Issues with highest to lowest searches.

[acmefoundry]

Saturday I found out, I lost out on a $125,000 dollar sale, assuming, it would have been a full price offer. Someone who had contacted me previously  about my listing on Ebay and Machinio, searched for my listing on Ebay for a  thermal evaporator, and couldn't find it, so they bought something else. Ebay doesn't seem to know why my item was not 2nd based on price, highest to lowest. I even tried cancelling and relisting my item on Saturday. Today I talked to the 2nd and 3rd person regarding this issue. The 2nd person, told me, it was because I am not promoting my listing. Not to be totally angry, but that would be awful, if it is true. That would mean I am paying for a service, and not receiving what I am paying for, so I asked for a supervisor. The supervisor, 3rd person, agreed it seemed wrong, but doesn't know why it is happening. She could see the problem, but said they might not find one based on Ebay's algorithm. It is happening on several of my listings, and Ebay may find it isn't an issue. I changed this particular listing to local pick up only, because the supervisor, and I, speculated it might be the offering of freight, but it did not change it's placement. The listing number is 

144672526852, and it is a thermal evaporator, and people who this  would be searching for one, would most likely search highest to lowest. Mine comes below a 19.99 shirt on the list. I am so frustrated, and I am hoping for a solution. Hope this is understandable, but I am a bit upset right now, and may be incoherent.

Seller assumes all responsibility for this listing.

[rfmtm]

Welcome to the manipulated search engine, which continues to get worse no matter how many of us complain with repeatable examples.  It is not fair to sellers, and certainly frustrating to buyers, but has become the norm for most online venues, not just ebay.  Although some sellers make out great, others of course lose out.

It appears the high-low filter does sometimes get items out of order for some reason, but usually doesn't hide any. The worse offender is the low-high filter, which sometimes actually causes listings to not be visible.

[shipscript]

Without choosing a category, I searched "thermal evaporator" in incognito mode (no cookies or history).

Your item was 44 of 161 using best match (eBay's search algorithm).

(Don't count on Best Match placement when viewing an item you have already visited).

Your item was 2 of 120 when searched highest first.  The "freight" listings appeared below the rest of the listings in sorted order,  so 19 freight listings followed the 99 local-pickup and flat-shipping items, and 2 sponsored items ended the list.

In all, 41 listings were dropped when eBay's search algorithm was dropped.

I did notice that the category is not the "lab equipment" that I would have expected, but is instead "Keys, locks & hardware". Could this have something to do with the problem?

Business & Industrial
> Heavy Equipment, Parts & Attachments
  > Heavy Equipment Parts & Accessories
    > Heavy Equipment Accessories
      > Heavy Equipment Keys, Locks & Hardware