eBay

fascinapatina · ‎03-25-2024

Posting Title: . Something is Wrong -- Number of Items Returned From an eBay Search -- March 25, 2024 -- 6:00p CST

USING MY LAPTOP PC (at main eBay website):

-- When I enter "gb" (this is the standard abbreviation for gigabyte) in the category of |Cameras & Photo|, and then sort by "Price + Shipping: highest first", there are 49,000+ results.

-- When I enter "gb" in the category of |Cameras & Photo|, and then sort by "Price + Shipping: lowest first", there are only 160 results.

Something is wrong here -- the "160 results" is surely incorrect.

USING MY SMARTPHONE & THE MOBILE APP: . When I sort by either method on the mobile app, I get 49,000+ results using either method. . This is normal, typical, and as expected.

USING MY SMARTPHONE & DESKTOP VIEW: . When I sort by either method on the mobile app, I get 49,000+ results using either method. . This is normal, typical, and as expected.

This situation affects how I search and shop on eBay, so I hope that it can be corrected as soon as possible, thank you.

eburtonlab · ‎03-25-2024

The "Price plus shipping: lowest first" sort order provides filtered results -- often drastically filtered. And the option to "see more results" may not always be shown as it should. The filtering may vary depending on the keywords used.

If you encounter a drastically filtered result for a keyword search using a desktop browser, you should be able to use the "Feedback" link in the lower right corner of the search results to provide feedback on your search to eBay developers. The more users provide info, the more likely something is to be done about the over-filtration problem.

You can avoid that problem entirely by using a different sort order.

If you have few results, try sorting by "highest first", then starting at the end of the results, scroll up instead of down. This also avoids the problem of variation listings with low-cost variations appearing at the top of the lowest-first sort.

If you have a bookmarked or saved lowest-first search that you use a lot, you can avoid the filtration by adding the following to the end of the search URL, then saving the resulting search:

&_blrs=recall_filtering

fascinapatina · ‎03-25-2024

Lots of questions here, but I'll start with what I would consider to be the most obvious one:

Why do I get 160 results for the search coming from my laptop, and 49,000 results for the same search coming from the mobile app on my Android smartphone?

(I can provide links to screenshots upon request.)

eburtonlab · ‎03-25-2024

Why do I get 160 results for the search coming from my laptop, and 49,000 results for the same search coming from the mobile app on my Android smartphone?

You get 160 results because you are using the "Price plus shipping: lowest first" sort order on your laptop, which provides filtered results, while presumably using a different sort order in the app.

Use a different sort order to see all the results instead of just the filtered results.

If you want to know why that sort order does that you will have to ask someone at eBay directly rather than asking here; only eBay, if anyone, can answer questions about "why" something works the way it does, or whether it is doing what it is "supposed" to do.