Search results not complete

[c-yag]

I know there are a lot more items available in my search interest than I am being shown. I usually get 24 pages per day of 200 items each page to browse through. Now I get 1 1/2 pages of things ending in the next 24 hours. I know there are other items that don't get shown to me as I find them in sellers other items. How do I get the search results to show me everything that I requested?. I have my search criteria and my exclusions just the same as they have always been yet the yield is now so small and so inaccurate that it is useless. I have tried other browsers and logging in in different countries but still get the same items in the same results and still inaccurate. What has changed recently to give such poor results?

[eburtonlab]

A few months ago eBay had a problem where auctions and fixed price listings were sorting differently for a couple of days -- this may be happening again.

If you are sorting by ending soonest and seeing all the auctions at the top of your search results, and then fixed price listings only appear after all the auctions, try splitting your search into just auctions, or just buy-it-now, and see if those sort and appear correctly.

If you are seeing something else, please post an example search and a brief description of what you think is missing or wrong.

[rond2]

I am having the same problem.  When I search for all items, I get ONLY the auction items, then after all of the auction items are finished I can see the buy it now items.  Problem is, the buy it now listings are incomplete and as I scroll to more pages I find that todays items are showing up again.  The search function is completely messed up and has to be costing sellers, since buyers cannot find anything!

[c-yag]

Hi-I just get incomplete listings. If I find a card I want to look at I go to that page and then see all kinds of other sponsored or not items that other people have looked at that don't show up in my search but that fit my criteria. Or I search sellers other items and get told by ebay that they have 0 items for sale. When there are about five images on that same page of things they have for sale and it may say that they have 1303 items for sale but when I click the links I get the same message from ebay that they have 0 items for sale. I try to do a worldwide search but when I open an individual sellers page it defaults to something else and I usually don't get the options on the left of the page to go back to a worldwide search. I get auctions and buy it now all in the general search but have to go to the advanced search every morning and re-enter my criteria and do a new search every day. If I just carry on where I left off the day before I get useless results with a heart picture beside everything and the selection is clearly different. 

[c-yag]

Hi-I just get incomplete offerings in the search. I know the listing is not complete as I used to get 25 pages a day to scroll through and now I get 1-2.  I may select an item and go to that page to put in a bid. I will check sellers other items if I can but i am often blocked from those results as ebay has a default page that kicks in. Sometimes if I can get past that there are lots of sellers other items that interest me and fit my criteria and end at the same time but that weren't shown in my search. Most of the time I cant find the item from my original search in their items for sale so I know those listings aren't complete. Plus it says they have 3014 items for sale and ebay will only show me 74.

[c-yag]

Here is another example of my difficulty with the search. An item from seller xxxx showed up in my search so I tried to see if he had other Tuck items for sale This is what I had to write to him--Hi-I am interested in your R Tuck items. Only the one lot of Tuck memorabilia showed in my search. When I went to your page there were images of five things you had for offer-three calendars showed up and I managed to access them. However the other link at the top says you have 19 items for sale. If I search your other items ebay only says you have four for sale-none of which are related to my Tuck interest. If I put Tuck in the search box it says you have 0 items for sale. I was able to finally access four Tuck items but never got to see all 19 items for sale so very easily could have missed some.  If you have an other Tuck related items for sale please let me know as I am having trouble accessing them via ebay. Alison

[eburtonlab]

@c-yag 

I notice you are registered in Canada, but you are currently posting on the US ebay.com site. Do you usually search on ebay.com, or ebay.ca?

One reason why you might go to a seller's items for sale link and see no items would be if the seller does not ship to your location (or to the location you have specified if it differs from your actual location). If you have signed in to another site you may have neglected to enter your shipping location. Or you may have changed your shipping location at some point for some reason.

I will check sellers other items if I can but i am often blocked from those results as ebay has a default page that kicks in.

What "default page" are you referring to? Could you explain what you mean?

Plus it says they have 3014 items for sale and ebay will only show me 74.

In some cases you may be seeing a difference between the number of results and the number of listings when some of the listings are multiple variations; in that case each variation counts as a separate result. But usually the disparity is not so large.

It is possible that there are several different issues going on; there are problems with auctions and fixed price listings not sorting the same way, and sometimes eBay changes categories around, which can alter the results of saved searches drastically. A search that previously went to a narrow category may suddenly be sent to a much larger category and provide many unrelated results (as in the case of many book searches).

It may be easier if you provide an example of a search you are doing. If you could provide a link, and your location and the number of results you see (and how many you expect to see), and a rough number of actual items in the search, that might allow me to try to see if I can figure out what exactly is going on.

