eBay search is unusable

[anarkhos]

I want to search for 4mm polyester cord. I search for "4mm polyester cord" and I get a thousand results, most without the term polyester. I try putting quotes around "polyester" and I get the same results. Some results are polyester, but some are paracord, some are nylon, some are jock straps. 

If eBay is telling me never to use their site again, this makes perfect sense. 

[12345jamesstamps]

polyester cord 4mm....need the key words first.

[ittybitnot]

polyester cord 4mm....need the key words first.

@12345jamesstamps 

So the "all words any order" in advance search doesn't work? 

LOL... of course it doesn't, but one can hope I suppose. 

[kensgiftshop]

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@12345jamesstamps wrote:

polyester cord 4mm....need the key words first.

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If they fixed their search engine, it shouldn't matter.

[eburtonlab]

If you are using "Best Match" sort order, this can cause problems. For some reason, lately "Best Match" searches tend to find many more results than other search sorts.

The following search seems to work for me:

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=4mm+polyester+cord&_sacat=0&_sop=10

Using the polyester material filter narrows the results a bit further:

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=4mm+polyester+cord&_sacat=0&_sop=10&rt=nc&Material=Po...

If your default sort order is "Best Match", you might want to consider choosing a different default.

[az93]

Sadly i have to agree with you. I find more things on ebay using google search, than on ebay using ebay search. Ebay search generally shows what they want to sell,  not what you want to buy. 

[mudshark61369]

@anarkhos,

When you typed in your search, what category did you enter?  If you did not select one, then your results will return many things not related to your search.

I just did a search for "polyester cord, 4mm" All Categories, which returned 2,900 items, many of them having nothing to do with the search.  However, in the left hand column on the results page, there were many filters for subcategories of usage.  clicking on the one(s) closest for your intended use may give you the results you are looking for.

[anarkhos]

Selecting a category won't help. Cord is going to be in the same category regardless what material it is made of. If I search for a specific term, I should not get results for that term. 

Avoiding "Best match" does appear to help. I'll try my best to avoid using it.

[ittybitnot]

 For some reason, lately "Best Match" searches tend to find many more results than other search sorts.

@eburtonlab 

While I know what you say is true, what happened to the eBay explanation that the 'sort order selections' were supposed to be the same number of results, just displayed in a different order?  I don't suppose they will ever say why it is no longer true, but it is not 'confidence inspiring' in the present state. 

[eburtonlab]

what happened to the eBay explanation that the 'sort order selections' were supposed to be the same number of results, just displayed in a different order?

That may have actually been the case at one point, but clearly it has not been true of the "Price plus shipping: lowest first" sort for a long time. eBay has a preprogrammed message that often appears: "We’ve streamlined your search results to show you the best listings. See more results". Prior to that there was a different but similar message. Clearly this filtering is something eBay intended even if it does not always work well.

And now "Best Match" does not always provide the same number of results as other sorts. Whether that is intentional or not remains to be seen.

[monster-deals]

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@kensgiftshop wrote:

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@12345jamesstamps wrote:

polyester cord 4mm....need the key words first.

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If they fixed their search engine, it shouldn't matter.

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Old timers all know they aren't going to fix it and that Cassini isn't really a search engine