Ebay censoring search words?

[ASSEMbler]

I have a search I wrote to scour ebay for
items I want. One of them was the
dreamcast double power vmu copier.

I hadn't seen one come up in ages,
but someone in the vmu backup thread posted
and obvious auction for one and I was shocked.

Simply put, ebay has certain searched for
words nullified in certain categories.

I don't know how many words, or what areas,
but it seems lots of stuff will not show
with certain search strings.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=170236460820

vs

http://video-games.search.ebay.com/backup_Accessories_W0QQcatrefZC6QQcoactionZcompare QQcoentrypageZsearchQQcopagenumZ1QQdfspZ32QQfclZ3Q QfposZ07015QQfromZR2QQfsooZ2QQfsopZ32QQftrtZ1QQftr vZ1QQsabfmtsZ1QQsacatZ139969QQsadisZ200QQsargnZQ2d 1QQsaslcZ2QQsbrftogZ1QQsofocusZbs

vs

http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?sofocus=bs&sbrftog=1&dfsp=32&catref=C6&fcl=3&from=R2&satitle=pc+link&sacat=139969%26catref%3DC6&sargn=-1%26saslc%3D2&sadis=200&fpos=07015&sabfmts=1&ftrt=1&ftrv=1&saprclo=&saprchi=&fsop=32%26fsoo%3D2&coaction=compare&copagenum=1&coentrypage=search

This is complete bullshit.

[skavenger216]

Ebay just keeps flushing themselves further and further down the shitter.

[mairsil]

Actually, believe it or not, they are not censoring. Rather, the powers that be decided to redo the entire search engine functionality and screwed it up badly. Searches are completely borked and unreliable right now. Hell, they even removed the ability to do straight exclusion searches (e.g. "-poster" does not work) and tell you that you have to specifically search for something before you can use exclusions (e.g. "flamethrower -poster" does work).

It seems that the search engine was modified so that they could give higher "Best Match" placement for their friends (Buy.com, et al), while adding in other new rules, such as limiting the number of items from a single seller returned in a a search. They also arbitrarily removed a lot of other search engine functionality without any reason or notification. If you take a look in the Search section of ebay's community forums, you'll find a lot of pissed off people.

Simply put: ebay seems to really be trying to commit commercial suicide in the last few months by killing the search engine, redoing the interface (in beta now) and completely screwing over most of their sellers with higher fews and random threats of banishment.

[Dreamcast]

If it's not censoring, it's definitely a terrible search algorithm. Try "Dreamcast Double Power" and be sure to check the box that searches both the title and the description (supposedly). It comes close by returning the Nexus card, but no Double Power unit.

When I found the Double Power unit, I was originally doing a search for a coder's cable and used "dreamcast link" as my keywords.

[Parris]

You gotta love eBay's ability to come up with a billion dollar winning formula then slowly over time ruin the very formula they put into place. They must employ a highly paid band of monkeys to undermine the fabric of the organisation.

Diddydonn's recent fiasco with a scammer and eBay / PayPals subsequent pathetic 'investigation' just highlighted to me what a rubbish, unprotected, overly reactionairy and now expensive auction (sic) site eBay is!

Who'd have thought eBay could be flushed down the pan so quickly and from the inside? A kind auction enema.

[mairsil]

That is it exactly: ebay doesn't want to do auctions anymore. One of the executives almost flat out said that very thing recently. Hence the changes to the BIN listing prices and times.

[jccochez]

You gotta love eBay's ability to come up with a billion dollar winning formula then slowly over time ruin the very formula they put into place. They must employ a highly paid band of monkeys to undermine the fabric of the organisation.

Diddydonn's recent fiasco with a scammer and eBay / PayPals subsequent pathetic 'investigation' just highlighted to me what a rubbish, unprotected, overly reactionairy and now expensive auction (sic) site eBay is!

Who'd have thought eBay could be flushed down the pan so quickly and from the inside? A kind auction enema.

Can you tell us more about what happenned? (not too much details, and of course if only diddydonn agrees, but i'd like to know more about it. I'm afraid i use ebay too much...)

[Japan-Games.com]

I'm getting the feeling that the current management team at eBay has little to no experience actually using eBay, whereas the management team in the past probably included people who had a lot more hands on experience with the buying/selling system.

[skavenger216]

Can you tell us more about what happenned? (not too much details, and of course if only diddydonn agrees, but i'd like to know more about it. I'm afraid i use ebay too much...)

http://www.assemblergames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19320

^^^Link to the thread in question^^^

[diddydonn]

i really should update that thread with what finally happened, but long story short, i got shafted for £170 plus didn't get my goods returned to me, they were apparently 'destroyed' although i have been refused by paypal any documentation to authenticate this, and bar from getting a solicitor / trading standard / the police to act on my behalf i have no chance of disputing it

DD

[skavenger216]

Thats really unfortunate to hear diddydonn. Fuck that asshole, and Ebay for that matter.

[jccochez]

woa... i understand why you were afraid at first.

Well, ebay did not take it seriously it appears. What a bunch of bastardS...

[skavenger216]

well ebay already got their cut of the sale ( sellers fees) so how is the safety of one of their users any of their business. Ebay really digusts me now, I doubt ill ever use Ebay again, mostly due to how they handled DD's situation, completely unprofessional.

[Ed the Nerd]

this is why you dont bid on things if the seller has a bad rateing

[Yakumo]

This is why I've only used Ebay 20 odd times in my life while I've used Yahoo Auctions about 550 times in 3 years.

Ebay is awful. Stupid interface, way over the top fees and far too many arse hole users who never bother to give feedback unless they want to slag you.

Yakumo

[sayin999]

How come yahoo auctions never took off here?

[ASSEMbler]

How come yahoo auctions never took off here?

Even worse ripoffs than ebay at the time. Yahoo didn't have the safeguards like it does now in Japan.