[c-yag]

Hi-Yes I am in Canada. Ebay .ca does not yield very good results so I use Ebay.com and sometimes ebayUK. I can register in the US and the UK and have addresses there. I generally do a worldwide search with sellers that will mail internationally. I select items available worldwide in my advanced search but sometimes there are sellers that only mail to the US or the UK  but their items still show up in my worldwide search. For those sellers I will change my mailing address. I do change my address several times to accommodate for the differences in shipping and who will mail to where. 

Sellers who will mail internationally still will show up having 0 items for sale when I click on their links to see sellers other items. I have talked with someone from ebay before and they said that a setting changes and reverts to default when I click the link to sellers other items. Sometimes there is a drop down menu on the left and I can click worldwide again but mostly there is a list ending in Other refinements and I do not get the option to switch to worldwide again.  This is my search with exclusions-tuck -sewing, -pin, -togg, -windscreen, -pleat, -seat, -truck, -poster, -tool, -oil, -morphsuit, -candy, -tummy, -purse, -magnet, -sheet, -couch, -dvd, -slip, -shirt, -friar, -everlasting, -deck, -playing, -pleat, -jeans, -nip, -holster. I select all categories, title and description, available worldwide, and ending soonest. I enter this every day and usually have 26 pages of 200 items to look at or 5200 items that will be finishing within the next 24 hour period. Fort the last few days that same search has only provided 1 1/2 pages or 300 items to look at. I know that the results are not complete as I find things in sellers other items that don't show in my search or mostly in the link that says other buyers looked at these items.... I do a totally separate search for Tuck jigsaw puzzles as they never show up in my regular search even though I buy tons of them. 

Plus it says they have 3014 items for sale and ebay will only show me 74. --This discrepancy happens most of the time. I very seldom get listed all the items that it says a seller has for sale. The number I get shown is often in the 70's from ebay regardless of how many items a seller has.

[c-yag]

also--have a look at ebay 154177265654. the seller is in the UK and will post worldwide. The sellers items do not show in my search and did not come up in response to typing that ebay number in the search field.. I had an email from the seller to say have a look and a list of the ebay numbers but I had to try really hard to find the items. I eventually had to log into Ebay UK and then they showed up. The listings do not say UK only. So why do they not show up when I search for them.? I am quite sure the seller is expecting his items to be shown to and available for purchase all over the world to those that want to see them! 

Many sellers have started to email and let me know when they are posting things to be sure I see them.

[eburtonlab]

When using a random Canadian postal code (Toronto M1R0E9), the following search returns about 30,000 results for me, of which I can see the first 49 pages using 200 items per page.

https://www.ebay.com/dsc/i.html?_from=R40&_sacat=0&LH_TitleDesc=1&_udlo=&_udhi=&LH_Time=1&_ftrt=901&...

I get an extra 500 or so results if I use my US address.

I have grouped your exclusions to shorten the URL a bit, but even the non-shortened version works for me.

I think I have used your preferred filters and settings, but I may have missed some.

Searching title and description with so many exclusions you may be missing some items of interest if they have one of your exclusion terms in the description.

You may be better off splitting your big search into several smaller searches of different categories with fewer exclusions.

[eburtonlab]

@c-yag 

have a look at ebay 154177265654. the seller is in the UK and will post worldwide. The sellers items do not show in my search and did not come up in response to typing that ebay number in the search field.

When I search that number, it appears for me on ebay.com using a Canadian postal code.

I can see 14 of that seller's items.

[c-yag]

Hi-Sow why does it not work for me. ? Have a look at seller areandes . It shows that this seller has 555 items for sale. when I click to see the items for sale I get shown 75 with no ability to see the rest.

[c-yag]

Yes I have a lot of exclusions but that is mostly to get rid of the extra things that ebay throws into my searches like pages of car covers- and I do mean pages. I get runs of adverts that are 4-5 pages long and this is how I block most of that out. If I do a search of all the different categories, books, calendars, puzzles, cards, postcards, greeting cards,  paper toys, china, paper dolls, etc. that might work but I don't think ebay has all the categories I need and I can't pick and choose categories. It seems to be all or none. Is there a category for greeting cards?-cards  made before postcards?

[eburtonlab]

I also see 75 items when searching for that seller's items using a "default" item location search and a US postal code.

If I change the search item location to "worldwide", I see 557 items.

If I search on ebay.co.uk using a US address, I see 625 items.

[c-yag]

I used the link you had in the above message. I can tell you that that is not a complete listing of all available Tuck items. I used to get 24 pages for one day. The link  you had above gives 1 1/2  pages roughly to cover the available items in 24 hours.