eBay Searches

[packick]

Has anyone else had problems searching for items for their specific vehicles on eBay lately?  For example, if I type in "1955 Buick" in the search, all sorts of items appear that have nothing to do with 1955 Buick or even Buick.  Totally unrelated items are listed and many, many of them.   It didn't used to be like that.

 

I have given up on general parts searches for my car on eBay; now I only search for a specific item . . . even then other junk appears.

[Str8-8-Dave]

Yeah- that's a constant problem.  Try searching on 1931 Buick and see what I look at every day.  The best thing you can do if you don't want to risk missing a mis-listed part is filter on All and set the sorting to Newly Listed and look every day.  You will see a bunch of unrelated garbage but if you scroll down until New Listing no longer appears next to the items you have seen what is new for the day.  It's become part of my daily morning routine.   I have also found parts by searching on 1930s which will bring up a couple of suggested searches, one is 1930s automotive parts, and the other is 1930s clothing.   

 

I have complained to E-bay for years about seeing pages of tilt steering columns and seat belts etc. that are not appropriate.  Filtering on vintage auto parts doesn't get rid of much of it either.   The good features for buyers on E-bay is stuff shows up there that you would never find otherwise due to the popularity of the program and if you buy something that isn't right you can usually get it shipped back and a refund, all paid for by the seller.

[F&J]

Some years ago you could use the "- fits" after you type in 1955 Buick and that minus would remove most of the junk.

 

Then the greedy bastids at Ebay changed something to allow a sellers item that has nothing to do with that Buick.

 

For a few years, (but it was a decade ago), I did what was said about doing a daily search using "items newly listed", but it ended up being a waste of my time when they changed something to add 90% unrelated garbage, not to mention anger and frustration.

 

Like was said in post 1, you now are forced to run specific parts searches, one at a time, like "1955 Buick hubcap".

 

They sure screwed up a good venue, but what do I know.  This downfall started way back when they hired some Exec that said he wanted to compete with Amazon, and he had zero experience in the marketing what ebay used to thrive on.

[60FlatTop]

Ebay? Are they still doing that? I used to look at cars on there. They had a comic section like the old Sunday papers too. It was called Parts Compatibility. But the jokes got old fast.

[greenie]

A classic case of poor management killing off a good thing. Somehow they managed to piss off both buyers and sellers- and of course many of us are both.

Maybe they think they can remake themselves as another Amazon. Or maybe they will revert back to a place to sell Beanie Babies.

[Peter Gariepy]

• Start Here: https://www.ebay.com/b/Auto-Parts-and-Vehicles/6000/bn_1865334
• Enter your year, make, model...  
• You'll get a pretty targeted list.

 

Part of the challenge is not Ebay's search tool, but that some vendors abuse it by stacking keywords, and other vendors don't use it properly by not providing enough keywords.

 

I just did a search for "1980 Volkswagen Vanagon" and the result was pretty accurate. Not a lot of fluff.

 

[Xander Wildeisen]

What you type in can show different things as well. White wall, white walls, whitewall and whitewalls. Will get different results on different websites. Hubcaps and wheel covers get different results. I have found stuff searching different ways of identifying the part. Some people use a lot of key words, some use none.

[TTR]

40 minutes ago, Peter Gariepy said:

• Start Here: https://www.ebay.com/b/Auto-Parts-and-Vehicles/6000/bn_1865334
• Enter your year, make, model...  
• You'll get a pretty targeted list.

 

Part of the challenge is not Ebay's search tool, but that some vendors abuse it by stacking keywords, and other vendors don't use it properly by not providing enough keywords.

 

I just did a search for "1980 Volkswagen Vanagon" and the result was pretty accurate. Not a lot of fluff.

 

While I’m far from what could be considered a “computer literate” I agree with this ^^, but would add that I believe some has to do with eBays allowance of sellers using some “compatibility chart” and many vendors probably choose some with as many choices as possible in hopes of getting more eyes on their offerings.

 

On rare occasions I’m looking for something specific, be it a car or part for one, on eBay, I select an option for “Price - highest first” and usually find potential, if any available, related offerings pretty quickly.

