can’t set category w/o matching search items

[bear_hwn]

background: have previously won ebay auction for usa trains g scale “smokey bear” boxcar.

problem: want to check for more but cannot set the proper category, thusly:

i can search “(smokey,smoky) bear”

and set the category to

=>toys&hobbies->model trains->n scale

(or ho, where there are items that match)

but i cannot set the category to

=>toys&hobbies->model trains->g scale

(where presently there are no matching items - but that could clearly change.)

any idea how to overcome this?

[eburtonlab · Accepted solution]

@bear_hwn 

eBay's search has some quirks, which can make things difficult sometimes.

The categories on the left side of the search results show you which categories the results are located in -- if a category does not appear that means that either there were no results in that category or your search has been limited to a particular category already.

It is possible to change the category first, and then try the search.

When your search terms turn up no results in a particular chosen category, eBay will often show you results from all categories instead. You should see a little note at the top of the results "0 results found in the G Scale category, so we searched in all categories" -- in that case, the underlined term should be a link to the search you want, if you are looking to bookmark or save that search for future use:

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=%28smokey%2Csmoky%29+bear+&_sacat=19151&LH_TitleDesc=...