unwanted girlie posters in saved search responses

Question

I have started getting girlie posters offered as a hit on a saved search about restaurant supplies. Clearly these in no way fit with my search terms, so I assume the purveyor has found a way to hack into saved searches. I don't see any way to block this or to report it.

Suggestions?

eburtonlab · Answer

It is possible eBay has rearranged categories, or changed certain keyword associations, and what you are experiencing is a side effect of that. It is also possible eBay has broken something, and your previously targeted searches now bring in lots of unwanted results because of that.

It is also possible that a seller has added the keywords you are searching for to the item-specifics of those posters -- either because the the same keywords or part numbers mean something else in a different context, or just because the seller is including as many keywords as possible to make the listing appear in more searches.

Without knowing exactly how you are searching and seeing some of the results it is difficult to say exactly which is happening in your case.

In any event, the solution likely involves modifying your search or creating a new search that does a better job of finding what you want and excluding what you don't. If you are not already limiting your search to a restaurant-supply category, that might be a good place to start. Adding additional keywords, or grouping keywords together with dashes or enclosing them in quotes might help. Excluding a few keywords can help as well. Using quotes or exclusions should force eBay to provide only exact, literal matches to your search terms. If you are searching a particular category, using category-specific filters will weed out many miscategorized listings. For purposely miscategorized listings with spam keywords, excluding by seller username is a possible option for the worst offenders.