -anything you don't want.

+ means that is included.

- means that is excluded.

Within quotes "harley engine" means it will return exactly as typed in.

Awesome - thank you.

I've learned to only deal with sellers that have 99.5 % or higher rating. No guarantee but less chance of drama. Read the comments from past purchasers in the review section both positive and negative. Sometimes you can pick up on some data points that may be pertinent to which way you go. Also if they have an ebay store/ website do an independent net search on ratings for their operation.

Have you tried https://www.searchtempest.com

I shop eBay all the time, have for years. Not always for something specific but often for a genre and good deals therein.

What I have found.

People are buttheads. IE- search S&W K frame rear sight and [bleep] list a Colt rear sight but have in the description “like S&W K, L, N frame, Taurus, Rossi, Ruger Blackhawk”. This gets a bunch of results I don’t need or want.

People can’t spell. Search Kramer holster get nothing. Search leather holster and get Cramar holster that’s clearly stamped Kramer in the pics.

Some sellers are junk shops, consignment shops, goodwill, etc and have no idea what they’re selling. I’ve bought clearly stamped as to make and model items that were generically described. Example, a set of brand new custom stag K frame grips described as, “pistol grip”. These items often won’t pop up in a more specific search.

So what I do, and it’s time consuming but often results in bargains, is to do a somewhat vague search. Like say in your case “Harley engine”. Narrow it to used or for parts since I doubt there’s any brand new shovel heads listed. And plow through all of them one evening when you don’t have anything else going on. Then every day or two when you check again you just make sure it’s sorted by newest listing and scroll through until you get to the listings you’ve already seen.

The more specific I search the less bargains I find. Everyone is looking for a deal on the well known stuff and the only way you’ll find one is looking for stuff that slipped through the cracks.

Like this?

Shovelhead Engine

Would be contender - except I don't see where it has the title for it. It's also missing the case numbers in the picture, tho they might have blotted them out. If it's missing, that's because it's not a real HD shovel but parts assembly.

I can find shovel heads - I can't find em with a title.