Searches are bringing up items that are not available, how do I stop this?

[i-once-was-bump]

When I do a search for an item and it is a multiple sizes and colours listing I am constantly getting items that have sold out in the size I want so it is really annoying and a waste of time.

It is not until you go to the actual listing and then go to choose the size that you find out that it is not available.

Is there anyway to exclude these items from a search when the search is based on size?

It adds about an hour to the time it takes just to buy a cardigan and if you want a bra then that really does add several hours because the size might be available but not the cup size or the cup size is available but not the bra size and then if you add colour to the search it is just too much time wasted looking at items that are not actually available.

If sellers want to improve their sales and get people to stay with or come back to ebay then they need to stop wasting buyers time.

[amber-eyed-girl]

Digi, I specifically search using colour and size, to weed out the thousands of items that are cheap and nasty.

The listings without the pertinent info in the title are usually Asian.

If I miss a few because I search title only...that is the seller's loss.

It is the way it is now with the flood of Chinese and Korean sellers on .au

[amber-eyed-girl]

When you were selling clothes, were there a thousand Asian items for your one dress? (i mean for a specific item)

Now there is...the only way I can avoid them is to be specific, by title search.

As you know, using Australia only as a location does not work as there are so many drop-shipping sellers.

[digital*ghost]

I don't know how I can explain this in a way that's going to make sense.

If my title was just "Listing Number One", then I placed that listing in the dress category and in the variations I had a choice of colours as well as sizes, some still available some sold out and you typed in a search for

Black dress cotton size 8

And I had one still available in that listing, it will be in your search results. If it was sold out, it wouldn't be in your search results. 

[amber-eyed-girl]

Digi, I understand what you are saying. But I search strictly title only, with size and colour. Then limit by size and colour as well, in the check boxes.

Listing number one is what I would need to use to see your item, the way I set things up to limit search results to a hundred or so relevant items.

So the searching is different.

Black dress 12, then uncheck description search, weeded out 400,000 items.

[digital*ghost]

Ok, sorry - I misunderstood the way you said you search, and I'm not sure how variation listings show up if you set stricter keyword parameters, so my info is only relevant to general keyword searches and navigation menu refinements.

[amber-eyed-girl]

Cool 🙂

I do it that way just to weed out the cheap Asian imports you see...

And I know I can be missing some nice things too, but I do not want to spend hours and hours and hours looking for one thing.

So that is where it helps to have descriptive titling.

Helps me find Australian listings 🙂

[digital*ghost]

---

@amber-eyed-girl wrote:


So that is where it helps to have descriptive titling.

---

Well, I'd agree with that even if variation names etc weren't searchable keywords 🙂 - a quick info check directly from search results (that doesn't require waiting for a pop-up to load) can be beneficial, but I listed clothing that way because of how I search and what frustrated me the most when searching. 

I still list variations the same way, actually, but jewellery is a bit different to clothes. 

[amber-eyed-girl]

Yes, it is different...With lazy, I mean the seller who lists

Dress new pretty

and the like...that is annoying too. No information to speak of. Usually none in the body of the listing either...just here look, a dress.