Awesome eBay search tip! A must-read!

Dr.Jass

Dr.Jass

Pastor of Muppets
OK, maybe some of you know this one already; I did not. You're searching for something specific for your car, but when you type in 81 LeBaron you get 16,000+ hits, most of which are universal, stupid stuff like car covers and aftermarket lug nuts. I just tried it--16,174 items over 324 pages. It's frustrating as hell.

When you type in your search, add -assortment at the end (no quotes anywhere in the search, obviously). You're still going to get some of the stupid stuff (brake shoes, etc.), but at least it'll actually say your vehicle in the auction title. Adding that to my search, I'm now down to a much-more manageable 340 hits over 7 pages.

"Keyword spamming" by adding a bunch of info about what the part fits was once a no-no on eBay (I got reprimanded for it once), but now they embrace it in the form of year/make/model information the seller can enter while listing the auction, and if they're determined enough, they can list fuzzy dice for every car ever made and they'll come up as a search result. -assortment takes that out of the equation. I was bitching to my friend yesterday about how hard it is to find specific stuff, and that I haven't looked for anything for my car on eBay in over a year because of it. He told me about this search function, and it's a beautiful thing. I'm not looking for anything right now, obviously, but when the time comes now I'll actually be able to find it.

My car is particularly frustrating because in '82 the LeBaron moved to the FWD lineup so a lot of the FWD stuff still shows, but this saves a ton of headache.
 
Cool! I did not know that.

That gave me the idea to search some other possible tricks. Here's what I found.

It looks like you can '-' out any term you want

So, LeBaron -assortment -fwd -annoyingkidfromnewjersey
would be a handy search string to use.




Searching for Multiple Terms

To search for listings that contain any of several terms (rather than all of them), enclose your search terms in parentheses and separate them by commas. Consider the following search examples:

teapot cups saucers
If you type these three words into the eBay search box, you'll get only results that include all of the words in their title—listings that are selling teapots and cups and saucers at the same time. You won't, however, see listings that are just selling any one of them.

(teapot,cups,saucers)
By listing the terms in parentheses separated by a comma, you can get eBay to list items that use any term in their title. You'll see listings for teapots and/or listings for cups and/or listings for saucers in your results.

(teapot,cups,saucers) (dutch,china)
As you can see, you can also use multiple sets of terms in parentheses. A search like this one will find item listings that contain one or more of the first group of terms and also one or more of the second group of terms.
The search box allows you to string together as many terms inside a set of parentheses and as many sets of terms enclosed by parentheses as you please.

Sometimes you don't just want more results or more flexible results—you also want more specific results. Usually this means that some things came up in your search results that you don't want to see. When this happens, you can cause eBay to exclude those items by adding a related to your search with a hypen (-) in front of it. Consider the following exclusions:

(teapot,cups,saucers) (dutch,china) -vintage
Building on our previous example, this search returns all of the listings that are for a teapot, cups, or sauchers and that also include either the word "dutch" or the word "china," but it excludes any results that contain the word "vintage."

(teapot,cups,saucers) (dutch,china) -vintage -antique -turquoise -jade -handmade
This tool, too, can be used multiple times in a single search. This one is identical to the previous one except that it also excludes any listings for items that are "antique," made out of "turquoise" or "jade," or that are "handmade."
As you can see, by using parentheses and hypens, you can create fairly complex searches for eBay to carry out on your behalf—and you can save yourself a lot of time you'd otherwise spend filtering through results that you didn't want.
Searching Item Descriptions

Sometimes, when you want the absolute greatest number of results possible within your criteria, or when you're searching for an item that you think sellers may have listed in various ways, it can help to search not only for items' titles, but also for words in their descriptions.
Each time you run a search, you'll notice a checkbox just below the search box on your results page that's labeled "Search title and description." To run your search again, but search through the item descriptions (i.e. entire listings) rather than just through the titles of listed items, check this box and click the "Search" button again. You'll get a much longer list of results that still match the criteria you've already given.

