Help! How do I get Ebay search to narrow it down to only items matching search words

[goldrushfinds]

I am exasperated. Seems to me that the Ebay search is becoming worse and worse. Case in point, I am trying to list a pair of men's "SAS High Street Lace Up" shoes/sneakers. The manufacturer's site calls the shoes  "Men's High Street Lace Up Sneakers". So to keep it more wide open I searched "Mens SAS High Street" (also ran search "Mens SAS High Street Sneakers". The results show me a few matching the title but hundreds of other shoes, along with many women's shoes. I then put quotation marks around "High Street", which then narrowed it down to only a few shoes, leaving out the vast majority of this style from the search. I can't find a way anymore to quickly assess active listings vs solds (sell through rate). Help appreciated. 

[mtgraves7984]

Well... under Advanced search you can narrow keyword options to 'all', 'any' and 'exact' words that you type in the Search bar. I don't know if that'll help. Good luck.

[goldrushfinds]

I already tried that. I called Ebay support and they led me through this process. It was a complete failure and they had no answer. I told them their search engine is abysmal and that how was any buyer supposed to find what they're looking for and at the best price. Totally inexcusable. 

[bashort]

---

@goldrushfinds wrote:

I am exasperated. Seems to me that the Ebay search is becoming worse and worse. Case in point, I am trying to list a pair of men's "SAS High Street Lace Up" shoes/sneakers. The manufacturer's site calls the shoes  "Men's High Street Lace Up Sneakers". So to keep it more wide open I searched "Mens SAS High Street" (also ran search "Mens SAS High Street Sneakers". The results show me a few matching the title but hundreds of other shoes, along with many women's shoes. I then put quotation marks around "High Street", which then narrowed it down to only a few shoes, leaving out the vast majority of this style from the search. I can't find a way anymore to quickly assess active listings vs solds (sell through rate). Help appreciated. 

---

one of the problems with search is promoted listings, does not really matter what the buyer is looking for the results are ranked in part by how much the seller paid for search placement

[orangehound]

eBay manipulates the search results, hiding some and promoting others in order to satisfy whatever algorithmic goals they have.

I've found that whenever I need a specific item, I can go on Google and get more satisfying search results ... Google indexes most of the titles on ebay. 

Just type in "site:ebay.com" followed by whatever you are searching for

[eburtonlab]

@goldrushfinds 

Try starting with a search like this:

https://www.ebay.com/sch/93427/i.html?_nkw=SAS+High-Street+Lace-Up&_from=R40&_sop=10

Many shoes are listed including both Men's and Women's sizes, so if you want to see Men's shoes exclusively you must limit your results to a Men's shoe category from the search results page.

[slippinjimmy]

---

@eburtonlab wrote:

@goldrushfinds 

Try starting with a search like this:

https://www.ebay.com/sch/93427/i.html?_nkw=SAS+High-Street+Lace-Up&_from=R40&_sop=10

Many shoes are listed including both Men's and Women's sizes, so if you want to see Men's shoes exclusively you must limit your results to a Men's shoe category from the search results page.

---

I ran some searches, I got very good results for Lowest Price, Highest Price & Newly Listed sorts, I got 10 times the results with Best Match, lots of things that only matched one or two words.

In the "good" search result there was always a few that didn't appear to match my search, looking closer I found that the womans shoes were listed in the Mens Category and another one that had the SAS High Street in the Item Specifics but not in the Title.

Over all I mostly got what I searched for, except for the Best Match results that had womans, dress shoes, boots, other brands and a few things that were not footwear of any kind.

[gottasellemall69]

Try:
("Mens","SAS","High Street Sneakers")
Just copy/paste that into search.

[eburtonlab]

Try:
("Mens","SAS","High Street Sneakers")
Just copy/paste that into search.

That search will find any listing that has at least one of the exact quoted terms in the parentheses, not just all three.

Leave out the parentheses and separate the terms with spaces rather than commas if you want all three exact phrases or terms.

[redlinear]

Yeah, it really stinks.   Anymore, you just about have to go to eBay search school to find what you want.
You try to research while listing via searching the method you think your buyers search.   
But, with promoted listings, keyword spamming, and a few other things it appears eBay is doing?  Just renders the search function very inaccurate. 

[luckythewinner]

If you are using "Best Match", switch to another sort.

[chariot_badges]

It's true.

The search function is completely broken.

I made a post about this yesterday.

It used to be bad, but ... it's gotten worse.

I guess we have something to look forward to.

Just HOW bad can it get?

[redlinear]

@eburtonlab can tell you how to Search with somewhat of a 70% accuracy.
But, he just can't forward his knowledge to potential shoppers in advance

[redlinear]

---

@luckythewinner wrote:

If you are using "Best Match", switch to another sort.

---

I "almost" disagree with this (although, I switch every time anyway..lol).
Reasoning: With the search the way it is, I think most shoppers, especially newer ones, never sort or filter.
AND, just being seen with a reasonable price trumps cheapest price.
Which can seen by viewing what's been SOLD.  Same items, prices all over the place.
    The above is for Item and Price research when I'm listing something.

If I was shopping for myself, yeah....I'm getting away from best match as fast as possible

[luckythewinner]

---

@redlinear wrote:

---

@luckythewinner wrote:

If you are using "Best Match", switch to another sort.

---

I "almost" disagree with this (although, I switch every time anyway..lol).
Reasoning: With the search the way it is, I think most shoppers, especially newer ones, never sort or filter.
AND, just being seen with a reasonable price trumps cheapest price.
Which can seen by viewing what's been SOLD.  Same items, prices all over the place.
    The above is for Item and Price research when I'm listing something.

If I was shopping for myself, yeah....I'm getting away from best match as fast as possible

---

The OP asked *specifically* how that *he* could filter his search, not how his buyer would.