www.auctionsieve.com

[wickmesh]

I thought it might be useful to summarise the current issues with AS - and possible workarounds.

Occasionally AS fails to retrieve the item number for an item.
(I believe this is causing this issue and this issue.)

Workaround described here.


Multiple massive errors in AS if you open all your sieves at once (400 error, 500 error, ebay is returning pages I cannot interpret, etc).
(This could be the same thing as this issue but rbryson doesn't mention lots of error messages.)
=> I believe Ebay have implemented DDOS projection. I find if I open more than 3 sieves at once (or less sieves if I'm also view [load] lots of item tabs at the same time in my browser) then AS returns many, many error messages, stacked on top of one another and it's hard to click through them all, there are so many - and I get no sieve results whatsoever.

Workaround - only open 2 or 3 sieves at once. If you've triggered this issue then you'll need to wait a while (15 minutes or so) before trying again.


Sometimes often, sometimes occasionally AS does not return the Time left on an item.
(Likely to be related to [the cause of] this issue?)
=> Refresh does nothing, it's as if ebay are hiding the item end time. These items seem to be those on perpertual renewal, i.e. those that have no actual end date (those that would go round and round every 30 days before).

Workaround - It's not fatal, it just means the item appears at the top of your watchlist (if you search by Time left). I just assume these items are ending soon, and view them quickly.


Occasionally the AS watchlist wrongly reports that an item has ended.
=> May be related to the issue below, but is most likely due to the perpetually for sale listings (going round every 30 days). Can also be when sellers run out of stock, and then edit the listing with more stock (they don't like buyers knowing they have 200 of the item - making it seem like they have only 3 left makes buyers more keen to grab whatever it is).

Workaround - check items that AS has ended as if they were normal items (it's not a fatal problem).


Often AS misses that a BIN item has been sold (has ended). Sometimes I am suspicious that AS swaps the results of ended items with details of a new item.
=> I think the way ebay handles ended items has changed & is continuing to evolve, and AS isn't picking up what has happened. Ebay seem to suggest a new item (which is of course way more expensive), rather than directing you to the old "this item has ended" page (and letting you view it again if relisted).

Examples:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/c/115842355#oid124505680481
Bizarre new item page format, which IMHO is broken. The ebay item ID is nowhere to be found - not even in the URL - and list functionality is missing from the page. Thankfully the link to the original ended item still works. "Good old ebay" making changes for "improvements"
https://www.ebay.co.uk/c/115842355
(Same page, stripped of the "The listing you're looking for has ended." header)
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/373395456649
(The actual item at it's traditional URL with item number, found by searching ebay for the full title "New In Box Intel Pentium 4 640 3.2GHz (SL7Z8) Processor")

Workarounds - View items in your AS watchlists soon after you find them (don't use your AS watchlist as your main watchlist). Use ebay's lists functionality (create a "Bought CDs 01" etc list to easily discount the things you've seen before that keep going round and round). Search ebay directly (in your browser) for the title of the relevant auction when you suspect an issue.



Multiple irrelevant results in your sieves. Significantly less "good" results than you might normally expect.
=> Ebay seem to be making the results for your searches "less related" to what you are searching for - i.e. more AI, grey, fuzzily related to what you input. One of the favourites seems to be a link near the top of the results saying "We removed some search results to show you the most relevant listings. View all results" which hides a lot of the rubbish (good) but also some of the good stuff (bad). [You only seem to get this if you sort the results by any method but "Best match".] For example, search for a USB 3 cable and ebay will not show you all the USB 3 cables that are available...

=> Also ebay seem to be going overboard on "Sponsored" items (which are usually rubbish or way more expensive than what you're looking for). I think AS is returning these sponsored items as good results.

Workarounds - get good with your trash words. (This is one of the major benefits of AS.) Perform multiple narrow searches, don't just rely on one wide one to catch everything.



AS only finds a relevant item that you would have bid on with only minutes (or seconds) to spare before it ends.
=> This happens despite you having run your sieves earlier in the same day, maybe even only a few hours before. It's probably related to ebay's changes to search (making them less related) above. But also possibly the seller has multiple similar items for sale (ebay will hide the second, third etc items to "clean up" the search results) - or the seller is of low standing (poor feedback etc) and ebay are demoting their results in the searches, sometimes hiding them completely.

Workaround - run your sieves multiple times a day (but this only partially fixes the issue).


New today not working
(reported by other users here and here)

Workaround - don't use New today. Search ebay for everything that matches your search, and instead tick the "Hide items shown before" box. (This is IMHO one of the strongest features of AS.) As above, combine this with multiple narrow searches directed into the same sieve (especially if each search returns many thousands of results) e.g. search for the same thing repeatedly but at different price bands (less than $10, $10-15, $15-30 etc).

Yes it's not perfect (AS appears to have limits on how many items it will save as "shown before" both in a maximum number and a time limit) but combine this with ebay's list functionality (create your own lists of "Seen items 03") and discarding these previously seen items when they come round again is quick enough.


If I've missed something, please add it below...

[wickmesh]

Thank you Nev for finding time to look at these!

[nev]

Thank you for the comprehensive post. It's fantastic for me to use as a guide!

[wickmesh]

Thanks Nev for 3.0.6.2!

The changes made in 3.0.6.1 certainly seem to have dramatically reduced the number of results I'm getting - I don't seem to be seeing the items going round every 30 days that I used to.

