As of today, I can no longer search eBay by the decade ...

[doug.goodman]

Originally Posted by D. Bergin

It's for your own good.

Never thought anybody could break a "Search", but Ebay has given it their best shot.

yep

[collectbaseball]

This is the most frustrating thing ever... even for the most basic things. I used to search for autographs using the player's name and (sig*,auto*). That covered just about any way someone can list one. Now I'll have to use the player's name and (auto, autos, autograph, autographs, autographed, sig, sigs, signed, signature, signatures)... or something like that. And those won't find any spelling errors, like autogarph or signiture, like the old search did.

Looks like there should be some good deals to find, if you've got time to dig. Sucks for sellers, sucks for buyers who don't have an unlimited supply of time. Pretty infuriating.

[Sean1125]

I think everyone should call and fill up their customer support lines asking for the feature back until they get the message.

And I've never used it before but that is an INCREDIBLY useful tool they took away - I'm sure they LOSE sales by doing that (you won't find cards you normally would have and they won't get bid up).

E-bay is e-baying it up in e-bay town...

[cmoore330]

I'd love to see more people use Bidstart. I have purchased some postcards there and it worked quite well.

[D. Bergin]

Here some info on Ebay searches I have been following. Apparently they are putting their eggs in a basket called, "Cassini" Search.

Some of you may find this interesting............most will probably find it a pointless exercise in Ebay meddling, just for the sake of it.

eBay Cassini Search: A Seller's Perspective:

http://www.ecommercebytes.com/cab/abn/y12/m10/i15/s02

Pay attention to the following quote from this article.

Neil said eBay significantly throttled back how many listings displayed in search results in the testing ground. Whether the search engine found 1,000 matching listings or 10,000 matching listings, the results were limited to 200 listings. He feels certain that eBay will indeed limit results in the new Cassini search engine and that as a result, eBay will eliminate listing fees.

Also, check out:

eBay Cassini: Best Match on Steroids

http://www.ecommercebytes.com/cab/ab...10/abu0321/s02


eBay Removes Wildcard Advanced-Search Capability

http://www.ecommercebytes.com/cab/abn/y12/m10/i22/s02



eBay Deprecates Wildcard Searches: the Implications

http://www.ecommercebytes.com/cab/abn/y12/m11/i05/s01



Sellers Are Guinea Pigs in eBay Search Lab

http://www.ecommercebytes.com/C/blog...351518791.html



Basically, Ebay is now infatuated with Google, the way it's been infatuated with Amazon for years. As with Amazon, they forget one thing has nothing to do with the other.

Google is disseminating information, Ebay is selling products. Why not keep it simple. I'm looking for something specific..............and there it is...........all of them, in whatever order I want to see them in (price, ending time, etc..).

That's it. No need to tinker anymore.

[thecatspajamas]

Aside from lazy programmers, another possible reason for eBay dropping some search functionality is control.

Ebay likes to control what you see when you come on the site.

They changed the default search order a while back to "Best Match" which takes into account not just what you typed into the search window, but also which Ebay sellers they are giving bonuses and bumps in search rankings to this month. They give bumps in search rankings for being a Top Rated seller, offering Free Shipping, participating in the flavor-of-the-month promotion, etc. If you are using the wildcard and other search features to narrow down your search to just what you want to see, then the search "rankings" have little to no effect, and the value added to chasing eBay's Top Rated carrot is reduced.

For example, I have nearly all of my allowed saved searches used, with each one set up to eliminate all but a small range of items that closely match what I am looking for. If I run a search and it returns 200 items, I'll use all of the tools at my disposal to narrow that list down to just a handful that closely match what I'm looking for, and then save that search. When I get an e-mail from eBay with new matches for a search, it rarely has more than a dozen, so it doesn't matter if you're a Top Rated seller getting boosted to the top of my searches or a newbie showing up at the bottom. If there are only 12 results showing on the page, I give them all the same amount of attention, regardless of eBay's efforts to draw my attention to the top of the list. If you take away an important tool for narrowing down the list though, I may have to browse through 100 new results for that search, which means there is much more value in being at the top of that list than a list of 12.

