eBay

watrwest · ‎08-22-2020

Since Tue 8/18/20 at 16:00 CT
None of the Subjects in Books / A&C or Books / Non-Fiction seem to be working.

I have tried all this in FireFox & Safari with identical bad results

CATEGORY BOOKS / ANTIQUARIAN & COLLECTIBLE ( raw, with no subject selected)
https://www.ebay.com/dsc/Antiquarian-Collectible/29223/i.html?_ipg=200&dcat=29223&_sop=10
RESULTS = 3,017,558 listings

SUBJECT = AMERICANA ( subject selector showing 36,672 listings )
https://www.ebay.com/dsc/Antiquarian-Collectible/29223/i.html?_ipg=200&dcat=29223&_sop=10&Subject=Am...
RESULTS = 3,017,107

SUBJECT = SELF-HELP ( the smallest category at just 2,745 entries showing in selector )
https://www.ebay.com/dsc/Antiquarian-Collectible/29223/i.html?_ipg=200&_sop=10&_dcat=29223&rt=nc&Sub...
RESULTS = 3,017,129

Here is Ebay’s Subject Selector panel with item counts…

Does anyone have any suggestions / solutions?

eburtonlab · ‎08-22-2020

The filters seem to have problems if you are browsing the category without keywords. If you search using keywords, the filters seem to be working for me.

For a rough workaround search, try a general subject keyword using a term from the category name and single digit numbers -- this should find most item listings in the category if they have any item specifics or titles that include a number or the category name:

(antiquarian,0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9)

Searching both title and description will find some more listings.

Using that as a search term and adding a subject term finds some results for your previous links -- not quite all of them, but something to start with rather than trying to search all three million books in that category:

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=%28antiquarian%2C0%2C1%2C2%2C3%2C4...

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_dcat=29223&_fsrp=1&_sop=10&_nkw=(antiquarian%2Camericana%2C0%2C1%2C...

watrwest · ‎08-22-2020

That is an excellent workaround and will do for the time being.

But since I also sell In Books / A&C

I am concerned about other buyers

who may not be aware of this board and this solution.

I fear that they will see 3-million results,

throw up their hands and walk away

perhaps forever.

I would hope that someone in the ebay tower

will figure out why these subject searches

have stopped working after all this time.

blu_owlie · ‎08-26-2020

The Format field is doing the same thing. If I select "hardcover" nothing happens and the page refreshes showing all formats.

eburtonlab · ‎08-26-2020

Do your problematic searches have a lot of search terms or exclusions?

I have seen a post that indicated that a recent change in the way eBay codes searches may break some searches with longer than average URLs. There was always an absolute limit to the size of the search URL and the total number of search terms that could be effectively used, but that limit may have shrunk recently, at least according to that poster.

That might account for why the problems seemed to suddenly occur with many saved searches that were working properly until a short time ago. Those searches often have much longer URLs than spur-of-the-moment searches.

If possible, try eliminating some of your exclusions or excluded sellers, and see if that allows your filters to work again.

An example of a search with working filters (for me, at least):

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=vhdl+design&_sacat=267&LH_TitleDesc=0&rt=nc&Format=Ha...

A nonworking search that should return the same results:

https://www.ebay.com/sch/Books/267/i.html?_from=R40&_udlo&_udhi&_ftrt=901&_ftrv=1&_sabdlo&_sabdhi&_s...