Search for Value - fail

[stonevintage]

This sums it all up.  What ebay shows when a buyer/seller is trying to establish value on an item.

Search:  leather giraffe                     actives (accurate, finally!)  solds - not remotely related. Completeds - not remotely related. 

Why is the active listing search so much more accurate on this simple search as opposed to the results on sold and completed?

[coolections]

You would have to be more specific as you are missing the most important part of the search.  Leather giraffe: shoes ? belts ? purses ? figurines ? knives ? sculpters ? kids toys ? statues ? bracelets ? wood giraffes ? glass giraffes ?

[stonevintage]

Yes,  you would think you would have to be more specific.  But, take a minute to do the search yourself.

In the actives; the simple search of leather giraffe showed me exactly what I was looking for on the first page. 97% accurate results without any more detailed description.

Then click on completeds.  Less than 1% of the same item showing everything else giraffe under the sun showing. Search dropped the word leather giraffe and shows everything with the word leather in it and everything with the word giraffe in it.   Then click on solds and refine search. Giraffe statue, giraffe figurine 10 sold. But you have to refine search thru 28k listings to get back on track.   So, why was the original live search accurate,  but the solds buried the same search?

You know, it wasn't even a year ago when you would have the opposite results.  The initial active listing search would produce 50k hits and the search of completeds and solds were more accurate.  Now, it's flip flopped. 

[coolections]

Your search and question is still too vague. You have to have a specific "type" of a giraffe item you are searching before any reasonable comment can be made. Leather giraffes by itself of course will show crazy results as there are 21,000 "different" types of leather giraffes. You need to mention the kind of item you are referring to so we can help you out.

[tunicaslot]

I searched leather giraffes in actives - received leather giraffes. The problem with cassini is that when you go to sold - the order of the key words doesn't matter - they're showing you the solds that contained either / or of your search words. When I filtered to collectibles - there were still false results - but only because these sellers put their items in the wrong categories and should be reported for it - when I filtered to animals under collectibles - I received a page of leather giraffes.

It's no different when I do a search for a clothing item under solds - I have to filter if I don't put enough key words in to search for.

[coolections]

That is my point. Without any info and such a vague search then everything is always crazy and mixed up. No different than any other search on the net.  You have to tell the search what you want, it is not a mind reader. People really need to learn, or at least put some thought into the search before submitting. We see it here every day. People whine about Ebay search but yet what they type doesn't correlate with the results they want. Specific words need to be included with the leather giraffe in order for it to make sense. You will be amazed at how good it works if done correctly.

[luckythewinner]

---

@stonevintage wrote:

So, why was the original live search accurate,  but the solds buried the same search?

---

Without telling us what sort you used for the various searches, all we can do is guess.

My guess is that you used Best Match on the actives ... and the Best Match sort does not exist on completed or sold items. 

[deep-garnet-red]

So how much do leather giraffe figurines go for? I have one to list...lol