And they HAVE to add value to being a Top Rated seller, or else they couldn't use that incentive to further control sellers by requiring them to have a 1-day turnaround on shipments and use eBay to print their shipping labels in order to maintain their Top Rated status. They add some value to the TR carrot by way of a discount in fees, but that costs them money. Bumping a seller up in Best Match search rankings costs them nothing.

Frankly, when they started requiring a 1-day turnaround for Top Rated status, I breathed a sigh of relief because it meant that I no longer felt like I needed to chase that carrot. Add a requirement that, for my situation, is an impossibility, and I'll just step out of the race. I miss the fee discount, but I don't miss trying to figure out who left me that low star score and put my Top Rated status in jeopardy this month.

[Sean1125]

Originally Posted by thecatspajamas

Aside from lazy programmers, another possible reason for eBay dropping some search functionality is control.

Ebay likes to control what you see when you come on the site.

They changed the default search order a while back to "Best Match" which takes into account not just what you typed into the search window, but also which Ebay sellers they are giving bonuses and bumps in search rankings to this month. They give bumps in search rankings for being a Top Rated seller, offering Free Shipping, participating in the flavor-of-the-month promotion, etc. If you are using the wildcard and other search features to narrow down your search to just what you want to see, then the search "rankings" have little to no effect, and the value added to chasing eBay's Top Rated carrot is reduced.

For example, I have nearly all of my allowed saved searches used, with each one set up to eliminate all but a small range of items that closely match what I am looking for. If I run a search and it returns 200 items, I'll use all of the tools at my disposal to narrow that list down to just a handful that closely match what I'm looking for, and then save that search. When I get an e-mail from eBay with new matches for a search, it rarely has more than a dozen, so it doesn't matter if you're a Top Rated seller getting boosted to the top of my searches or a newbie showing up at the bottom. If there are only 12 results showing on the page, I give them all the same amount of attention, regardless of eBay's efforts to draw my attention to the top of the list. If you take away an important tool for narrowing down the list though, I may have to browse through 100 new results for that search, which means there is much more value in being at the top of that list than a list of 12.

And they HAVE to add value to being a Top Rated seller, or else they couldn't use that incentive to further control sellers by requiring them to have a 1-day turnaround on shipments and use eBay to print their shipping labels in order to maintain their Top Rated status. They add some value to the TR carrot by way of a discount in fees, but that costs them money. Bumping a seller up in Best Match search rankings costs them nothing.

Frankly, when they started requiring a 1-day turnaround for Top Rated status, I breathed a sigh of relief because it meant that I no longer felt like I needed to chase that carrot. Add a requirement that, for my situation, is an impossibility, and I'll just step out of the race. I miss the fee discount, but I don't miss trying to figure out who left me that low star score and put my Top Rated status in jeopardy this month.

I agree with just about everything... About the time they started that one day shipping I quit... I still maintain "top rated" and "power" seller but I don't get the discount anymore...

[Chris-Counts]

Thanks Eric, that suggestion is a big help. It requires a little more effort, but it definitely works ...

[slidekellyslide]

Originally Posted by Sean1125

I agree with just about everything... About the time they started that one day shipping I quit... I still maintain "top rated" and "power" seller but I don't get the discount anymore...

Since they've made it nearly impossible to keep the discount I don't even worry about my shipping stars anymore. I still get everything out on time, but the worry that came with the jerks lowering my rating because they didn't have something in hand two days after they paid for it is no longer there for me.

[thecatspajamas]

Originally Posted by slidekellyslide

Since they've made it nearly impossible to keep the discount I don't even worry about my shipping stars anymore. I still get everything out on time, but the worry that came with the jerks lowering my rating because they didn't have something in hand two days after they paid for it is no longer there for me.

+1

Same great service. Much less stress.