I also do most of my shopping on ebay using the search engine and have good
results. I will admit I'm often surprised at finding a nice piece of boat
gear of nautical cruising guide in some totally unrelated catagory..

However, it is also helpful to have the item in and appropriate catagory to
'catch the eye' of someone just browsing around. I suspect that the majority
of impulse purchases are from browsing rather than searching.. I'm talking
about the guy who never knew he was looking for a set of sail boat plans..
;o)

Steve
s/v Good Intentions