Narrowing By Category

Once you have run a search, whether just by title or also by description, you can narrow your search results by eBay category using the list of related categories shown at the left edge of the results page. Simply click on any of the listed categories to re-run your search only for that category.

By combining a well-formed set of search terms and exclusions with a specific category, you can produce search results that are amazingly flexible, specific, and complete.

For further illustration, here are some additional complex examples for you to evaluate. As you study the search terms for each, try to predict what results the search will return before clicking on the search or reading its description.

digital camera body (nikon,canon,olympus) (d70,10d,e-1) -strap -case
This search will find several models of digital camera body—the Nikon D70, the Canon 10D, or the Olympus E-1—and will at the same time exclude listings that have the words "strap" or "case" in them, like "Nikon D70 digital camera body strap" or "Olympus E-1 digital camera body case."

dvd (disney,dumbo,aladdin,the little mermaid) -widescreen -player
This search will find DVD listings that include the words "disney," "dumbo," "aladdin," or "the little mermaid," and will exclude any results that contain the term "widescreen" or "player."

winter coat (girls,womens,juniors,female) -fur -leather -vintage
This search will find winter coat listings that are "girls," "womens," "juniors," or made for a "female," while excluding any listings for coats made out of "for" or "leather," or that are listed as "vintage.".
Study the examples on this page and try out some complex searches on your own. You'll soon find that you can search the eBay website like a pro!


From: http://ebay.about.com/od/searchingeffectivel1/a/se_better.htm
 
Wow! Thats alot of stuff to remember. It's all cool though. Thanks. Now lets see if I retain any of this. Doubt full. :doubt:
 
Stretch said:
Wow! Thats alot of stuff to remember. It's all cool though. Thanks. Now lets see if I retain any of this. Doubt full. :doubt:
Click to expand...

The most useful thing to remeber is to use the "-" before something you want to omit. For instance if you want a Roadrunner but you hate green, you search Roadrunner, -green

I did that just for you Gio. [smilie=i:[/SIZE]
 
ive been doing that stuff for YEARS now,.....when you start turning up wheel covers for motorcycles......and floor mats too you know therers an issue....but what got me started was 16 inch wheel covers for cars that could NEVER wear a 16inch wheel...and when i was in my slot car hayday..killing out the cheep crap as well as sorting it down to JUST the trucking stuff
 
I knew all about the exclusions and specifics such as the - sign, but the -assortment thing is apparently pretty new and is a huge time saver.
 
Thanks Doc...that's a new one to me too.

My neighbor gets me to buy things for his 63 Impala all the time...he's pretty green when it comes to E-bay. So he will come to me with a print out of the item he wants...then I'll do "My' search on th eitme and usually get it for him even cheaper. I just recently saved him over $50 on an aluminum radiator.
 
It really does make eBay useful again. I just couldn't wade through all the stuff before Kevin told me that trick... it's a lot easier than having to put -cover,dice,lug,spacer or whatever.
 
I used to be able to seach multiple years like this... 194* (Desoto, Des oto, Des) This search would bring up any listing with 1940 to 1949 and the words. Then they went and changed Ebay motors and this no longer works. Now you have to type out every single year your looking for. I have sent multiple e-mails complaining about this, but to no response or avail...:(
 
A lot of "improvements" to that site have made it worse. Between the exorbitant fees for eBay and PayPal, the complexity of listing things, and the modifications to searching I'm far too frustrated to use that site anymore. They also now send you tax paperwork to claim your sales at the end of the year if you hit a certain monetary level... which cuts even further into your profits. It's just not worth it anymore to me. A friend of mine was not happy with what happened to his income taxes this past April because of the eBay "damage". It went from refund to owing a significant amount of money; he ended up selling a hobby car to make the payment.
 
I haven't sold anything on E-bay in a number of years...but still been buying lots of crap for the 4x4 conversion. But I have heard form people I know who sell regularly on E-bay that things for the "casual" seller has not been made easier.
 
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