Ebay Search Function

[princess7422]

Has anyone noticed Ebay's search function has almost become unuseable?  I find this especially true in Ebay Motors.  I search for an item and thousands of other completely unrelated items show up.  A lot of times if I narrow the search to a specific vehicle, nothing shows up or the thing I am searching for will show up under other related items.  This happens even if the specific word is used in the search.  Someone needs to look into this problem very seriously.  I give up on looking for things when 10,000 unrelated items show up.

[eburtonlab]

@princess7422 

Can you provide an example of a vehicle search that is not working for you? Or something that you are searching for that you are having trouble finding?

There are definitely some problems with specific searches, but I am curious which issues you are running into.

eBay motors searches -- particularly regarding parts -- have some issues with sellers that stuff the item-specifics of their listings with laundry lists of makes, models and years, so those listings turn up in the maximum number of searches, regardless of the relevance. Those can be avoided by picking a random make, model or year that is totally unrelated to your search and excluding that keyword from the search, so that all the listings that contain that same laundry list of keywords are removed from the results.

Chances are good that there are some minor modifications of your search keywords, exclusions, category or filter options that can improve your search results without much effort.

It is often much easier to show with a concrete example rather than a general description, though.

[princess7422]

I wish I could give you examples, but this message center won't let me upload images.  Here's one you can try:  I have a 1966 Chevrolet Impala 4 door sport sedan (hardtop).  If I search for "floor mats", I get 68 returns and the only two listings that are for my car are the 3rd and 4th from the last.  However, I know there are multiple other listings for these mats.  this is just one example.  I have many others.

[eburtonlab]

I do not see any relevant results when searching using those exact keywords for floor mats, but I do get results if I use the "Find parts that fit" tool by specifying the vehicle (guessing the engine type):

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=1966+Chevrolet+Impala+floor-mats&_sacat=33697&selcontext=produc...

If you have a particular search you are using, you can paste the page address of the search results directly into a reply.