- Browsing eBay's Product Categories
- Searching for Specific Items
- Viewing Product Listings
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Searching for Specific Items
Many eBay categories are so large they’re practically impossible to browse. (Do you really want to click through a hundred pages of listings to find the item you want?) If you’re looking for a specific type of item, the better approach may be to use eBay’s powerful search function.
Use eBay’s Basic Search
eBay’s home page features a simple Search box at the top, which you can use for simple searches. It’s as easy as using Google to search the Web.
On eBay’s home page, enter one or more words that describe what you’re searching for into the top-of-page Search box.
To limit your search to a specific product category, click the All Categories down arrow to display a list of product categories and then select a category.
Click the Search button to begin the search.
Each listing in the search results includes the listing title, a thumbnail image of the item, the current auction or Buy It Now price, how many bids or watchers the item has, and—if it’s an auction item—the amount of time left until the end of the auction. By default, eBay displays both auction and fixed-price items; to display only auction items, click the Auction button at the top of the page. To display only fixed-price items, click the Buy It Now button.
By default, eBay displays your search results in list view. To display your results in what eBay calls gallery view (with large thumbnail listings across the page), click the View button and select Gallery View.
eBay enables you to filter the listings on this page by a number of different criteria, all listed in the left column. The criteria differ from category to category; for example, you may be able to filter by condition (new or used), price range, delivery options, and so forth. Check those items you want to filter by.
Click an item listing to view the full listing page for that item.
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Use eBay’s Advanced Search
You can perform more sophisticated searches with eBay’s Advanced Search function. This is useful when you have a very specific item in mind.
- On eBay’s home page, click the Advanced link next to the Search button. The Advanced Search page displays.
- To find specific items (which is the default), click Find Items in the Items section of the left column. To find items on eBay Motors, click eBay Motors. To search for items from a specific seller, click By Seller. To find a particular item for which you know the item number, click By Item Number.
- To only look for items offered in eBay Stores, click Items in Stores in the left column. To search for specific eBay Stores, click Find Stores.
- To search for a specific eBay member (seller or buyer), click Find a Member in the left column. To request a member’s private contact information, click Find Contact Information.
- If you’ve clicked Find Items, enter one or more descriptive words about that item into the Enter Keywords or Item Number box.
- To search for listings that contain all the words you entered, pull down the list and select All Words, Any Order. To search for listings that contain at least all the words you entered, select Any Words, Any Order. To search for listings that contain an exact phrase, select Exact Words, Exact Order. To search for listings that contain the exact words you entered but in any order, select Exact Words, Any Order.
- If you want to display only those listings that don’t contain a specific word or words, enter those words into the Exclude Words from Your Search box.
To limit your search to a specific product category, pull down the In This Category list and select a category.
To limit your search to the listing’s title and description, go to the Searching Including section and check the Title and Description box. To limit your search to completed listings only, check the Completed Listings box. To limit your search to sold listings only, check the Sold Listings box.
To limit your search to items within a specific price range, go to the Price section and enter the lowest and highest prices into the Show Items Priced From boxes.
To display only auction items, go to the Buying Formats section and check the Auction box. To display only fixed-price items, check the Buy It Now box. To display only classified ads, check the Classified Ads box.
To display only new items, go to the Condition section and check the New box. To display only used items, check the Used box. To display only those items without a condition specified, check the Not Specified box.
To display only those listings that accept PayPal, go to the Show Results section and check the With PayPal Accepted box.
To further filter your search results, check the appropriate boxes in the Show Results section.
To display only those items with free shipping, check the Free Shipping box. To display only those items available for local pickup, check the Local Pickup box.
By default, search results will display items based on how well they match your query (Best Match). To instead sort the results based on price or the time the listing ends, go to the Sort By section, pull down the list, and make a selection.
Click the Search button to begin the search.
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Follow a Search
If you frequently search for the same items on eBay, you might not want to keep entering those complex search parameters. The good news is that eBay lets you save your searches—and see new listings that match your searches in your eBay Feed.
- Conduct a basic or advanced search, as previously described, to display a page of search results.
- Click the Follow This Search link above the search results. All new listings that match this query will now appear in your eBay Feed.
- If you’d also like to receive email messages when new matching items are listed, check the Email Me When New Items That Match This Interest box.
- To stop following a given search, go to the search results page, and mouse over the Following This Search link. The link now changes into an Unfollow This Search link; click it.
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