NE146 Posted May 3, 2021 Share Posted May 3, 2021 Just an example, but can anyone out there explain to me why searching for the term "Ozzy guitar tab" on Ebay, it doesn't pull up this auction even though it friggin has the words "Ozzy" "Guitar", and "Tab" all in its title?? https://www.ebay.com/itm/324417595091?hash=item4b88cba6d3:g:r80AAOSw6N1f16he Not that I'm wanting this.. I'm just curious for the reason why! If the search isn't working as expected it has me suspicious if I'm missing auctions I'd be interested in because I'm either not "searching correctly" or their algorithm just doesn't want me to see it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NE146 Posted May 3, 2021 Author Share Posted May 3, 2021 Example #2! I manually bookmarked a Sega Saturn Mega Man 8 auction (which ended a couple days ago) https://www.ebay.com/itm/Sega-Saturn-Mega-Man-8-Anniversary-Collectors-Edition-Complete-Rare-/154434074259 However when searching for sold/completed items for "Saturn Mega Man", it doesn't show up, as if it doesn't exist? Am I doing it wrong? What's up with that ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dopy25 Posted May 3, 2021 Share Posted May 3, 2021 2 hours ago, NE146 said: Example #2! I manually bookmarked a Sega Saturn Mega Man 8 auction (which ended a couple days ago) https://www.ebay.com/itm/Sega-Saturn-Mega-Man-8-Anniversary-Collectors-Edition-Complete-Rare-/154434074259 However when searching for sold/completed items for "Saturn Mega Man", it doesn't show up, as if it doesn't exist? Am I doing it wrong? What's up with that ? I noticed that ebay likes to change the category on me randomly. Is it picking a specific category for you that that game is not in? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swami Posted May 4, 2021 Share Posted May 4, 2021 8 hours ago, NE146 said: Example #2! I manually bookmarked a Sega Saturn Mega Man 8 auction (which ended a couple days ago) https://www.ebay.com/itm/Sega-Saturn-Mega-Man-8-Anniversary-Collectors-Edition-Complete-Rare-/154434074259 However when searching for sold/completed items for "Saturn Mega Man", it doesn't show up, as if it doesn't exist? Am I doing it wrong? What's up with that ? No child left behind? When I search for "domyos bike" worldwide search, there will be two stationary bikes showing up. One is in France and one in the USA. Clicking on either, I get the "We've looked everywhere." I've also had a couple items I can't find through normal search with words that are in the title. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kennybrooks Posted May 4, 2021 Share Posted May 4, 2021 Ebay sucks now. They are changing the search you are using to a specific category so the item is not showing. How stupid is that of ebay. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanooki Posted May 4, 2021 Share Posted May 4, 2021 1 hour ago, kennybrooks said: Ebay sucks now. They are changing the search you are using to a specific category so the item is not showing. How stupid is that of ebay. I've hit that a lot in the last year when I've been looking to price out my G1 Transformers to sell, I start on a general "ALL" list and the damn thing randomly in the middle will go into the toys, etc etc TF subsection and it really slices out a lot of stuff which blows. Same happens when I'd want to look for one too or a missing part in the past. There's no reason it triggers, it's all random. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pacman000 Posted May 4, 2021 Share Posted May 4, 2021 I've noticed Google & Bing seem to be using concept-based searching now, where they ignore your keywords & return what they think you mean. Perhaps eBay is doing the same thing? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glazball Posted May 4, 2021 Share Posted May 4, 2021 That sounds about right. "You searched for this but we think you'd like these search results better." Like all of us, I miss the early days of eBay when you could poke around and find items for a good price because they were misspelled. I got my PS2 right after launch that way. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taxman Posted May 4, 2021 Share Posted May 4, 2021 3 hours ago, glazball said: That sounds about right. "You searched for this but we think you'd like these search results better." Like all of us, I miss the early days of eBay when you could poke around and find items for a good price because they were misspelled. I got my PS2 right after launch that way. That's how I got "lockjaw", didn't hurt that it was when storefront listings were not comingled with regular listings. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rik1138 Posted May 5, 2021 Share Posted May 5, 2021 (edited) The seller put the Ozzy book in 'Vintage & antique', and eBay defaults the search to the most commonly used category for the item you are searching for., at least when it chooses a category for you. (In this case, Sheet music and song books/contemporary.) On the left side of the screen, where you see the categories, you'll see that 'Contemporary' is bold/black. If you click the 'Vintage & Antique' category, or better yet, the 'All' category at the top of the list, you will find the auction for the tab book that you linked. Always check the category list on the left. Sometimes eBay will stuff your search into a category, sometimes it'll just search 'all'... That's why it's good to switch to all to find that item someone put in a bad category that might sell cheap... Not sure about the Mega Man, maybe something to do with how eBay searches completed BIN auctions that accepted offers... When I search Saturn Mega Man completed listings, I don't see any 'best off accepted' listings... And there are bound to be some... Edited May 5, 2021 by Rik1138 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+GoldLeader Posted May 5, 2021 Share Posted May 5, 2021 (edited) On the Mega Man, maybe it is because a Best Offer was accepted? Perhaps they are keeping the information private. You'd have to see if other Best Offers have come up. I'm only seeing Buy It Nows and high bids in the Sold Listings. Just a thought. Edit: Oh...I see the post above me said basically the same exact thing! Whoops! Edited May 5, 2021 by GoldLeader I didn't notice the wise person above me has already said this... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+GoldLeader Posted May 5, 2021 Share Posted May 5, 2021 13 hours ago, glazball said: That sounds about right. "You searched for this but we think you'd like these search results better." Like all of us, I miss the early days of eBay when you could poke around and find items for a good price because they were misspelled. I got my PS2 right after launch that way. Funny you mention that because I too recall looking for "Nintedo Games"...At first it was a typo (on my part), then I noticed that with the typo (on their part), there were way fewer bids! I probably lucked out on a few things that way haha... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swami Posted May 17, 2021 Share Posted May 17, 2021 Here’s one: Search for Corsair GTX on Amazon and see 21 results, only one of which has GTX in the product name, the 256gb flash drive. Now search for Corsair GTX 128gb and you get 6 pages of results with the first being the 128gb Corsair GTX, which has Corsair and GTX from the first search in the product name. ??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+5-11under Posted May 17, 2021 Share Posted May 17, 2021 Amazon search sucks. Maybe there's a more specific way to search? eBay search is getting worse, too, with the categories mess. I miss the "*" feature, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
masschamber Posted May 20, 2021 Share Posted May 20, 2021 On 5/17/2021 at 5:35 PM, 5-11under said: Amazon search sucks. Maybe there's a more specific way to search? eBay search is getting worse, too, with the categories mess. I miss the "*" feature, too. don't worry it's all about improving user experience, like when they got rid of ebay bucks, or when they got rid of general discount coupons, buyers only like buying from ebay's hand selected "deals" sellers trying to find things in the action figures section went to garbage last week when they removed basically all categories for just a generic action figures, being able to specify transformers, or gi joe or star wars etc categories made it harder to find you what you want according to ebay. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asaki Posted May 20, 2021 Share Posted May 20, 2021 I just had the "sponsored" items. What's the point is sorting your searches by price if there's gonna be five sponsored items on every page? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanooki Posted May 20, 2021 Share Posted May 20, 2021 Ebay a week ago removed the section for more specific toy brands like transformers? On one side, I don't like that it's gone, but on the other, when I was buying a few years back it kept randomly popping in and out of that section causing some serious exclusions sometimes on stuff with better prices which was infuriating. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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