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Santa Clarita, Ca, United States
I work as a Technology Manager in the Entertainment Industry. My first film was Disney's Dinosaur and have been credited on several films since. I love working on old electronics, especially old radios. I am also passionate about technology and education. I have 4 kids and you can read about us on our family blog.

Sunday, December 22, 2024

Searching Ebay By Category

Searching by category is an excellent way to narrow down a specific search or to find items not easily found by the listing description. It's not as easy as it used to be, but it's still possible. Here's how!

So, what is search by category?

Search by category is using Ebay's search functionality to limit search to a specific category.  

For example.. Let's say you have an obsession for Porcelain Cat Figurines and want a porcelain figurine of a  "Persian Cat".  You search "Persian Cat Figurine", but you might miss some listings - i.e. listings where it does not say "cat" or maybe something is misspelled.   What you'd really like to do, is search the category  Ebay -> Collectables & Art -> Animals -> Cats -> Figurines for different keywords. 

However, when you go to the category, Ebay's Search defaults to "All Categories".  


However, you can work around this problem by smart use of the Ebay search URL.

Step 1: Find the category you want to search.  

Browse to the category you want to search.  When you get there, look at the browser bar and note the Category Number after the name.  In the case of porcelain cat figurines, this is category 37855. 



Step 2: Build your search URL.

Using the category, you can build your search URL:

Part1 : The Ebay Search command :   https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?

Part2: Your Search term i.e. "Persian" with _nkw= in front of it.:  _nkw=Persian

Part 3: Your category i.e. "37855" with &_sacat= in front of it :    &_sacat=37855

So, your search URL is

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=Persian&_sacat=37855

Step 3: Paste it into the browser


More Examples:

Here are some common categories and some more example searches:

Magic Lantern Slides:  90696
Sets of Magic Lantern Slides: https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=Set&_sacat=90696
Primus Magic Lantern Slides: https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=Primus&_sacat=90696

Photographs: 262421
Tintype Photographs: https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=Tintype&_sacat=262421
Daguerreotype Photographs: https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=Daguerreotype &_sacat=262421