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Can someone explain to me how the eBay search system is supposed to work?
On August 23, I listed five different books by L. Sprague de Camp on eBay in the "Books & Magazines" section.
Yet when I do a search for "L. Sprague de Camp" under "All Categories" or "Books & Magazines" sorted by "newly listed" it only brings up one of the five titles. To find the other four titles I have to do a title search. What goes on here? What good is a search system if it only works 20% of the time?
13 comments
tenbigdogs
Mentor11 months agoHi @yaddith What browser are you using? Based on informal comparisons by members, eBay search results seem to vary based on the browser used. Good luck!
yaddith
OP11 months agoHi, I'm using microsoft edge, and I'm still having the same problem. I listed four L. Sprague de Camp books yesterday and can't find any of them with a name search!
eburtonlab
Mentor11 months agoNew listings can take up to 24 hours from the last revision to be indexed and appear in search.
The original search I linked to above that was only finding one of your books now finds four books, so perhaps eBay has changed something in response to your complaint.
yaddith
OP11 months agoI'm still having the same problem. The search works if I search for "Sprague de Camp," but not if I search for "L. Sprague de Camp." If you can find them, maybe you are using a better browser.
eburtonlab
Mentor11 months agoThe search works if I search for "Sprague de Camp," but not if I search for "L. Sprague de Camp." If you can find them, maybe you are using a better browser.
You may be right about the browser.
The same search that seems to be working for me in one version of Firefox to find your four books does not find results when run in Edge browser or another version of Firefox.
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=L.+Sprague+de+Camp&_sacat=267&_sasl=yaddith&_sop=10&_fss=1&LH_SpecificSeller=1&LH_PrefLoc=2&_saslop=1
yaddith
OP11 months agoThanks! I can only hope that my customers are using a better browser than I am.
eburtonlab
Mentor11 months agoI can only hope that my customers are using a better browser than I am.
Or that they are searching differently -- such as by last name only, or by book title.
eburtonlab
Mentor11 months agoSomething is definitely amiss -- either with your titles or with the search.
When I search using that name, I can see one of your listings in the results, but the other four appear under "matching fewer words", despite appearing to have the exact same name:
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=L.+Sprague+de+Camp&_sacat=267&_sasl=yaddith&_sop=10&_fss=1&LH_SpecificSeller=1&LH_PrefLoc=2&_saslop=1
Searching using several different variations finds those listings:
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=Sprague+de+Camp&_sacat=267&_sasl=yaddith&_odkw=%22L.+Sprague+de+Camp%22&_osacat=267&_sop=10&_fss=1&LH_SpecificSeller=1&LH_PrefLoc=2&_saslop=1
yaddith
OP11 months agoThis is very odd! The search works if you search for "Sprague de Camp," but not if you search for "L. Sprague de Camp." Evidently eBay has a problem with the letter "L"!
eburtonlab
Mentor11 months agoI agree that it is very odd.
From time to time I see a search that works one way, but not in another way that should be entirely equivalent. It is almost as if eBay sometimes groups a set of keywords together, then treats the group as a totally separate keyword from the individual keywords.
If you notice that happening when searching, there are ways around it by trying different variations, though obviously that does not help you as a seller, since your potential buyers running into this issue are unlikely to notice that your listings are not appearing in a particular search and then know to try variations.
From my link above that shows the four results "matching fewer words", use the "Feedback"/Comment"/"?" link to alert eBay page developers of the issue.
yaddith
OP11 months agoThanks for your help!
eburtonlab
Mentor11 months agoYou are very welcome.
I wish I had a better solution for you than reporting the issue to eBay. It might be worth editing your listings to see if changing the title can get around the issue, but with auctions ending in a few days it is hard to know what things you can try that will not wind up being even more counterproductive.
gosimus
Mentor11 months ago@yaddith
< Evidently eBay has a problem with the letter "L" >
Doing a general search resulted in too many hits, so I used Advanced Search to limit the results to you as specified seller. I did several searches, deleting a separate character string each time. Deleting the L. did result in finding all five books . . . but so did deleting Sprague, or de, or Camp, and retaining the other three "words" in the keywords. I can't figure out why this is happening, either.