Too Many Unrelated Items Showing Up In Specific Search

[foosme]

I am about to list some Disney Princess PVC figures and when I type in that exact search in current and closed listings to see what I should price them at, way too many unrelated items are coming up (over 17,000 results).  I shouldn't say "unrelated" as a lot of various PVC figures do show up, but the majority are NOT Disney Princess!  The only filter I have set is US only.  And, in my opinion, one shouldn't have to set any filters (as far as brand, character, type, etc) to bring up what you're looking for in the first place.  There is nothing in any of those titles that say Princess nor is there anything in the listing itself.   Very frustrating!

[ersatz_sobriquet]

When ebay messes with you like this, you have a couple choices. One is to put "princess" in quotes. Another would be to search for Disney princess pvc -anchovies. 

It's the minus sign anchovies that throws Hal off, he just can't get his thick skull around it. 

If you love or hate anchovies, you can always substitute -oysters. 

[adamsdad2000]

Well that's interesting.  I've used the - (minus) symbol in my search before but put in actual things that were in the titles that I wanted to keep out of my search...never thought of a random word, especially anchovies!  LOL!  Both the quotes and the minus symbols yielded practically the same results.  Good information to know as a seller but what about the poor average buyer who most likely doesn't know this tidbit?   And when you refer to Hal...are you talking the Space Odyssey character?

[eburtonlab]

@foosme 

ersatz_sobriquet has listed a couple of ways to avoid the results of this "smart search".

I believe that what is happening is that when eBay uses certain of your search keywords to select an individual category (in this particular case "Toys & Hobbies > TV & Movie Character Toys") those keywords are then removed from the search. I think the example that eBay uses is a search for "Harry Potter dvd"; the "dvd" keyword is used to steer the search into the dvd category, and then the "dvd" is dropped from the search, since not every Harry Potter listing in that category actually has "dvd" in the title.

Apparently there is not a more specific category than "TV & Movie Character Toys". But without the "princess" keyword, the search is far too general and returns too many unrelated results. At that point, the user's best bet is to pick one of the filters on the left side of the page, one of which is "Disney Princess", which limits the results to a more reasonable 1000 princess-related results.

[coolections]

OK, I took a look. Out of the first 50 on the page there was only 5 pokemon figures. All others where Disney princess. It's a very easy process if you need to narrow it down. After typing disney princess and getting the results go to the left side of the screen. Ebay has made it real easy for you to narrow it down. There are categories you can choose from:

brand

character family

character

type

material

You can check each one to narrow it down all the way to the minute detail of what you are looking for.

[moondogblues]

This happens to me a lot...and also the reverse. The search says items not found and then shows bunches of them under the 'close 'thing...sorry can't think of the exact saying. VERY frustrating indeed.

[moondogblues]

Before I get out my pompoms I will check this out...but...dang you just are soooooo hiphiphooray. Not saying that like it's a bad thing...just that I USED to sell here so I may be a tad jaded.

[moondogblues]

Sooooooooooooooooooooooooo...just tried that. I get nothing that you showed. I searched under art nouveau book covers...I got the usual US country thing, and sold etc thing...nothing extra. I also clicked on another category (forget what) and it was all about shipping. I tried to copy and paste but was unable.

I would LOVE to drill down like that....must be special to get there.

[ersatz_sobriquet]

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@adamsdad2000 wrote:

Well that's interesting.  I've used the - (minus) symbol in my search before but put in actual things that were in the titles that I wanted to keep out of my search...never thought of a random word, especially anchovies!  LOL!  Both the quotes and the minus symbols yielded practically the same results.  Good information to know as a seller but what about the poor average buyer who most likely doesn't know this tidbit?   And when you refer to Hal...are you talking the Space Odyssey character?

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@adamsdad2000 The point of using a random word is that Hal can't figure out what category to throw you in, or sneak you in, without your consent. You will get results for ALL categories, which for those of us who search high and low for that very specific widget, we never want to miss it because Hal took it upon himself (yes Hal is the computer in 2001 space odyssey best movie of all time) to restrict the search results by throwing us into a category thereby limiting results.

The poor average buyer as you put it, who doesn't know boolean, will be purchasing what ebay wants them to see instead of all results, that is, if they buy anything at all. 

[abfabvintage]

@ersatz_sobriquet 

Morning...LOL. Calling this eBay AI a "Hal" I think is a disservice...Can we call the eBay AI something other than HAL? HAL was highly intelligent, whereas the current AI obviously is not? How about a contest to give an appropriate name to the eBay AI? I love the "real" HAL. As you know. lolol. 

[abfabvintage]

@ersatz_sobriquet 

BUT...if you go to SOLDS and do find something close to what you are looking for then click on that sold item, you will actually find more specifics on what are looking for since ebay puts other sellers' active items with the search results at the bottom in a gallery format that you should have seen when you searched originally.  Sorry for the run-on sentence lol.

[ersatz_sobriquet]

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@abfabvintage wrote:

@ersatz_sobriquet 

Morning...LOL. Calling this eBay AI a "Hal" I think is a disservice...Can we call the eBay AI something other than HAL? HAL was highly intelligent, whereas the current AI obviously is not? How about a contest to give an appropriate name to the eBay AI? I love the "real" HAL. As you know. lolol. 

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Morning to you! I was comparing Hal after Dave kept pulling out more memory blocks, like a computer lobotomy 😉 

Yes, let's go with Al, the Hal wannabe. We don't want the "al" programmers to get puffy heads, especially seeing how messed up search results often are. There's really no comparison between the two computers until after Dave has pulled out many memory blocks...

[coolections]

@moondogblues 

I tried again to show you proof with a link but cannot do it without giving my info. All I can say it was the same results with mostly nothing but Disney princess and still showing the categories to narrow it down on the left side. Sorry Ebay does not allow you to have choices to the left like it does me.  Maybe you are right and it is just because Ebay loves me.

[eburtonlab]

@moondogblues 

There is no unique category for "art nouveau book covers", so no specific filters for those. But a search for those key words only turns up about a hundred items or so.

Generally, you will find filters for newer, more numerous items that have specific brands or easily recognized types or some sort of distinguishing characteristic -- like original paintings being separated into oil, acrylic or watercolor.

I would LOVE to drill down like that....must be special to get there.

On the contrary -- to drill down, the items you are searching for need to be less special: more conventional and easily divisible by non-experts.