Another Ebay Problem
 

I have a saved ebay search for pre-war baseball cards. This used to be a very simple search, but because of a change ebay made years ago, it is now very complex. I had to click a million boxes to exclude post-war cards individually on a year by year basis, and also exclude non-baseball cards.

Despite the complexity, it has worked ok for several years. Well, not today. When I ran the search, the results showed up sorted by "Best Match." For those that don't know, "Best Match" is a meaningless algorithm that returns things in random order. A card either is or is not a pre-war card. There's simply no such thing as a best match.

Anyhow, I clicked the switch to change the results to "newly listed first." When I did this, ebay ignored my search and returned every sports card in its entire system, with the newly listed ones first. That's several hundred thousand cards. I've tried a dozen times and can't work my way around this. So, I have two choices -- I can either search through every pre-war card in random order in the hope of finding the few that have been listed since yesterday. Or, even worse, I can search through every sportscard on ebay. I guess my third choice is to give up on ebay altogether.

Have any of you experienced anything like this? Do you have a work around? Thanks.

Yes, I have had very similar things happen like that. They feel compelled to constantly change things for whatever reason.

I suspect there's a meaning behind the "Best Match" designation. It likely ties in with "Sponsored Listings" or seller ratings, at least on some level. There's probably some data-driven model with a "likelihood of conversion" rating or something similar. Long story short - the "best match" is the match most likely to make money for the platform.

And yes, it seems like they're always tinkering with things. Again, they're likely do this with an eye towards maximizing profits. That, at least, makes sense to me. I can't say I agree with all their decisions; however, I "get it" on a large scale.

With regard to the search function, I think I've got that figured out. The average online shopper has a dreadfully short attention span. They're also somewhat impulsive with their purchase decisions. So, it follows that:

1. Truly dedicated shoppers will work through a sub-optimal search engine to find what they're looking for
2. The other 99% will see something they didn't know they wanted until we showed it to them.

Why does it even need to be said? Fix the freakin' title of the thread. (Yes, that's a rhyme.)

"Athe renother Ebay Problem"

Clickbait!

Or maybe secretly ironic...

Perhaps, it's Shakesperean?

"Atherenother"
To indicate a place separate from where you are currently located.

"The Danish Prince, although atherenother Elsinore, spoketh of its warm, domestic embrace, methinks."

I've fixed the title. I had typed the word "the" in the middle of my post, but unknown to me it showed up in the middle of the title.

Paul - Why do you still buy on ebay ? Just buy from the auction houses. Attachment 646641Attachment 646641Attachment 646641

I buy from the FB groups I'm in.. Reminds me of the old days when deals could be made..

Most of my pre-war purchases are through the auction houses and occasional trades on Net54. I think I will be striking ebay off my list for pre-war. Ebay is still workable for an item once in awhile for my Tom Seaver collection.

They must have a glitch in their programming right now. My search for mickey mantle (psa, sgc, csg) only returns 60 cards.

Yesterday, ebay seemingly fixed the problem and I was able to run my prewar search. But today it has reverted back to the exact same Best Match nonsense. What is going on there?

I am almost positive "best match" are items that have been viewed most recently. After I've viewed something, it makes the top of the list of what I've searched for.