Expired listing of WW1 Badge belonging to my great uncle

ac124
Community Member

Hi - I have a question about tracing expired listings. I understand old listings are not archived by Ebay but wondering if I have any options to trace an Item number to the Seller's ID. Earlier today I visited the RSLVirtual War Memorial website where I have previously posted information and photos relating to my three great uncles who served in WW1. To my surprise, another registered user has added two pictures of a Returned from Active Service badge issued to my great uncle Warren Hampton.

 

All medals from the three brothers have disappeared without any knowledge of where they may have passed to so this revelation that a badge of Warren's exists somewhere is of great interest to myself and my mother, neice of the three brothers. None of the brothers who served had any children to pass the medals down to. My mother's father was the only sibling of 7 who had any children.

 

The images appear to have come from an Ebay listing as the accompanying text includes the full URL of the listing with the item number at the end.

Unfortunately the URL is no longer linking to a listing as it must be older than 90 days or whatever the Ebay lifespan is for a listing.

 

This is the expired URL:

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/WW1-AIF-Returned-from-Active-Service-lapel-badge-named-/331992890993

 

The images of the badge are visible on Warren's memorial page here

https://rslvirtualwarmemorial.org.au/explore/people/49079

 

I have tried the Internet Archive Wayback Machine to see if the listing might have been archived but no luck there.

 

I have contacted the admins at the RSL War Memorial to see if there is any way they can pass our contact details to the uploader of the images, but that person may only be a third party who saw the Ebay listing and had the foresight to grab the images and match the name on the badge to the RSL VWM entry for Warren and add the images to his page. It is unlikely they were the seller who listed the item (but it is possible)

 

Does anyone know if there is any way to match an old expired item number with the seller who listed the item?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

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Expired listing of WW1 Badge belonging to my great uncle

I think your best bet is through the RSL web site. I am sure there will be privacy concerns on their part, but as you have already established your bona fides through your own previous contributions, you would hope that they are prepared to pass on your contact details. I also would think it unlikely that the person who uploaded the medal images was the seller โ€“ there are people with an interest in military history (particularly AIF) who do spend their time sifting through on-line sites to glean information. (But they may have kept details of the original listing and sellerโ€™s name ). For example I have had people contact me about ended listings where I have listed named photos of WW1 soldiers, particularly those who died in combat (at one time the War Memorial was collecting photos for their on-line Roll of Honour). In all cases I contacted the buyers with the contact details of the enquirer โ€“ I have no idea what eventuated. It IS possible that the person who posted the images was the buyer โ€“ many collectors are happy to share their findings.

 

Iโ€™m afraid I donโ€™t have any knowledge of how to track ended eBay listings, apart from what you have already tried. I did wonder whether the eBay listing number would give some idea of WHEN it was listed, but it would appear they are fairly random. When you search โ€œWW1 AIF Returned from Active Service lapel badgeโ€ or similar there are 3 or 4 sellers who stand out (with many thousands of Feedback count); I suppose you could email them with your story on the extreme off-chance they may have sold the badge โ€“ the worst they can do is ignore you. Good luck.

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Expired listing of WW1 Badge belonging to my great uncle

Thanks for your response siddieswans. All good advice that I could try.

 

However I have had some luck with a quick response from the RSL admin. They have offered to pass on our details to the uploader of the images and they have told me that the uploader of the images is a niece of the Hamptons. 

 

This is a bit odd as my mother and her brother are the only next generation descendants of any of the 7 Hampton siblings. Her father was the only one of his brothers and sister to have children. The uploader may be a niece or child of a Hampton cousin possibly but at least they will likely have a common interest in sharing information it would seem.

 

Thanks again for your quick reply and advice - much appreciated.

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