(EDIT - to be clear, the results below are after testing 3.0.6.2)

[nev]

Ok, new beta 3.0.6.2 is out.
I'm fairly confident I've covered pretty much all the issues.
Let me know if there's anything remaining.

In summary....

Blank item numbers: were sometimes happening for the last item on a result page due to other guff that eBay was adding.

Lots of errors running lots of sieves: I haven't done anything specifically for this. AuctionSieve already has some throttling to make sure only 10 requests are running at once.

Time left: yes, unfortunately ebay now doesn't return the time left for a lot of buy it now items - nothing I can do about that but I have improved the time left scraping

Wrongly reporting item has ended: pretty sure I've fixed this now - doing better identification of ended vs non-ended items

BIN sold items: the item page for an ended item has sponsored items above the ended item details which was tripping up AS. This is now fixed so it should detect better whether an item has ended

Multiple irrelevant results in your sieves: I've added new detection for the extra stuff ebay keeps adding - eg "items from international sellers" and "items matching fewer words"

AS only finds a relevant item that you would have bid on with only minutes (or seconds) to spare before it ends: This one can still occur - it will happen on searches where there's an item that ends while AS is still downloading the results. Eg page 1 downloads with 50 items, then first item ends, then page 2 downloads and what would have been item 51 is now bumped up to item 50 on page 1, so AS never sees it. Can't do much about this really.

New today not working: hopefully this is fixed

[nev]

Ha, I didn't see your post before posting my post.

So, the one remaining issue that can be fixed is this blank item number thing.
Can you give me the details of that search?

[nev]

Ok, fixed it.

I just did a search for exact phrase "vintage gold ceramic ic" and got 2 results including that dodgy one. Did some testing and figured out a better way of getting the item number that works.

Let me know how you go!

[wickmesh]

[wickmesh]

Sorry, I don't need a couple of days! That damn same item is still there...

[nev]

Hmmm, I can't replicate this.
I managed to replicate the problem before and made a change which solved it for my search.
I think I'll need even more details.

For example, if I have this:
Search term: scrap (cpu, cpus, processor, processors, intel, amd)
Use: ebay uk
All of these words
Time frame: All
and nothing else checked

I get 30 items including that 4004 and they're all fine.

Can you come up with some search details that cause it reliably?
If it's random - sometimes occurs, sometimes not, I'll give you some other instructions.

[wickmesh]

Thanks for persevering on this one Nev!

For a few days this one was appearing reliably on 3.0.6.3 (same item each time), but now it doesn't appear (although the item is still live). Previously (before 3.0.6.3) the issue was pretty random (different items at different times) and although fairly common, almost unrepeatable (not the same item each time).

I'm certain it is this search (below) from the sieve that was causing it (as none of the other searches in the sieve have search terms that could find this item). But historically (before 3.0.6.3) I have found the issue on many different sieves.

Time frame all
ebay UK
scrap (cpu, cpus, processor, processors, intel, amd)
Include store items
Max price 55
Trash Word filter
Hide items shown before

I've tried a test see if I can find other search terms that cause it reliably, but no luck yet. What else would you like me to try please?

--------------------------------------------

Also I'm having (have had) an issue coming from the same item on 3.0.6.3 - I copied it into my watchlist to see what would happen. AS decided it had ended, as obviously no item to find. Now every time I open AS I get an error message (copied below). I click OK and it's gone, and there are no items in my watchlist in AS.

[nev]

Ok, still can't replicate with that search.

However, new beta released with a fix for that bad line exception - basically if an item doesn't have an id, I won't save it to the watchlist any more.

Also a feature you requested a while ago!
Go to Tools->Options...->Sieve actions and turn on "Show search number column"

[wickmesh]

Just had this (no item number) happen again - but this is the first time in a good while. Seems (for the moment) to be consistent...

Same item! https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/254833220887

Same search as before (which is easy to confirm now thanks to the search number column )

Also - nothing stops me adding it to the watchlist - but if I restart AS it's gone from my watchlist, not in my price history, and there's no error message.

Running AS 3.1.0 on Win10.

[wickmesh]

Starting to get this "no item number" problem in other searches/sieves now.

Result "floor mat sound insulation board thickening treadmill mat shock absorption~" from search

Time frame all
Use ebay.co.uk
Search term
("golds gym", proform, "nordic track", NordicTrack, healthrider, treadmill) (board, controller) -silicone -running -covers -yijian -cable -harness -display
All of these words
Include store items
Max Price 200

Searching ebay directly finds this item https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/164767727304


Result "BOS Best of Show Land Rover Range Rover SUV SUV available 1:87 H0" from search

Time frame all
Use ebay.co.uk
Search term
bos (landrover, "land-rover", rangerover, "range-rover", defender, "land rover", freelander, discovery) -1/18 -1/43 -wiper -bosal -bosch -brake -fuel -pillar -capping -seal -belt -hose -glow -net -"boot tidy" -solenoid -bearing -trim -throttle -paperback -opener -steering -shelf
All of these words
Sellers to exclude boxter7248 shirley9293
Include store items
Show items from preferred locations Worldwide
Max Price 100

Searching ebay directly finds this item https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/254683317930

Currently these two are consistently received every time I run the sieve concerned.

The last character(s) of the item titles of 2 of 3 of these results is strange (not a standard character), could this be what is throwing AS off?

[wickmesh]