Edited May 22, 2022 by TTR (see edit history)

[Larry Schramm]

44 minutes ago, Peter Gariepy said:

• Start Here: https://www.ebay.com/b/Auto-Parts-and-Vehicles/6000/bn_1865334
• Enter your year, make, model...  
• You'll get a pretty targeted list.

 

Part of the challenge is not Ebay's search tool, but that some vendors abuse it by stacking keywords, and other vendors don't use it properly by not providing enough keywords.

 

I just did a search for "1980 Volkswagen Vanagon" and the result was pretty accurate. Not a lot of fluff.

 

 

Peter,

You used the quotes to get a smaller search.  I did it for a 1984 Volkswagen Vanagon without the quotes and got 44,000 hits.  With the quotes, 466 hits.  It appears that you must use the quotes to get a manageable number, but may miss what you are looking for.

[Peter Gariepy]

1 hour ago, Larry Schramm said:

 

Peter,

You used the quotes to get a smaller search.  I did it for a 1984 Volkswagen Vanagon without the quotes and got 44,000 hits.  With the quotes, 466 hits.  It appears that you must use the quotes to get a manageable number, but may miss what you are looking for.

 

I'd rather look at 466 items than 44,000 items.  Even if I miss things.
I can always narrow the search. Example:  "1980 Volkswagen Vanagon fuel pump".

[Terry Bond]

Try searching for "antique automobile" and see how many Chinese dishes you get. Ebad should be filtering this crap out!!!

Terry

[Larry Schramm]

10 hours ago, Peter Gariepy said:

 

I'd rather look at 466 items than 44,000 items.  Even if I miss things.
I can always narrow the search. Example:  "1980 Volkswagen Vanagon fuel pump".

 

I made the comment so others would know that you used the quotes to get the smaller amount of results. 

[TTR]

I also wanted to add I truly believe that just like with cars or any other mechanical contraptions, electronics and digital devices or their functions, etc are only as smart as the person operating it.

Usually, when a contraption, device or their functions don’t provide desired or expected results, all one has to do is ask themselves “What am I doing wrong ?” and hopefully be able figure it out.

 

Actually, I’ve always believed the above applies to everything in life, hence my first signature line.

[pont35cpe]

And what about the "will fit", pure BS..

[packick]

I would think that with guys like us, eBay's sales would drop since buyers are becoming frustrated with their search results and just give up.  Or maybe we are just a drop-in-the-bucket to eBay's overall sales.  I know I use eBay less and less.

[TTR]

I have had close to 20 “Buy It Now” listings, mainly items I reproduce for vintage cars, on eBay for years and while most are quite limited market offerings, they occasionally do sell through there (and then get re-listed, as I have more of same), but since most of those who need or are looking for such either know or can relatively easily find that I’m the only (direct) source for these items, they contact me directly.

 

OTOH, while I tried to make (& maintain) my listing headings as “intelligent”(?) as I could, I have no control or idea how potential buyers are searching them, but fortunately my livelihood is not dependent on their abilities or lack of.

[JamesR]

I commonly look up cars on eBay for fun. Not really a good way to buy cars anymore, unless the listings are for vehicles that are located close by and can easily be inspected in person.

 

Parts are not as clearly defined on ebay as "cars and trucks."

 

 

Edited May 22, 2022 by JamesR (see edit history)

[Jim Bollman]

I have a around a dozen searches I do most every day. I have carefully crafted them to eliminate as much junk as possible and have missed a few things, but it only takes a few minutes to do all the searches. Since I do it daily I only look at new listings. You can exclude common things that may mess up your search by adding the item with a minus in front, for instance my Crosley search has -baseball -replica added because I don't care about Crosley field or replica anything in that particular search, actually it has about 20 things with a "-" to trim the results. I also exclude sellers that constantly mess up the search with their keyword bating, like mag wheels that they list every car they can think of as compatible. If you know the items you're looking for are in a certain range of prices use that filter to get rid of things you wouldn't buy anyway and all the stuff too cheap to be what you're looking for. You can also use the restriction of North American or US only.

 

Besides the obvious problems that have already been covered I wish eBay would take complaints serious. I have reported a few sellers for improper use of keywords or even putting thousands of keywords in colored text the same color as the background so they don't show unless you highlight them. eBay has yet to pull any of the sellers I have complained about so I don't complain anymore which is probably what they want.