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Hack 12 Tweaking Search URLs

Tap into eBay's massive
database right from your own address bar.

eBay is essentially a massive
database. Every time you view an auction page,
you're just looking at a single database record.
Every time you search, you're performing a query.
But even if you're not familiar with DB lingo, you
can play with eBay's URLs to tweak what you see.

2.5.1 Auction Pages

Many pages on eBay use a standard CGI (Common Gateway Interface)
format, which is nothing more than a program name followed by a
command and one or more parameters:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3128013703

Here, cgi.ebay.com is the name of the server,
eBayISAPI.dll is the filename of the program,
ViewItem is the command to execute, and
item=3128013703 is a parameter. Any additional
parameters are separated by ampersands (&).

In this case, 3128013703 is the
auction number. Simply replace this with
another valid auction number, press Enter, and
you'll see the corresponding auction page. This is
typically quicker and more convenient than using the Search page to
open an auction by its number.

Some sellers reference other auctions by simply including the auction number in their descriptions, usually because they don't know how to make links (see [Hack #40]). To view the auction by its number, simply copy and paste the number into the URL, replacing the one that's there.

2.5.2 Search Pages

A typical search page URL looks something like this:

http://search.ebay.com/ws/search/SaleSearch?satitle=avocado+green

Here, I searched for "avocado
green", which you can see in the parameter
satitle=avocado+green. Most searches will probably
have more parameters, some more self-descriptive than others.

The real value in tweaking the URL is the ability to add or change
options otherwise unavailable or inconveniently located in the search
interface. One of the most useful of these is the self-evident
sorecordsperpage option. Although you can choose
this option by going to Search Advanced Search
Results Per Page, this can be cumbersome, and you
can't add it to an existing search
you've already built. Instead, simply type the
following at the end of an existing search URL:

&sorecordsperpage=100

Note the required ampersand (&) to
separate this parameter from the one that precedes it. (In the old
days, you could have up to 200 items on a page, but eBay has since
reduced the limit to 100; anything higher will simply be ignored.)
Here are some of the other
parameters
that are worth typing:

&sorecordsperpage=number

&sapricelo=price

&sapricehi=price

&sacategory=num+num+num

&sacategoryex=num+num+num

&sasaleclass=class

&sapaypal=1

2.5.3 Searching in Categories

Although there's no way to specify a
category
directly in the search field, there is a quick way to convert a
standard search to a category-specific search without having to drill
down through layers of category links. (See [Hack #11] for the long way.)

eBay has thousands of categories (more than 15,000 at the time of
this writing), each identified by a unique category number. Although
there's no obvious rhyme or reason to the numbering
scheme, you may eventually learn the numbers of your favorite
categories. The category number is easily found in the URL of the
category listing; for example:

http://listings.ebay.com/aw/listings/list/category19116/indexl

Here, the category number is 19116. (You can also
get the number of any category by viewing the complete list at
listings.ebay.com/aw/plistings/list/categoriesl.)
To convert a standard search to a category-specific search, simply
type the following at the end of the search URL:

&sacategory=19116

You can specify multiple category numbers by separating them with
plus signs, something you can't do by clicking links
on search pages.

Categories are typically restricted to a single nationality. For example, a given category number at ebay.com won't be recognized at ebay.de, even though ebay.de may have an equivalent category that goes by a different number. See [Hack #15] for details.

2.5.4 View a Seller's Other Items

If you click
"View seller's other
items" on any auction page, you'll
see a listing of all current auctions by that seller. Although
you'll find even fewer options here than on the
average search page, there are two important URL options you can
tweak.

A seller's auction listing URL looks something like
this:

http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewSellersOtherItems
&userid=some_user&since=-1&sort=3&rows=25

By default, only current auctions are shown here, but you can change
the since parameter from -1 to
any number up to 30 to view past auctions up to 30
days old. You can also change the rows parameter
to specify how many auctions to show on a page; the maximum is 200.

It shouldn't take long to discover that typing
either of these parameters into the URL is far quicker and more
convenient than going to Search By Seller, typing the
seller's name, specifying the age and number of
auctions to show, and clicking Search. But you probably saw that
coming.

2.5.5 See Also

See [Hack #30] for a way to change the
nationality of most eBay pages.

See [Hack #16] to keep from having to
reconstruct the same searches again and again.

See [Hack #13] for another way to use
search URLs.