Why are these auction descriptions the way they are?

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jonasclark

Part of the Furniture Now
Aug 4, 2013
741
387
Seattle
I'm sure my description will identify them, so I won't put a name here. Does anyone know the story behind the eBay seller of estate pipes whose descriptions consist of a large paragraph that's one very long, confusing run-on sentence? They also occasionally post vintage fishing gear, and those auctions have very easy-to-read descriptions. Is there a reason for this kind of writing? They used to have an estate pipes website, with the same sort of descriptions. I've pasted an example below:
Up for Sale is One Gorgeous Large and a 6 Inch Long Fabulously Inserted Double Brass Wedding Ringed Applied Perfectly on the Stem and a Made Italian Made Di Vinci Big Fat 9 mm Brandy Filtered Mondi Model Shape Natural Model and a Lovely Thick FatBoy and due to be one of your Favorite Smokers for Sure and Superb Weight and Just Marvelous Balanced at a of 62.6 Grams and Super Just Cleaned and Reamed and Sterilized Big Big Italian Made Di Vinci Big Fat 9 mm Brandy Filtered Mondi Model Classic Straight that a Long Extra Large Extra Thick Extra Fat Large Rounded Heel Bottom that Wide Thick and Perfect for Nice Cool Smokes with a GListening Speckle Grains Smooth thats Swirling and loaded with Hints and Hues of Birdseye Grains and a Few Wonderfully Great Speckled Spotted Flowing Floating Birdseye making it look Marbleized Grained and in the Ever Great Italian Made Di Vinci Big Fat 9 mm Brandy Filtered Mondi Model and a Bigger Wider Taller Bowl at over 2 Inches High and Tall and a Superb Smooth Top Capped Rim so its a 3/4 Inch Bored Super Clean Tobacco Chamber thats Mint and Nice Nice Bored Inner Tobacco Chamber and a Great Great Cleaned Top Wonderfully Different Shape and Larger than usual and Excellent Inner and Outer Bowl Rims that are in Great Conditioned and Cleaned Great Inner Smooth Walled Tobacco Chamber thats Ready to Enjoy and a Excellent On Bottom and On Centered Bored Placement of the Drat Hole that Aligns Perfectly with a Perfect Draft Flow and Drawing Air Speed and a Air Shank Bore right on Centered and a Super Easy to Hold the Classic Smooth Rimmed and a 2.21 of a Ounce and Easy to Grip and Hold on the Perfect Length Round Shanked and Gorgeously Grained and a Thick Shank and a Nice Nice Easy to Grip and Hold Round Shank and a Wonderfully Glistening Grained Smooth thats in Very Nice Ready to Enjoy Condition and Mint Perfect Nomenclatures and a Great 9 MM Filtered Mortise and Tenon Relationship Fitting Wise and Sterilized Fabulously Inserted Double Brass Wedding Ringed Applied Perfectly on the Taper 9 mm Filtered Star Stamp Logo and a 9 mm Filtered Gorgeously Cleaned and Sterilized Taper and very Comfortable Taper Stem that was and with a 3/4 Inch Bowl with Superb Cleaned and Super Smooth Inner Bowl Walls and Excellent Conditioned Inner Bowl Tobacco Chamber with a Wonderful Flush and Right on Centered Bottom Bored Air Passage Way thats has a Great Draw on it and Wonderful Drafting Pipe and a Great On Centered Bore thru the Shank also and Its a Great Great Stem that was Cleaned and Bleached and Sterilized in 100 %Grain Alcohol and in Great Condition and a Great Looker and Feel to it and One Great Made and Grained Italian Made Di Vinci Big Fat 9 mm Brandy Filtered and with a Perfect Bore and Beautiful and Its Clean and Ready to Enjoy out of the Box
I'm not making fun of them at all (and please, nobody else do so either) but I'm extremely curious as to why they type descriptions like this. Does anyone have the scoop?

 
May 9, 2018
1,687
86
Raleigh, NC
My guess? To provide as many hot tags as they can for maximum number of views possible. The more words you use, the more times it'll pop in searches which increase hits and increase their chances of a sell.

 

Chasing Embers

Captain of the Black Frigate
Nov 12, 2014
43,407
109,188
He may be using voice recognition and no using punctuation. When I was still pipe shopping, I've ordered a couple from him. Great transactions.

 

scloyd

Lifer
May 23, 2018
5,948
12,064
I think CCW nailed it. All the capitalization of words makes me seem to think search tags.
I don't have the patience to read descriptions like that.

 

pappymac

Lifer
Feb 26, 2015
3,295
4,327
Either what CCW said or a lack of a firm grasp of the English language and grammar.

 
Oct 7, 2016
2,451
5,195
The seller, Mike Feldman, is well known in the pipe collecting community,as was his father,Mel, who was a shop owner in Albany, NY. Mike was a very, very, early eBay seller. His listings for pipes have always read that way. They used to be quite the source of amusement for other eBay pipe fiends. If it ain't broke don't fix it?
Why his fishing reel descriptions are different is beyond me, but since his style for pipe listings goes back to the 1990's I doubt any of the explanations so far here are correct. I remember trying to make voice recognition typing work for me in my profession back then, but with the latest and greatest hardware and software it was at best a kludge. Search functions are night and day different than they were then.
The late, great Dizzy Dean was repeatedly criticized by English teachers and other grammarians for his mangling of all the rules and conventions during the national game of the week baseball briadcast, including his propensity to use " ain't". His comeback was " Lots of people who ain't saying ain't ain't eating.". I imagine Mike eats well.

 

sablebrush52

The Bard Of Barlings
Jun 15, 2013
19,747
45,289
Southern Oregon
jrs457.wixsite.com
It is basically Mike's written riff on the old American auction verbal sales patter. And I always enjoyed reading those pitches on The Smoker LTD site as well as on Mike's eBay listings. Whenever we corresponded we both did so in the same run on fashion just for the silliness of it.

 

jonasclark

Part of the Furniture Now
Aug 4, 2013
741
387
Seattle
Yeah, it does come across like auctioneer patter. I don't think it's intended as a keyword list, and I think that because he used to have a website, and all the pipe descriptions there were like this. Either way, it's strange and interesting. I like reading them aloud and seeing how far I get before I slip.

 
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