Changed search format?

[rivendell01]

I'm not the most computer savvy person out there, BUT I just got back from a ten day trip and it appears that the specific categories under which I list items for sale (and  also search for collectibles) has changed significantly. Instead of individual categories on the Dolls and Bears page, all dolls are now being shunted under the heading , 'Dolls and Playsets.' What the heck? How are my items going to be found? Many of my buyers don't even know they want an item until they see it, and with such a broad category to slog through, how will that be possible? 

Or am I just being ignortant here and misunderstanding a new update by eBay? Please tell me if you know. Thank you!

[kensgiftshop · Accepted solution]

@rivendell01 

They've done away with a lot of subcategories the last couple days.

There are plenty of post about it,.

[rivendell01]

Okay. Thank you so much for telling me. Again, not savvy. I wasn't really able to find an answer, or frankly, even know where to look. But if eBay has done this thing, my guess is their greed has once again raised its head. I guess we'll now have to pay extra for our listings to stand out, right? 

[eleanor*rigby]

Go to the search bar for the Community and type in "item specifics." You'll get about a thrillion results. Sort them by date, and you can read all about it . . .

[eburtonlab]

Browsing categories is only one possible way to find items.

Using a combination of keywords, category and filter refinements, users can find most any listing or group of listings that have something in common. Many of the old categories that have been removed have a corresponding filter or filters in the higher level category that remains.

Starting a search with a keyword or keywords, changing to a particular category if necessary, and then applying filter refinements seems to work well in most cases.

If you have a particular sort of search in mind, provide some details of what you or your customers might be searching for and someone may be able to provide an example of how to perform a search that does what you want.

For example, for a general doll search, start here:

https://www.ebay.com/sch/262346/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=doll&_fsrp=1

Then scroll down the left side of the page to see what refinements are available to narrow things down further.    

[duvivier]

I tried to list some items today, and was amazed at how everything has changed with categories. Even when I did decide to list I found the `previously used categories` didn`t have any recent ones, but only very old ones!

Then going back to the lists I found that the sections I used most had disappeared all together. When I tried a search of items which usually occupy at least 20+ pages, there were only two - something is very wrong, and eBay have made a big mistake I think.