How do I search for a precise title and nothing more ?

[jives11]

Hi,

is there a way yet to search for an explicit title in ebay.

For example I want all auctions with the title  of exactly 'Car' ,  Just those three letters in that order, no explicit wildcards expansion etc. Not interested in 'red car', 'Ford car', 'old car', 'toy car'

thanks

[varebelrose]

Not sure if it works in Cassini, but try parentheses around your search term.

i.e., "car"

[jives11]

Thanks but no, it seems to always place an implicit wild card on the end

So for example, here I searched for ("record player") but it still returns titles which contain "record player " rather than only those that are exactly "record player"

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2047675.m570.l1313&_nkw=%28%22record+player%22%...

[jives11]

I have a suspicion that this is deliberate, as it would probably sell more stuff . Offering someone 10 choices Vs 1, very much how Amazon's search works . But this is different to my use case. I know exactly what I want and there is a very good reason for searching in this manner.

I suspect the ebay search engine does support this, but it's disabled in the interface. I noticed that if I see an auction with a very basic title, for example my literal  just 'Car' example, if I look at the auction and scroll down to "Suggested Items" , typically a number of exact title matches occur in this list, so there would be several with the title 'Car' , which suggests that there is some internal way for finding auctions with precise title matches.

[mudshark61369]

@jives11,

Modern search engines are set up to provide results based on key words. Since just the word "car" is often used along with parts, accessories, and many other words, that is the results they return. I just tried an advanced search for Car, exact word, exact order in eBay Motors and got 317,000 + results.  All had the word car in them.

You must have some idea of what you want, a 2 or 4 door, coupe or sedan. Front, rear or 4 wheel drive. Gas, diesel, Flex, or electric powered. Hardtop or convertible. No matter how "intuitive" search engines claim to be, they need something more to go on. They aren't crystal balls after all.

[mudshark61369]

Record player, is a second thought word these days, and is rarely used.   If you search for a turntable or

turn table, in Consumer electronics you will find "record player" is a secondary descriptor, you might as well search for a phonograph.

[jives11]

I understand that,  but I am deliberately searching for badly/poorly/lazily described items.

I'm interested in auctions where the seller doesn't know what they have, describes it badly, puts in little effort

hence the question

[jives11]

I know that, and  that's why I specifically want to search for "record player" or "phonograph".

I'm trying to find the badly described items, where the seller doesn't know what they have . 

[mudshark61369]

@jives11,

When I was buying a lot, the best ways I found to find item titles that were poorly written was to search all categories, using as few key words as possible.  When I was looking for Dinky Toys for example I'd just search: die cast car, small metal car, old metal toy car, metal army truck/lorry...  I always select the "Used" filter as well.  I got 4or 5 of the rarest pieces that way. 

I also would search for misspelled Mfr. names Donky, Dinly Toy, Tanka toy etc.. 

[jives11]

Thank you, yes, all good methods.   But it would be nice sometimes to simply do an explicit search too IMHO.

trying to find those "barn finds" 🙂