search shows me results not what I'm searching for

[post2forum]

I am looking for a specific part for a car. For as long as I can remember eBay search has been pretty good about this, I can search the part number and see only that part. For example if I search for part 123A eBay will not show me part 123B, unless there's a listing that references both parts. For example revision A may or may not be compatible with B.

Today I tried searching for an ABS module 3c0614109aj. In the search results eBay shows me a bunch of parts that are different revisions of 3c0614109, for example this listing for 3c0614109p. It is important to show only the revision I am searching for because I work on VWs and sometimes different revision letters aren't always compatible. It's a lot of work to look through parts that are not what I searched for. If I put the part in quotes like "3c0614109aj" it makes no difference.  Whether or not streamlined results are shown seems to make no difference. 

I should mention I search for vw parts on ebay regularly (check my account search history) and I can't recall this being a problem.

[shengpetia]

I have noticed this lately, and it is a problem. You are supposed to put your words in parenthesis for exact search, but it is just a new way to show more advertised / sponsored items instead. 

Just more nuisance and frustration for us. 

They have also started to show not a full list of matches. What if my listing doesn't get to be shown as it is not favored by the algorithms, when in fact a buyer might be searching for it ?

[eburtonlab]

Putting words in quotes should aid in getting exact matching for words or numbers, but that may not always work for part numbers that consist of short combinations of letters and numbers mixed together. This limitation is likely due to how eBay's keyword character-matching search treats numbers and letters differently.

Treating numbers and letters differently works well in many broad cases, such as when a part number has an optional suffix that can be ignored. But it works less well or not at all when the suffix is important or critical.

When searching for a part number where the existence of the particular suffix is critical, there is no real alternative but for the user to verify that the correct part number actually appears in the listing, unfortunately. Even then, sellers (and the cross reference databases they often rely on) can be mistaken.

eBay can also sometimes mistakenly be convinced that two part numbers are compatible when they are not, and provide the wrong results due to this.

Even when the seller does everything right, the wrong parts may be associated with a catalog page for a different or incompatible part due to the use of the same part number.

[eburtonlab]

You are supposed to put your words in parenthesis for exact search, but it is just a new way to show more advertised / sponsored items instead.

Putting keywords in quotes should help to find exact matches, subject to some limitations. Certain characters such as punctuation marks are not searchable or may match other punctuation marks or spaces, even when enclosed in quotes.

Parentheses are used for Boolean "OR" searches, where results matching any one of a series of keywords are desired.

Sponsored listings are shown based on criteria chosen by eBay and by sellers, and users searching have little or no control over those factors. Sponsored items will not sort the way other listings do, as eBay chooses the placement in the sort.

They have also started to show not a full list of matches. What if my listing doesn't get to be shown as it is not favored by the algorithms, when in fact a buyer might be searching for it ?

eBay does not guarantee that listings will appear in any given search, but eBay makes money by allowing buyers to find suitable items to buy, so eBay has little interest in hiding items unless eBay has reason to think that buyers searching are not interested in those particular listings.

eBay may steer a search into a particular category by default based on keyword choices. Items in other categories will not be shown unless searchers take extra steps to see them.

The issue of items not appearing in search seems to be associated with the "Lowest First" sort order, where many item listings with certain negative keywords (such as "broken", "parts", "plans", or "pictures") may be less likely to lead to a purchase by users not searching for those specific things. eBay often filters "Lowest First" searches and presents the listings deemed by eBay to be most "relevant", along with a link to the full search for any users interested in the less "relevant" results.

Sellers concerned about whether a listing appears in a given search should try searching in various ways to see if the item appears, and experiment with listing in different categories or using different keywords to ensure that the listings are likely to be found by potential buyers rather than by just anyone searching using one particular keyword.

[cedarpondfarms]

Post from 2022, two years later and its worse then ever, searching by lowest priced will remove the majority of the lower priced items, but yet are in every other search. 

[eburtonlab]

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

[kh-stanley1]

Hi everyone,

Due to the age of this thread, it has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread HERE if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.

Thank you for understanding.