Advanced search: can no longer find the 'exclude words' function.

[auntieannie2]

I loved the 'advanced search' function where I could narrow down search results by excluding certain words from my search criteria. I used my tablet in desktop mode. Now that function does not show up any longer. Has this option be discontinued or am I missing something?  The results I get now are much too broad and it's time consuming to sift through them. How do I get the 'exclude words' function back?

[tao_101]

Hmm, I'm not familiar with an "advanced search".  When I want to narrow down a search, I just append the term with a minus sign. So an old search I found for a Stanley Kubrick film looks like this

the killing -sale -machine -act -series -season -seasons -joke -jesse -pitt -room -chancer -zone -floor -taggart -fiends -drug -america -fields -drugging -deer -softly -trilogy -dolls -criterion -lennon -chinese

with additional criteria for category, price range, seller location, etc. This may not be what you wanted, but it does work. Note that there's currently an EBay bug (at least for me) where saved search email notices contain wildly different items than running the search on the web site.

[eburtonlab · Accepted solution]

You should be able to use the Advanced Search page using this link:

https://www.ebay.com/sch/ebayadvsearch

If the link no longer appears on the right side of the search button on most eBay pages, you may have changed your screen's resolution, or your browser's window width or text zoom level. Try widening the window or zooming out.

[auntieannie2]

Thank you very much. I used the link you provided to get to the advanced function. I also changed the font size to the smallest and the advanced link shows up now but the screen writing is so small I can hardly read it. Need to zoom in to read anything. I will continue to check the other settings you mention. 

[auntieannie2]

Thank you,  I tried this method and it works. 

[eburtonlab]

You are very welcome -- good luck!

[ex-beachboy]

I tried this as you described. In fact, I have been using the "-" to exclude words for at least a decade. But today, I cannot get it to work. I even tried it as being case sensitive--no joy! Have you heard anything about eBay removing this option? Thx.

[eburtonlab]

@ex-beachboy 

I am seeing the same thing -- no results when using an exclusion -- unless I sort by "Best Match", in which case I can see some results.

I have reported this to eBay using the "Feedback" / "Comment" / "?" link in the lower right of the search results page.

devon@ebay 

Searching by keyword and using an exclusion term with any sort order other than "Best Match" seems to be returning no results. This happens whether using a minus sign or the Advanced Search page to exclude a keyword.

[edited to add: same results when using the eBay app, or on ebay.ca or ebay.co.uk]

[eburtonlab]

Upon further investigation, other searches with exclusions turn up results -- it seems I just picked particularly bad searches/keywords as examples to test initially.

If a search turns up results only due to a keyword substitution, then excluding any keyword prevents keyword substitutions and therefore finds no results, regardless of what keyword is excluded.

The "Best Match" sort is known to provide additional, less relevant results compared to other searches, accounting for additional results seen when using that sort.