"We removed some search results"

[tweetyboyd1971]

So  I like to shop the newly-listed in the buy-it-now search,  but now see that ebay is purposely hiding some of the results,  and gives you the option of showing all results.    Then I discovered some of my items were in the "hidden area"  and now know why my sales have been so slow for the last two weeks.     Isn't this like shadow banning?   How does ebay know what I want to see,  and know what's "best" for me to see and buy from their manipulated listings?    Ebay should just outright say that they only want Wal-Mart and Target selling on their site and stop playing these irritating games to drive sellers away

[collectfest]

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@nuclearomen wrote:

like I said above, to search with limited keyword(s) is going to yield to many results and so obvious that ebay would limit the results - how many barbie's have been produced, how many sellers on ebay have them and put them up every single day, of course results would be so large it would never be able to define the search properly with "vintage barbie" as the search keywords, especially when so many sellers are using those two words in their title and description. If I go to search and type in "vinyl record" the results would likely 10x that of "vintage barbie" keywords - would never give me a result I want cause those key words are just describing a category, not a specific item, but if I change that to "band name, title, medium" those result will slim down to only that band, title, and items with titles that include that band name in their description. Results would be 1-10 pages say rather then 12 thousand + results with 500 pages + items ebay just decided to hide in those results. 

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You presume the seller KNOWS WHAT they have and MANY DO NOT, Geeze....

I want to be clear, I am talking about looking for vintage items or highly collectible barbies etc. We all can agree you can put in 1959 Blonde barbie swimsuit and you'll get what you are looking for. You'll also PAY FULL price. You'll also get a lot of sponsored junk.

Some of us have used eBay for YEARS searching trying find that deal, ALL sellers cannot be expected to know everything! I am not a retail buyer.  Your suggestion about search is correct. Having said that, they have CHANGED search.

You mention the 12000 items. In the past once you got it to the 12000 THEN, yes, THEN you could use the advanced tools and little tricks to find the needle in the haystack. THAT is becoming more difficult. The searches aren't organic or shall I say honest. The are manipulated. 

[skeletonstore]

Ebay openly came out a few years ago and told sellers they wouldn't always show their listings.  i've even got a rep admit on the phone they spread sales around.  I've tested my own listings on 4 devices and got 4 different totals of available items.  Ebay has been copying a lot of other companies like google in this instance of course amazon.  I can remember when google didn't exist and I can also remember the beginning when it was much easier to gain traction online.  now everything is artificial intelligence,  designed to control the message.  In ebay's case they favor big amazon/chinese dropshippers on their site.  They like the fact the communist country has so much control and so many slaves,  amazon is modeled after them.  If you can't trigger the ebay system with sales or clicks they will hide you the longer your listing hangs around.  These are facts.  Those who say otherwise either see the world through rose colored glasses or don't even realize the how's and why's of why they get sales or continue sales or when they don't get sales.  ebay like chinamazon wants slaves who list and list and wholesale. 

[isaiah53-57]

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@nuclearomen wrote:

i just search for multiple items and didn't get that which you describe - a box at top of the category that tells they are limiting search results - nothing of such exists in the searches I just did. 

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I Cant Believe some of these replies are saying they dont see this or never have! This is not something new - Its Been Around for Years - You likely wont see it if you do a search that populates 10-50 Results in "List" View, but the majority of searches over that will have that box the OP describes directly above the top item in the Search List - If there are 120 Results, you will need to click the box to see them all or you will likely only see half.

With the new category merge changes, its going to get worse, since there will be more results showing in searches - If you think you they artificially reduced your visibility before, just wait until these new category/item specifics changes roll out 100% - My guess is they figure that will give you more than enough reason to use that Malign "Promoted Listings" Program - I'll burn my overstock before I ever give them a penny more for visibility we should already have on an equitable basis...

[nuclearomen]

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@isaiah53-57 wrote:

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@nuclearomen wrote:

i just search for multiple items and didn't get that which you describe - a box at top of the category that tells they are limiting search results - nothing of such exists in the searches I just did. 

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I Cant Believe some of these replies are saying they dont see this or never have! This is not something new - Its Been Around for Years - You likely wont see it if you do a search that populates 10-50 Results in "List" View, but the majority of searches over that will have that box the OP describes directly above the top item in the Search List - If there are 120 Results, you will need to click the box to see them all or you will likely only see half.

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And again... if your using the search bar and typing in keywords that describe a category and not a specific item then that is why you get the hidden option. Jesh, not sure how else or how easy to explain it. It's not new, but it's common sense. If you want to search a category then use the category search located at the right side of the search bar, if you want to search a specific item then use the search bar. If your looking for something with thousands upon thousands of listings why on earth would one type in something like "vintage barbie" lol... that's just crazy. Define your search better. 

[isaiah53-57]

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@nuclearomen wrote:

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@isaiah53-57 wrote:

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@nuclearomen wrote:

i just search for multiple items and didn't get that which you describe - a box at top of the category that tells they are limiting search results - nothing of such exists in the searches I just did. 

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I Cant Believe some of these replies are saying they dont see this or never have! This is not something new - Its Been Around for Years - You likely wont see it if you do a search that populates 10-50 Results in "List" View, but the majority of searches over that will have that box the OP describes directly above the top item in the Search List - If there are 120 Results, you will need to click the box to see them all or you will likely only see half.

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 If your looking for something with thousands upon thousands of listings why on earth would one type in something like "vintage barbie" lol... that's just crazy. Define your search better. 

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The Answer to that is very simple - The best items I have ever found on ebay have been from using non specific searches - For instance, I used to buy a lot of comics on ebay - Rather than do a search for "Amazing Spider-Man #101", which brings up all the over-priced, over-promoted **bleep** ebay wants you to see, I would do simply do a search for simply "Spider-Man" and see ALL the obscure listings that possibly had an amazing spider-man #101 in a collection of books that I could buy for a fraction of the price...

