How to write a collectible title a buyer can identify

Name and number before “rare”

eBay allows 80 characters, spaces included. A collectible title should be the words a buyer pastes into search: maker, series, name, and the number printed on the piece, such as 14/500 or a card number. “Rare” uses four characters you only earn when that number, or a mark, is the reason.

Mercari’s 80-character title is the same search string, front-loaded because the phone cuts it. Do not title a figure “cool statue.” The first line of the description repeats the number and whether the box is included.

What you can see, not a provenance you invented

Describe the mark: where it is, what it says, and any number you cannot explain. Say “I cannot confirm the edition” rather than upgrading a hunch to a first issue. A certificate is named by its issuer and only if you have it. You are not assigning a professional grade to a coin, a card, or a stamp unless you are looking at a grade already printed on a slab, and then you quote that label.

Facebook Marketplace is a reasonable place for fragile ceramics a buyer can inspect. The opening lines still need the maker and the flaw. Do not build a story about a famous former owner. If you do not have a document, you do not have that story.

• Edition or issue number exactly as printed.
• Box and item described separately.
• Repairs, touch-up paint, and price-sticker residue.
• What “complete” means for this series: stand, card, or insert.

Specifics that match the mark

Fill brand or maker, type, character or series, year, and country only from the object or a printed source in the lot. Signed is a specific only when the signature is visible. Country of manufacture is the one on the mark, not the country where you found it.

• Year manufactured from a date on the piece or a cited catalog, or leave it blank.
• Features: boxed, loose, or graded with the slab’s printed grade quoted.
• Material when it distinguishes a variant: vinyl, ceramic, paper, metal.
• Do not create a custom specific called “rare.”

Item wear and box wear

• Paint rubs, chips, and a repaired break, with the location.
• Box: dents, splits, and a missing insert. A crushed box can hold a clean figure.
• Sticker pull, writing on the foot, and a replaced base.
• Paper: toning, creases, and mounting residue for prints and cards.
• Odor and stains. Cellar damp is a condition.

If you do not know whether a repair is original, say it looks repaired and show the photo. Do not call it factory.

The mark, the number, the chip

• The whole object, front.
• The mark or number, readable: foot, back, certificate, or slab label.
• The chip, rub, or crease you named.
• The box and any insert, if they are part of the sale, including splits and crushed corners.
• A certificate only if it is part of the sale, photographed beside the item.
• No manufacturer photo of a perfect example in place of yours.

Mistakes collectors dispute

• “Rare” with no number and no reason.
• A reprint or a common reissue called a first.
• A COA named in the title and left in a drawer.
• Provenance you cannot document.
• A professional grade you invented instead of quoting a slab.
• Box-only photos when the figure has a repair.