I see all the complaints about the Ebay search and how it doesn't work. Maybe its not the sharpest tool in the shed but did you ever consider we may be making it worse. What other site give you a comprehensive search of sold listings INCLUDING the price and does it for FREE, I don't know of any. We actually subscribe to and pay for several websites for both online and live sold pricing.
How often do you think there are searches done on Ebay that result in no listing, no buying and no revenue for Ebay? You see it everywhere. Flea markets, thrift stores and yard sales. People on thier phone trying to figure out what something sells for on Ebay. This is done by people that don't even sell on this venue. Some just want to know if they are getting a good price on something they intend to keep. I will watch a seller say " well on Ebay it goes for ___ " only to see a potential buyer put his hands in his pockets not to get his money but to keep himself from strangling the guy. "On Ebay" is the new "books for" of the resale market Remember you used to have to BUY the book.
All these searches are manipulating the outcome of future searches. Yes I understand the misuse of keywords like vintage used by Chinese sellers for new items but I see it from the little guys too. Using brand names when it isn't just because it "is like" the name brand. The new one I see being overused is Mid Century Modern. I see it on colonial style items from the sixties just because it is from that era but has nothing to do with modern.
The point is how mush bandwidth or server space is occupied by this type of searching? Would the site operate better without those searches? I think Ebay is missing out on a nice revenue stream by providing this for free.
