What is it with Ebay anyway? Every so often they change their GUI. Everytime they do they make it harder to find what I want.

Used to be I could put in "1970 Olds 442" and I get a listing of cars and some parts. But, then I could go to the left side control bar and select "Cars and Trucks" which would then display ONLY the cars. That option is now missing. So, now I can't find a way to filter out all the itty bitty pieces of junk that puts 442 in their discription which means I have to look through 500 small items to find the actual vehicles for sale.

Does anyone know how to filter out the garbage with this new interface??

 

They changed the rules so much I quit going to the site. They said you could only pay through paypal but if you asked the seller they would take money orders. Then they quit doing that

 

Couple ways around this. You can go straight to eBay motors and then do your search. Or, if you run it off the main page, once your results come up, you can click "auctions only" to filter out things.

However, with that said, if you're looking for just cars, which is what normally falls under "cars and trucks" after you run your search on the main page, if that isn't showing up, that means there's no cars or trucks for same based on your search terms. It's still there. Do a search for "1969 Camaro". I got 88 hits under "cars & trucks."

As far as getting rid of all the junk? The only way I've found that helps is just running the "auction only" filter. I hate the fact idiot sellers are able to label their piece of crap part to fit EVERY vehicle. It makes searches, as you say, very cumbersome.

 

To find vehicles, I'll run the initial search and then select "Price: highest first" from the 'Sort By' listbox on right side. This will return the output with cars at the top and parts, etc. below.

 

BINGO!!!!! thats what i do too!! i like ebay i find alot of stuff for cheap and i allways bid at 2-4 seconds left

 

I have never had a problem with seeing just the cars but I always click on EBAY Motors first.

 

I hate the sellers that list the same thing 20 times in a row. How many sets of screws do you need to list. Have not been going on it as much.
Larry

 

I do like the new option of gallery views, then I can quickly scroll through those things I don't want to waste my time with. I both like and hate ebay... Remember the days before the internet? I still enjoy going to swap meets but now I can find way more Oldsmobile parts online than I ever could wandering asles at swap meets. John

 

Don't forget, there's always the "minus" option when searching. I presume people know about this, buy maybe not.

If I'm looking for, say, service manuals for my '67 but I don't want to see all the owners manuals listed as well, I search for

1967 Oldsmobile manual -owners


This would show all listings with the first three terms but exclude any with the last term. You can add as many "minuses" as you want.


1967 Oldsmobile manual -owners -owner

would also exclude those people who call it an "owner" manual instead of the more common "owners" manual.

 

I did not know about the minus options.....thanks !!!!

 

Oh, there's more than just the minus sign. There's lots of ways to filter searches.

Another one I use often is quotes. If you put a phrase in quotation marks, only listings with that exact phrase will come up.

For example, if I search on

1967 Oldsmobile owners manual

I will get all listings that contain all four of these words in any order.


But if I search on on

1967 Oldsmobile "owners manual"

I will get listings that contain 1967 and Oldsmobile anywhere in the title, but the words "owners manual" must appear side by side in that order in the title.


When you're doing a search, click on "advanced search" over to the side sometime and see all the ways (often called "boolean operators") that you can search for things.


There's also the option to include listings themselves in the search. Normally, a search only looks at the title of the auction. But if you click on "advanced search" and then click the box for search "title and description," you'll get listings that include your search terms in the body of the auction listing as well.

This is why you sometimes see a listing for a part with a whole bunch of model years in the text.

For example, a guy will have a part that fits any 1968 to 1972 Cutlass. If he puts in the auction title "widget for 1968 to 1972 Cutlass," only people who search for "widget 1968 Cutlass" or "widget 1972 Cutlass" will see his listing. A guy with a '69 Cutlass will search on "widget 1969 Cutlass," and this listing won't turn up.

