Why no search feature to browse single listing items only???

[cnstudio]

Im curious why such an important search feature would be left out. Almost seems intentional. Multi listing items are used to show up as low prices in search results but actual searched items are priced high. These are manipulation tactics and could be ELIMINATED if we could simpy exclude multi item listings in our searches. I really hope ebay addresses this issue soon.

[phcd1]

It's even easier that that, a simple fix would be to show the highest priced item in a multiple variation listing. EBay has no desire to fix this as other search engines index eBay listings, eBay aways appears to be the lowest price. They are just as guilty as the seller in my book.

[billstoolsnsupplies]

I am curious though what kind of items you are searching for. If the item you are looking for is created in many sizes then you may not find many single item listings. The variable listing gives you many choices to pick. I think eBay should do a price range instead of giving lowest price. I will use sockets as an example. It would be too much work to create a listing for every size 1/4" socket. This is why variable listing exists. The cheapest prices are usually on what doesn't sell. The item the seller always sells out of are the more expensive items. If you exclude multi item listing you might not have many choices for what you're looking for. You click on the listing if you do not like the price you can always close listing and move on.

[mudshark61369]

@cnstudio,

If you have an idea of the cost of an item you are searching for use the left hand column on the search results page and select a price range for the item. If you shop using Best Match or Price: Lowest..., change it to Time: ending soonest

Besides ebay trying to manipulate other search engines by showing a lower price, they are also trying to cut down on how much bandwith is used by their sellers.  One way of doing that is to have multiple variation listings, as opposed to listings for each color/size of say T-shirts. 

[aramintaca]

Since we are making wishes here I would like to permanently set my searches to USA sellers only instead of having to get out of ebay's default choice of Asia and USA. If I need to look world wide I will choose that, but for 99% of the time it's USA only. A bonus is that this would get rid of quit a few of those bait and switch multi variation listings. The lowest price item is never the one you are looking for (ex: matte eye shadow for .99 is the price for only a brush or cloth bag for the item. The eye shadow is 29.99) Or the low price item is permanently out of stock.

[pf9000]

The search for the lowest price ends up being higher because there is some other item on the list which is different from the item being searched for. There are a growing number of complaints posted here, about this issue, and so far ebay has done absolutely nothing to solve the problem. On a few occasions, after I agreed to buy, a cheaper one appeared on the bottom of the page. But now it was too late, because I had already bought one at the higher price. Infuriating!

[mmc_dbc]

Exactly!  For years I haven't shopped on eBay due to this problem.  Frustrated with too many fake low price results from China.  Most of my orders from there were problematic, often not as described or different from listing picture/specs item.   And they annoyed me more when they greeted me, "My friend..."

I notice now a lot of China stuff are higher in price, probably because USPS raised their postage price--which is good for US sellers business.