eBay

hlemur · ‎01-14-2021

Hi,

Can anyone help with an issue that is new for me? Today when browsing the World Coin auctions category, I could look at only 2 pages of results, and when I clicked on page 3, the screen showed:

"Pardon Our Interruption".

"As you were browsing eBay something about your browser made us think you were a bot. There are a few reasons this might happen:

You're a power user moving through this website with super-human speed.
You've disabled JavaScript in your web browser.
A third-party browser plugin, such as Ghostery or NoScript, is preventing JavaScript from running. "

I have no idea why this is happening. I tried going back to the first page of World Coin listings and the message followed me. I couldn't browse the listings at all then.

I tried clearing cookies and cache, closed Firefox and then logged back into eBay, and the same thing happened.

I am using Firefox 84.0.2 on a Windows 10 desktop, and I've made no major updates or changes in recent days. I have been browsing World Coins auctions a few times a day all this week and today am doing nothing differently.

Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks much,

Roger

Some system info:

Windows 10 Pro version is: 20H2, OS build is 19042.746

Javascript is enabled in Firefox.

Oracle Java version is: 8, Update 271.

hlemur · ‎01-15-2021

Thanks for the tip, I hadn't tried the app as I don't like it as much, but I appreciate a good workaround.

I am also a 'power user'. I have been browsing the World Coins category for wholesale inventory for my small business, and I don't want to buy single coins, but rather piles, groups, rolls, etc. Thus I browse quickly, ignoring all items with just a single coin in the picture, Also some users set 100's of auctions to close at the same minute, and they relist every week on the same days and times, so I skip past them very quickly. I've searched like this for many years and the anti-bot program has never flagged me before. Also it doesn't present a chance to prove I am a human. Google searches show that it used to present captcha's to get past the error screen.

azh-71 · ‎01-15-2021

@hlemur wrote:
some users set 100's of auctions to close at the same minute, and they relist every week on the same days and times, so I skip past them very quickly.

Do you know that despite eBay breaking searches it is still possible to exclude sellers you don't want to see?

vanillabrook · ‎01-15-2021

I've got exactly the same problem - it started yesterday (14th January) - I use Firefox but logged on with Safari and it still happened.

I've done nothing differently but have no idea how to apply the above suggestions.

vanillabrook · ‎01-15-2021

..i too am using the filters and that seems to exacerbate the issue...In Firefox the filters have moved from the left hand side of the page to the top, though in Safari that hasn't happened. I'm trying to narrow my searches down to the UK, amongst other filters. Both browsers provide the same bot message so I'm at a loss as to what to do. It's very frustrating...

vanillabrook · ‎01-15-2021

I've just tried searching for Europe rather than UK only and got the same Bot message (using Firefox)

hlemur · ‎01-15-2021

I didn't know that! Is that just available when running a search, or do you think it could work when just browsing categories as well? How do we exclude sellers?

eburtonlab · ‎01-15-2021

You can exclude sellers from searches by using the Advanced Search page.

You can often convert a category browse into a search by using a very general search term something like this by including words from the category name. So if you are searching a US stamp category:

(0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,a,b,c,d,e,stamp,stamps,cent,cents,US)

That should find any listing with any number or those individual letters or those words in the title or item-specifics. If the category is not too large, you can try searching title and description.

azh-71 · ‎01-15-2021

@hlemur wrote:
I didn't know that! Is that just available when running a search, or do you think it could work when just browsing categories as well? How do we exclude sellers?

So, originally, it was an option for saved searches, which you could access by clicking "edit search" in your list of searches. To me this link is no longer accessible, when I click on it it takes me to my search. If the same holds true for you, probably the easiest way will be to create a new search, and then click on "advanced" next to the blue search button. At the very bottom of the page that loads there will be a pretty straightforward Sellers option. Check the button, pull down Exclude option, and enter a list of offending sellers, separated by commas, just like in BBL. Save new search, and delete the old one.

Of course, you won't be able to edit your new search to add more sellers, but there is a solution for that as well - use a browser bookmark to access the search, and edit it manually.

PS. You can't do that to categories, at least not easily. It used to be possible to create a search without specifying a search term, but I think it's no longer a case.

hayward465 · ‎01-16-2021

I had this problem but solved it by rebooting my nearest internet booster then restarting my computer.

My Internet is Sky Q (UK) Ultrafast Broadband.

Hope that helps.

hlemur · ‎01-16-2021

Thank you so much! I went to my favorite browsing category on my desktop and on the left side of the search results, the bottom option is "More refinements".

I selected Seller, and then clicked "Only show items from", and then "Specific "sellers. Then the dropdown allowed me to choose Exclude, and I put in the seller name.

I think this is rather confusing, but when I checked my browse results, nearly 4,000 had been removed from the weekly auctions. (World Coins auctions in just the U.S. typically varies from about 37,000 to 40,000 results)

Thanks again, you helped me considerably as your tip reduced the results by about 10%, and that will make it much easier for me to browse.

Cheers!