What I would love is an online quiz showing numerous carpets. One then must select whether they are machine made or now, high quality or low. I try to test muself on the eBay site by picking out by site the cdarpets that look most spectacular to me by covering the starting bid and just which carpets grab me the most. Almost every time now I am spot something that really snags me, it's one of the "featured" items. And I think I can tell the obvious machine mades too at a glance, even in the first pass pictures. They look flat and static. So when I pick one of those I check and I am almost never wrong. I love quizzes. And something like that would really be helpful to train one's eye. In the meantime, eBay is useful even if not buying, for research and if nothing else, comic relief from time to time.

Machine made rugs do have that flatter look to them as Krow described. For hand knotted rugs however, I would be cautious about identifying designs by eBay seller's advertised names. Often times the names or terms applied to these items are incorrect and misleading. Just my .02

RugRag is currently programing the quiz Pro mentioned. It is taking quite some time, but should be up and running sometime in June. I'll try to keep everyone posted.

-David

Fortunately I have not. A couple of the sellers I buy from, the rygs come with a slight "moth ball" odor which I just open the rug, open the windows and it's gone in a day. I have never seen any evidence of moths, either alive or any other evidence. If these rugs are coming in fresh from import, wouldn't quarantine of shipments eliminate that or account for not having the problem? But no, thank GOD I have not had anyt problem with that. I have a farily large apartment where I keep them and I burn fir, pine, cedar, and sage incense every day to keep that at bay. I just really have not had anyproblems other than the ones I listed elsewhere on the forum, and no problems from my regular sellers, the usual suspects, ECG, and about three or thirteen others, depending on if you count all the guys from Virginia, and I have bought a few from them.

Do these companies have good customer service and wrapping? >>>

As far as customer service, I don't know. I have only had to contact them a couple of times with a question pre-bid on an item and they got back to me quickly. The same for the UK guys. So ia have had no problems with any o fmy main sellers that required any follow up service. Which is why I kept using the same guys after the first few tries. As far as shipping and packaging, they all come tightly rolled in the super thick plastic skin. They ship IPS and Fed Ex, and not once has a package been damaged or ripped open. So I have been delighted. The only ones I have bid on have been those that have multiple close ups. And they all show closeups of the damage/repair areas. No compalints here. Now, if some of them are selling things that are not exactly what they say they are, I am still too green to know. But even taking that into consideration, I am still more than happy, delighted, with everything that I have gotten except for two rugs and a kilim. The one rug was the one I discussed here beforem the diamond pattern that had all the bloblems in the middle of the black field that they did not identify and they frosted out the picture. Like I said, had I not loved the design anyway and been willing to use it, I would not have bid on it. And this was the first and last time I will use this seller. It's a store in Southern California. The two other times I was not happy was with private sellers, so I learned my lesson. Private sellers who wre not priamrily selling rugs. It's been good. But now I am ready for the next phase.

you say you are green, I know you are no green>>>

Many thanks. I think I am a pretty quick study when I feel an affinity and love for something. And then a lot of my basic approach to things seems to work with these aesthetics. We'll see. I have yet to "launch" myself" and that's where the pudding is found. I have more than appreciated and absorbed everything I am grabbing off the tree, shamelessly, on this forum.

is this program with alaskan king crab peoples. i like this new avatar rug you have krow very nice design ebay tribal piece