Items not showing up in Ebay search results

[KevinB]

Over 5 days into a 7 day auction I wondered why I had no views. So I did a search for one of my items and it wouldn't show up. I contacted ebay and they had the same problem with an item of mine not showing when they did a search. First they told me that their fraud filters are working and it may take a few hours for my listing to show up. I told her but my item has been listed for over 5 days now and still not showing up. She told me tech would look into the problem and we got off the phone. I decided I better search all my listings to see how many are having problems. I found a few other items that dont always show up in search results. I can't help but wonder how long this has been going on and how much money this has cost me? I guess I'm going to have to check all the time to see if my listings actually show up in search results.

[mart]

I used to do that regularly !! Never had a problem but I checked anyway !!

[rockandrollrods]

Mine usually come up near the top, but I do a lot of business with eBay. They have a bizarre calculation they use for top billing that includes number of items listed every week, number sold, and status of the seller. But to not show up at all? That's odd.

[KevinB]

They would show up for Ebay on their work computers because they use Firefox but the items would only sometimes show up usually after many refreshes using internet explorer or google chrome. First ebay employee was supposed to send my problem to tech dept but failed to do so. The next day a second ebay employee was supposed to call me the next day and update me on what was happening. I waited around most of the day and no call.

I don't list much on ebay and I make my starting prices an amount I can live with so it doesn't affect me much. I wanted to warn the others on here that may list much more than me. How can you really have a fair action if your items only show up in searches sometimes? I really feel bad for the people that roll the dice and start off with low starting bids. All you need is one person to see it and bid and no one else might not see it again for the rest of the auction.

So I guess my items ended before they could even look at the problem. I guess ebay can fix most auction problems within 7 days. Just let the auction run out of time and let the seller walk away from ebay.

[dmakenit]

I have been having the very same problem with my items on ebay. I noticed about 3-4 weeks ago that strange things were happening with my listings. A few of the items I have are listed under the same search terms, a small directory with maybe 30 total items returned in the search results.  Among those results my items are always located at the top of the search results. But lately when I run the same exact search, the results are not consistant? What I am experiencing is this? My items may be located at the top of the results or at the bottom of the results. I found that odd? I have been a seller on eBay for over 7 years and currently I am a Top Rated Seller. I never experienced that before. So I typed the search term over and over and started to notice that my items at certain times of the day (from just before noon until around 8-9 pm or later) were located at the bottom of the search results. Not just a few of my items but all of them.

What i did next was check all of the search terms for my items that normally returned results showing me on page 1 of the search results and noticed that those searches were none consistant as well. I would search for the item and be located on page 1 and then immediately search again and find I was so far back in the results that it would never be found. And some times not found at all in the searches. Again all this seems to be at the busiest time of the day for sales? At those times I would always be either not found in the searches or so far back that no one would ever find my listing?

It is starting to appear to me that there is much more going on then what eBay is telling us. If there are rules on how to construct our pages for eBay search engine optimization, then why are there inconsistencies in our search results. And why does it seem to be happening at the busiest times of the day when customers are shopping online looking for our products. I also have noticed that this does not seem to be affecting the larger sellers? Some of them not rated as Top Sellers as well? This is very alarming to me! I am starting to feel as though the search results are being manipulated and has caused many Ebay Sellers. Huge drops in lost sales! and Who knows how much hard work and time trying to optimize our listings to get better search results? I hope I am wrong about my feelings? I believe that this is more then likely the start of worse things to come for sellers like us? I wish every one the best and please comment on this gentleman's post. This is very alarming!!!!

[mart]

I am not sure,, and I am just a small seller but I think that more have had problems since the sort by list started using  "best match"  !!  I think that its kind of like rolling dice each time you search and they are mixed to give each seller an equal advantage in the search !! I used to shop by looking at items "ending soonest" And I kept my sort by at that !! Now you can only use it after you get to a page, and Best Match is always first. go back and do it again and list will change !! Thats why I said it may have to do with the sort by list !!  Best match isn`t always the same !!  Hope this makes sense !!

[hosman321]

Long story short: eBay sucks. I've had nothing but problems with them lately. Their search features are all screwed up. If I go to a seller's store and type in something that I KNOW that they have, zero results will show up when I search their store. So, I have to search through all of their items and go find it. The word I searched for will be right there it the item's title. Lots of search problems. But they are the big boys and they still get more traffic than anywhere else. They would be so much better if they would just get their act together!

[fancypants]

I've been hearing the same/sim complaints from several folks that I know are Ebay sellers , as of late .

So sorry to hear that folks here are being 'gifted' with the problems too !