Psst... here's a tip folks:
When in doubt, ask.
A simple line to the seller like "is the auction item the one pictured?" or the like can be the key bit you need. Or describe some specific thing about the item you expect or want and ask if that is present - example: Does the label show the letters AT after "Personal Computer" or not? OR Is the separation between num pad and main keyboard present? Most mismatched descriptions and pics tend to get cleared up pretty quick this way, and once you know what is really there it doesn't matter how much the listing mutates in the details if there are only so many things it could be. Sometimes this gives you the inside track because most sellers don't make the questions public and you could end up the only bidder knowing that the trash that is advertised is in reality a treasure.
I've only had that not clear up my bidding questions in one very surreal email experience where the seller was either very old or very tired or very busy with multiple listings or all of those simultaneously when I was attempting to purchase my 3.2 Ghz P4 Northie for a 478 socket board. Despite having the actual Chip ID (SL6WG I think it was) and all the specs and asking closed ended questions I was nearly in tears at the end of the auction trying to confirm that I was bidding on the right chip because at least while the original mistake was not a possible actual chip id, every permutation of the mistakes that followed could have been what I wanted or some other that I didn't (different socket, different speed, different cache size, and all very close in ID number in the largest family of chips with similar specs I've ever seen) and I panicked because 5 minutes after mine ended he listed a new auction that had all the correct information for that exact chip I thought I had just purchased and I sent him an email on that listing telling him to hold off accepting any more bids until he read the email I was going to forward to him outside of the ebay system which limited the characters.
I had to detail the entire back and forth exchange in chronological order to illustrate why I was going bat**** after a series of exchanges that had me thinking he was feebleminded or being deliberately evasive for the duration of the auction which I had won, and didn't know what the hell I had actually purchased by the time it was through. He seemed not to connect each successive communication to the previous ones, with the result that every time I tried to correct one mistake, a different one appeared in a different spec and I couldn't even get a YES OR NO to specifics without him adding in something else that ****ed it all up again . After summing up the previous 14 emails dated and color shaded to be clear who said what when final communication had ended in the desperate 24pt red all capitals font command/plea: "PLEASE TELL ME ONLY ONE THING _ DOES THE BACK OF THE CHIP I JUST BOUGHT SAY 'SL6WG' ?? FOR THE LOVE OF GOD MAN PLEASE REPLY WITH ONLY ONE OF THE FOLLOWING TWO WORDS: "YES"/"NO"
With it all laid out like that over four pages he finally saw what had happened (And he was pretty amused at the effort I put into that last letter too...) apologized for the confusion and offered to send me another one free of charge to "compensate for his goof"
It was a pretty good deal for 20 bucks, so I guess even that turned out ok.
