How to replace a broken dish, a missing piece or a discontinued part

Find the name on the back

Most china, stoneware and glass pieces carry a backstamp on the underside: the maker, often the pattern name, sometimes a pattern number and the country where it was made. Those are the words sellers type, so they are what you search.

• Dinnerware: maker and pattern name, such as Noritake Blue Hill or Pfaltzgraff Yorktowne. If a pattern number is printed, use it too; it separates patterns with similar names.
• Only a maker’s name on the back? Corelle, for one, rarely prints the pattern. Search the maker with a plain description (Corelle green leaf border), compare photos until you find yours, and note the pattern name sellers give it.
• Flatware: maker, pattern, and whether it’s sterling, silverplate or stainless. Look on the back of the handle for marks like Sterling or 18/10.
• Stemware: often unmarked. Measure the height and rim, and note any cut or etched design. Sellers list stemware by pattern and by height.
• Parts: the part or model number on the old part, on the product’s label (inside a door or on the back of appliances), or in the manual’s parts list.

If the backstamp is faint or you can’t tell what you have, take a photo of it. Spotter Otter reads the maker’s mark, pattern name or part number it can see, uses eBay’s image search for clues, and writes a description for you to check before it starts watching. When the back carries only the maker’s name, photograph the front instead, so the design itself does the work. The photo isn’t stored; it’s sent to OpenAI and eBay to identify the item.

Name the piece the way sellers do

Each pattern was made in many shapes, and sellers use the trade names for them. Measure yours across the widest point, because some patterns came in two sizes of the same piece.

Search for one piece, not the whole set

Most listings for a pattern are full sets and big lots. If you need one dinner plate, keep those out with “Exclude.” An excluded word drops a listing wherever the seller uses it, so choose phrases that only appear in listings you don’t want:

• Exclude set of, service for, lot of, place setting. These are how sellers describe multi-piece listings.
• Don’t exclude a bare set. Someone selling a single plate may write “from my mother’s set” or “to complete your set.”
• Don’t exclude chip or crack. Careful sellers write “no chips or cracks,” and you’d lose exactly the listings you want.

The reverse works too. If you’re replacing several pieces, a set or lot can cost less per piece than singles. Make a second Spotter with set of or lot in “Must include.”

You can also say it in your own words, with your maximum price: one Noritake Blue Hill dinner plate, no chips or cracks. Luna, Spotter Otter’s AI, turns that into a search and a list of must-haves for you to confirm, then reads listings the way a person would. A listing that states something different, like a set of eight or a salad plate, is left out; one that doesn’t say gets a Maybe match so you can check the photos.

Check condition like a china dealer

Photos hide a lot, so ask for close-ups of the rim, the front and the back in good light before you buy anything costly.

• Chips: look along the rim and on the foot ring underneath, where pieces get knocked on shelves.
• Cracks and hairlines: a thin gray line, easiest to see when the piece is held up to light.
• Crazing: a fine web of cracks in the glaze, often darkened by stains. Fine for display; many people won’t eat off it.
• Dishwasher fade: gold or platinum trim that looks patchy or worn away, and patterns that look washed out next to the rest of your set.
• Utensil marks: gray scratches from knives across the center of plates.

Patterns made over many years can change slightly. If your pieces were made in one country and the listing’s backstamp names another, ask for a photo of the front in daylight to compare colors.

Matching dye lots and finishes

The same problem comes up beyond dishes. Yarn is dyed in batches, and the dye lot number on the ball band has to match yours or the change in color shows as a stripe. Tile and wallpaper carry a batch or run number on the box or label, for the same reason. Hardware finishes like brushed nickel or oil-rubbed bronze vary from maker to maker, so search by the maker and its finish name, not only the color. When the lot number matters, put it in “Must include,” and ask the seller if the listing doesn’t show it.

Discontinued replacement parts

For a lid, a blender jar, a refrigerator shelf or a mixer attachment, search the part number first. Makers often replace an old part number with a new one (it’s called superseding), so check the maker’s parts site or a parts retailer for the newer number and run a Spotter for each. If you find the part on the maker’s or a store’s site, paste that page’s link to start a Spotter for the same item. If you want the original part rather than a copy, exclude compatible, aftermarket, generic. Avoid excluding fits: genuine listings use it to list the models a part fits.