carterb Posted June 16, 2018 Report Share Posted June 16, 2018 Years ago, when you would search Datsun 510 on eBay, it would return hits for Datsun 510 stuff. (imagine!) I remember thinking it was pretty cool when the search would return five hundred and ten items. Most of the items by far were new and used items offered by private sellers. Once companies started to use eBay as storefronts, the number of items returned in a search ballooned to thousands and it started to become difficult to find cool stuff in between all the generic over the counter items you could get at the local autoparts store. Then my buddy Jeff informed me that if you search for Datsun (510) that problem would disappear. Sure enough, back to years of searching with maybe 2-3 new pages of real (mostly) Datsun 510 parts added per day. More recently Hotwheels have taken over and now account for nearly 1/2 the search results. I can deal with that as I actually buy them on occasion since I have given up trying to find them in stores. But I digress... About 2 months ago, eBay changed something and searching for Datsun (510) no longer eliminated all the garbage. Search results would return 50,000+ items, most of them individual listings for spark plugs, fan belts, bearing seals, etc - many of them not even for a 510. *sigh* https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=datsun+%28510%29&_sacat=0&LH_TitleDesc=0&_sop=10&_osacat=0&_odkw=%28datsun+510%29&LH_TitleDesc=0 Well, I found out this morning that if you reformat the search to (Datsun 510) it behaves as before and all the garbage listings (over 90% of the total) are not returned. Now I'm back to actual Datsun 510 parts - and hotwheels. https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=%28datsun+510%29&_sacat=0&LH_TitleDesc=0&_sop=10&_osacat=0&_odkw=%28datsun+510%29&LH_TitleDesc=0 I hope that's helpful news to someone. Any tricks you want to share? --carter 4 Quote Link to comment
thisismatt Posted June 16, 2018 Report Share Posted June 16, 2018 I don't give out my secrets :P 2 Quote Link to comment
john510 Posted June 16, 2018 Report Share Posted June 16, 2018 Thanks for the tip.As you said i had the same problem with my "saved" Datsun 510 search.A bunch of crap comes up i'm not interested in. 1 Quote Link to comment
hang_510 Posted June 16, 2018 Report Share Posted June 16, 2018 Using a - to skip for when people use #datsun for Honda parts Works for other searches too. Quote Link to comment
bananahamuck Posted June 16, 2018 Report Share Posted June 16, 2018 Haters I enjoy looking at all the different styles of floor mats available for my Datsun. 5 Quote Link to comment
datsunfreak Posted June 16, 2018 Report Share Posted June 16, 2018 Well, I found out this morning that if you reformat the search to (Datsun 510) it behaves as before and all the garbage listings (over 90% of the total) are not returned. Now I'm back to actual Datsun 510 parts - and hotwheels. I hope that's helpful news to someone. That is pretty cool. Wonder why that works? I had given up and stopped looking for stuff because typing in Datsun 1200 gives you 17,302 hits (as of now). But now typing (datsun 1200) gives you 994. Kooky... Quote Link to comment
Draker Posted June 16, 2018 Report Share Posted June 16, 2018 If you enclose in quotes or parentheses it will make it sobthe search must contain an exact match in the title of whatever is enclosed. Also you can negate words using something like this "Datsun 510" -hotwheels 1 Quote Link to comment
datsunfreak Posted June 16, 2018 Report Share Posted June 16, 2018 If you enclose in quotes or parentheses it will make it so the search must contain an exact match in the title of whatever is enclosed. Handy to know. I like how on craigslist (and I swear ebay back in the day?) there's a button to click that only shows results with your keywords in the title. Quote Link to comment
thisismatt Posted June 16, 2018 Report Share Posted June 16, 2018 Default on eBay is title only. 1 Quote Link to comment
datsunfreak Posted June 17, 2018 Report Share Posted June 17, 2018 Default on eBay is title only. Then how does one explain the 17k hits for "datsun 1200" when they don't have "datsun 1200" in the title? Quote Link to comment
thisismatt Posted June 17, 2018 Report Share Posted June 17, 2018 Then how does one explain the 17k hits for "datsun 1200" when they don't have "datsun 1200" in the title?Because they...do have those words in the title? If you put it in quotes you get <1000 hits. Quote Link to comment
thisismatt Posted June 17, 2018 Report Share Posted June 17, 2018 Putting a single phrase in parentheses is similar to putting it in quotes because parentheses delineates groups of precise things being searched for, basically implying quotes Quote Link to comment
datsunfreak Posted June 21, 2018 Report Share Posted June 21, 2018 Because they...do have those words in the title? Except, they don't... :P 1 Quote Link to comment
thisismatt Posted June 21, 2018 Report Share Posted June 21, 2018 Except, they don't... :PIn that case it looks like they're now also using their stupid compatibility tables to provide search hits. Who provides the compatibility info? The f if I know Quote Link to comment
datsunfreak Posted June 23, 2018 Report Share Posted June 23, 2018 using their stupid compatibility tables to provide search hits This is the issue. And it's what is slowly ruining ebay. Too hard to find what you need... Quote Link to comment
thisismatt Posted June 23, 2018 Report Share Posted June 23, 2018 That and the general spamming of new/knockoffs Quote Link to comment
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