I certainly dont need ebay showing me what is "RELEVANT" to my taste , wants or needs - When I do a search, BY ALL MEANS, show me ALL the items that fall into the search parameters I quiered - If I want to tailor it down, I will WITHOUT Their assistance - This is a Company that is in it for themselves, not the buyer or the seller and all they want you to do is spend the most amount of money they can get you to spend - So You want to leave it in their hands?? He-Double-Hockey-Sticks No!

[nuclearomen]

@isaiah53-57 i see your point and understand - but at same time, why is it that one cannot just search a category but has to use the search bar? There is a difference.

[isaiah53-57]

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@nuclearomen wrote:

@isaiah53-57 i see your point and understand - but at same time, why is it that one cannot just search a category but has to use the search bar? There is a difference.

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Yes - for someone looking for something very Specific, they should search as you have mentioned - With my searches, I always wanted to do "All Category" Searches using the Search bar, because sometimes I would find interesting things related to my search in other categories or even the wrong categories - It is all a matter of taste and what a buyer is trying to accomplish - Many Buyers dont know how to use the search options and end up doing broad searches using the search bar.

That makes me think of a related situation - The situation where you may do a sold item search of an item you have for sale, wondering if any others like it had sold and you find 3-4 exact same items that sold over the last month(or whenever) that were not in as good shape and twice the price(for effect) of what you have listed - Thats when you know your items are not being seen as they should be - Also makes you realize that offering the lowest price on this site can be the kiss of death in many situations...

Anyway - Good luck in these changing times to ALL!!

[tweetyboyd1971]

This has turned into an interesting discussion,   BUT just to clear something up,    I have the Vintage Barbie and Contemporary Barbie categories saved on my computer in my favorite places.    These are both individual categories on ebay,  NOT just a generic search phrase.     I have it set up to search Newly listed Buy-it-Now so that I can search about the 1st ten pages of NEW listings (even though there may be 35,000 listings in Vintage Barbie).      I don't know EXACTLY what I want,  but just look for bargains.    A new seller may list a Color Magic Barbie for $300 when it's worth $800 and I might snap it up.   I would not normally search for a "Color Magic Barbie",  but looking at the new Buy-it-Nows,  I just might end up with one.     Just because there are 35,000 listings in Vintage does not mean I am going to look at all 35,000 listings,  just the newest ones,  on the first few pages.    But if ebay hides some of the listings on the 1st ten pages of newly listed,   who knows what I might miss out on.  As I said,   I will just always have to click on VIEW ALL from now on.

[coolections]

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@readabouthorses wrote:

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In the olden days of eBay we just cruised categories without searching.

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@readabouthorses 

That was the olden days. Today's buyers NO NOT want to wade through thousands upon thousands of items as they have better things to do with their lives rather then sit on Ebay for hours on end searching 38,000 items.

[coolections]

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@skeletonstore wrote:

Ebay openly came out a few years ago and told sellers they wouldn't always show their listings. 

@skeletonstore 

And it was one of the best changes they ever made. It is what keeps buyers on Ebay. Now Buyers get the option of having fewer results more closely matching what they want, or they have the option to expand the search and look for hours if they choose t do so.

[clothescloseouts4u]

This has benn going on for awhile now.

[ben_debus]

"Buyers get the option of having fewer results" No.

If a search shows too many results, the user can narrow it down by selecting specific categories or including more terms in the search box. eBay seem to be arbitrarily deleting items from search results, reducing them from e.g. 400 to 300.

So every time, you have to click on 'Show all results' - using up more data. **bleep**s.

[eburtonlab]

eBay seem to be arbitrarily deleting items from search results, reducing them from e.g. 400 to 300.

It may seem arbitrary to you because you do not know what criteria eBay uses to determine relevancy. eBay has a lot of statistical data about what items are searched for and what items are ultimately purchased as a result of those keyword searches. Most likely eBay is weighting listings based on keywords that indicate positive value or salability (such as "new", "latest", "complete") and counting as less relevant those listings that contain keywords associated with negative value or salability ("broken", "obsolete", "for parts"). eBay does not have to be right in every single instance; eBay only has to be right often enough to lead to an increase in sales compared to the case when not filtering results for it to be a worthwhile practice, as far as eBay is concerned.

So every time, you have to click on 'Show all results' - using up more data.

You should only have to do it once per individual Newly Listed or Ending Soonest search; if you are using saved or bookmarked searches, replace the old search with the new search results after using the "View all" link, and then you do not have to do it again for that search.

Or add the following to the end of your search URLs:

&_blrs=recall_filtering

[readabouthorses]

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@coolections wrote:

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@readabouthorses wrote:

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In the olden days of eBay we just cruised categories without searching.

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@readabouthorses 

That was the olden days. Today's buyers NO NOT want to wade through thousands upon thousands of items as they have better things to do with their lives rather then sit on Ebay for hours on end searching 38,000 items.

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LOL. Yep, I see them all the time. Trotting around the stores with their noses in their sillyphones. 

[skeletonstore]

No it didn't,  it tore up the original terms of service.  Most buyers on ebay do not even know what they want or are looking for.  People don't shop on ebay for common things where they even know the manufacturer's part number,  they shop for unique items.  How are they suppose to find our items if ebay doesn't show them?   This isn't walmart.  Filter out by default all amazon dropshippers and chinese sellers in general.  Oh that's right ebay also openly turns a blind eye to their own policies.  You're not suppose to be selling on ebay as a fake dropshipper but that's what ebay pushes.