Is ebay trying to cost it's sellers and itself money?

[ChasHawk]

Forgive me if this has been posted previously, but wtf?

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odk...045573.m570.l1313&_nkw=denker+ref*&_sacat=212

Your search returned 0 items.
Search using the wildcard symbol (*) is no longer supported

Pretty sure most collectors I know search this way almost exclusively.

edit: apparently it still works for active listings, just not completed. Either way...stupid imho.

 

[cgilmo]

You simply don't have to use the *


Ref will pull up refractor automatically.

 

[mredsox89]

You simply don't have to use the *


Ref will pull up refractor automatically.

No it doesn't, at least not for me

 

[ChasHawk]

No it doesn't, at least not for me

Doesn't for me either.

 

[vwnut13]

Delaying items from showing up in completed listings for 24 Hours is stupid.

 

[D-Lite]

Yeah, I noticed the * thing the other day and went off for a few minutes about how stupid it is. No wildcard makes search terms so much more of a hassle and you'll miss out on oddball/mistyped stuff, as will those sellers. Not sure why there was a change, anyone?

 

[Junior Griffey]

Still works for me in the eBay app on iPhone.

 

[ChasHawk]

Yeah, I noticed the * thing the other day and went off for a few minutes about how stupid it is. No wildcard makes search terms so much more of a hassle and you'll miss out on oddball/mistyped stuff, as will those sellers. Not sure why there was a change, anyone?

Was notified by ebay that as of today, this change is permanent.

They also gave suggestions on how to change my saved searches to adjust to this,
which basically involved spelling out EVERY SINGLE POSSIBLE WORD of what I might be trying to search for.

Who the XXXX is making the decisions over there?

 

[Mighty Bombjack]

Was notified by ebay that as of today, this change is permanent.

They also gave suggestions on how to change my saved searches to adjust to this,
which basically involved spelling out EVERY SINGLE POSSIBLE WORD of what I might be trying to search for.

Who the XXXX is making the decisions over there?

I sent them an email saying that I'm not changing anything, and that it was probably good for me because my searches won't work so I won't spend as much money.

Is that what they want? I'm not really sure the reasoning for this. Oh well.

 

[ChasHawk]

I sent them an email saying that I'm not changing anything, and that it was probably good for me because my searches won't work so I won't spend as much money.

Is that what they want? I'm not really sure the reasoning for this. Oh well.

Me either, and now that I try to spell everything out, it tells me there's only room for 100 characters in a search.

Soooooo....I have to wade through 100s of listings of bullXXXX to try and find what I really want...which is EXACTLY what ebay wants.

 

[cmnkb8]

Was notified by ebay that as of today, this change is permanent.

They also gave suggestions on how to change my saved searches to adjust to this,
which basically involved spelling out EVERY SINGLE POSSIBLE WORD of what I might be trying to search for.

Who the XXXX is making the decisions over there?

This guy:


He's an *******.

 

[/10]

Try:

Denker (Ref, Refractor, Shiny) -(Hot, Pack, Stupid, NoWildcards, eBayMorons)

 

[D-Lite]

there's only room for 100 characters in a search.

This is compounding the problem. It used to be straightforward to capture all auto auctions and permutations of the colors. No longer. (au,auto,autograph,autographs,autographed)???

One other search I routinely run is for the TurboGrafx-16 gaming system. LOTS of people screw up that name, but ("turbo gr*",turbogr*) used to capture nearly all possible spellings. Was the search feature really broken or confusing to people?

 

[uniquebaseballcards]

I bet eBay can better mine the data used from search terms if there aren't any wildcards. There's gold in information.

 

[mrniceguy1126]

I bet eBay can better mine the data used from search terms if there aren't any wildcards. There's gold in information.

Interesting idea. On its own, the change seems counterproductive, but with this theory it makes perfect sense. There's HUGE money in ad revenue and they'll always have buyers and sellers as long as they're the only viable game in town. I think you may be on to something here!

 

[Keyser Soze]

Such garbage. Now instead of searching john doe ref* auto* I have to type john doe (ref,refractor) (auto,autograph) and I still won't get misspellings like when someone spells it "refarctor"

I just don't understand WHY. And I am the type of person that needs to know that answer. What did they gain by spending money to make this change?

 

[ChasHawk]

It does seem to still be working on the android app for now.