If he can fit all the years in the auction title, he could list it as

1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 Oldsmobile widget

and catch everyone who might be looking for the part. But ebay limits you severely to the length of the auction title, so if he can't fit all this in, or if the part fits on more years than this, he can put in a simple auction title and then put in the body of the auction all the years it fits.

So you'll see the text description of the auction begin something like

1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 Oldsmobile widget, removed from '72 Cutlass, in good shape.

He puts all those years there so that the guy that needs the part for his '69, if he does a "search title and listing" search on the terms "1969 Oldsmobile widget," will find it.


Check this page out for more on ebay advanced search:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/search/advanced-search.html

 

Which "snipe" program do you use? I want to get one that works good and "free"?
Is there such a rascal out there?

 

Yup, when searching for my 63 Olds Parts, I can now see 5000 trays of bolts, even after selecting the Auctions Only tab. E-Bay has slipped, alowing all the Generic stuff in all sorts.
I have a list of Saved Searches. If you go to the Advanced Search, sort through the BS, you can save the result for next time. I do Oldsmobiles, cars by year-lowest to newest and get just that. I also like to search for Cars within 50/100 miles, just to see what's nearby. I have about 15 in all. Always looking.

 

Sad thing is when looking for rare or not remade parts is still a place where items come up from time to time. Have seen too much over pricing on some items.

 

OLDZGUY, your profile won't accept PM's. Did you see this car on ebay? Maybe too many state's away from you, but in the town right next to mine.
John

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1963-...item1c17ac1a1f

 

Not looking for a project. I have a 63 D88 HC with 43,000 actual miles I'm restoring.
in Illinois


Now, here's a nice 63 Cutlass

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...K%3AMEWAX%3AIT

 

OK I did a search on:

1970 Olds 442

This always worked for me before. So, either there are no such cars available...something I never encountered before, or something is wrong

 

I did a search on that just now, and it turned up this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Oldsm...fCarsQ5fTrucks


Remember, sometimes you might need to search both

1970 Olds 442

and

1970 Oldsmobile 442


You never know how a seller might list it. In the case of this 442, the seller, who happens to be a dealer in Columbus, Ohio, had the word "Oldsmobile" in the main auction title and the word "Olds" in the subtitle, so either search would catch his listing. But putting in a subtitle I think costs extra money, so not everyone does it.

Also, there is a way, in the advanced search area, to use an OR-type function. In other words, you could have it search for listings that contain 1970, 442, and EITHER Olds or Oldsmobile. I don't recall offhand how to do it, but it should be there in the advanced search instructions.


Also, some people might list a car like this as 4-4-2, instead of 442. You might have to search on both.


Then there's the auction where a major word is misspelled. I can't tell you many times I've seen a listing for an Olds "Cutless." Nobody is going to find that auction if they search on "Cutlass," and this seller will wonder all day long why his auction is getting no visits or bids. There are actually websites out there that will search ebay listings for you using the words you want to search on as well as common misspellings of them. Those are the auctions you want to find because most people don't find them, and you have little competition from other bidders if you want the item.

 

Jaunty,

Thanks. Though I have to say I do recognize and understand most of the options you mention, yet 1970 Olds 442 worked very well for me for the last 2 years.

It may have resulted in items other than cars, but then I had the option of selecting "cars and trucks", or "accessories" etc etc. Now with the new interface it wouldn't allow me to filter on "cars and trucks". It seems to me that such an obvious filter and I can't understand why it no longer appears.

Oh well.

 

OK, I found the filter for "cars and trucks" only. What they have done was bury it under 2 headings. So, now I need to do 2 more clicks to get to it......what a PIA!!!!


Funny though I don't find the vehicle that you provided the link to. I only find this one using the same search terms you did.

http://motors.shop.ebay.com/Cars-Tru...c0.m282&_rdc=1

Now I know the link says accessories, but I did not select accessories. I specifically clicked on "cars and trucks" and in fact that link indicated in parentheticals that there was only 1 car.