topic Re: ineffective searches in Buying

ineffective searches

julesaddiction04 — Tue, 31 May 2016 10:58:44 GMT

Ive had troubles trying to find a simple item.....a used antique/retro styled door knob, there are so many sellers spamming search criteria that its impossible to find what you want....

just wondering how its useful for the site to allow this to happen...

Whats the point of shopping here if searches bring up a majority of items that simply dont match the criteria specified? It cheapens the shopping experience, making the site look like a con or deception....there is zero perceived integrity if a search is made and the results are irrelevant or simply bogus.

Whats happening here?

Re: ineffective searches

lyndal1838 — Tue, 31 May 2016 11:34:08 GMT

The criteria you are using are open to a very wide interpretation....."antique" will bring up very old, used items while "retro style" will bring up a huge range of items from new but old/retro style to used of any style.

All you can do really is set your search to the maximum number of items per page and scroll quickly through the thousands of items that will come up.

Re: ineffective searches

digital*ghost — Tue, 31 May 2016 11:52:30 GMT

This is where drilling down the results is necessary. For most things, just ticking "used" in the filter options will eliminate a significant number of listings if you're specifically looking for used.

You can also often remove unwanted listings that use common keywords not ultimately relevant to your search by putting a - in front of the word. For example, if you're getting a lot of items with something like "acrylic" in the title and you don't want to see any of them, you type in your search then -acrylic etc.

Re: ineffective searches

bsal6160 — Tue, 31 May 2016 12:08:02 GMT

i agree with the OP, if an item is listed in the antiques section it SHOULD be at a minimum at least antique, not like all the modern stuff that some sellers are trying to flog off as antique.

Re: ineffective searches

lyndal1838 — Tue, 31 May 2016 12:23:51 GMT

But the OPs search criteria is set to give different results.

Antique is 100 years old and used. Retro style can be any age but made in the retro style...and that would not be an antique.

Re: ineffective searches

ausgeoff1946 — Tue, 31 May 2016 13:45:25 GMT

Often crafty sellers will use (for example) a description such as "Federation-style Victorian lamp base, antique reproduction, suit retro furnishings". It's a variation on keyword spamming in my opinion.