Don't forget those search tips

One should also remember the silly way that Trade Me now "snaps" your search to a category.  Do a search and don't find what you want, check to see which category Trade Me limited your search to, it's probably not what you wanted.

I just noticed that the search results that work in the browser work differently in the email it sends me. In this specific instance, I'm using "NOT".

https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/marketplace/toys-models/games-puzzles-tricks/board-games/word-games/search?search_string=NOT%20Scrabble%20NOT%20Monopoly

Works perfectly in the browser to exclude Scrabble and Monopoly from my Word Games search, but the email I receive is full of Scrabble.

I get the feeling that a lot of these search tips don't apply anymore now that the TradeMe website has changed to the new look.  To the moderator of this community - it would be good if you would review the list of search tips above and let us know via this posting as to which ones still work and which ones don't?

Hi PaulandKaren. Trademe don't usually work at the weekends, so not likely to get them popping in here till Monday.

I just did a test of each of the search operands mentioned in that first listing and they all performed correctly as I expected them to. Was there something in particular that you were not getting the results you expected from? Maybe someone here could check your syntax for you.

Hi Gary, the problem I found is a nice example of an unexpected bug Here are the details:

Env: using latest Chrome browser version on a Windows 10 PC

I use the menu to navigate to .../marketplace/building-renovation/tools/hand-tools/files-chisels and get 1,800+ search results. I narrow down the search by ticking "Used only" and get 67 results which are a mix of chisels and files. I am only interested in used chisels.

I put the word chisels in the search box and press Enter. I still get the same 67 results. I checked a files posting in the list of results and it does not have the word 'chisels' in the title nor in the description.

I then change the wording to: chisels NOT files  and press Enter. I do not get any results at all. I had expected to get the postings that had the word chisels and not see any postings that had the word files

If you get this search to work, please post the HTML search string here for me to use.

Thanks, Paul

I expect it is matching in some circumstance on the category name, since the category is "chisels and files" then any search for chisels, or files, or chisel, or file, will return everything, and excluding any of those words would return nothing. 

I don't think there is a way to really narrow it down to one or the other unfortunately.

The only ones that are excluded are actually from a different primary category (listings can be put into more than one category, at an expense), for example, search for chisel and the listing for "german chainsaw files" goes away, because it's primary category is Chainsaws and Parts.

Searchinf on the categroy title is probably the right way and helps people find stuff mostly, it's more that the category structure is inadequate in this case, Chisels and Files are entirely different things, they shouldn't be in the same category.

Yes, unfortunately searching for a term that's also in the category title is a waste of time and returns all listings so it's not possible to isolate chisels from files. Like James says, they should really have 2 different categories, however getting less than 70 results in a search is pretty quick to flick through.

Does anybody know how to search by the P reference number ?

That is the ID generated by Trademe after an auction has been successfully auctioned of.

This starts with a P.

You need to do it from the "old look", go to an invalid page, like this one will do...

https://www.trademe.co.nz/wrongturn

and then paste the P number into the search bar there.

You can only search your own P numbers (you are buyer or seller).

Cruisey. The p number is a unique transaction number between the buyer and seller only, so others can't search for it. If you are the seller, you can search for it on your old sold page but putting it in the sidebar search box.

https://www.trademe.co.nz/MyTradeMe/Sell/Sold.aspx

and if you are buyer, you can search on the old won items page by putting it in the main search bar.

https://www.trademe.co.nz/MyTradeMe/Buy/Won.aspx

Best way, independent of Trademe, is to search in your emails which will find it no matter what version of Trademe you use.

Greetings all, 

Im enjoying using the NOT function, especially in the $1 reserve bins, (stamps, ugh...)
Here is my question for the community: how do I stack my NOT filter requests, such as
NOT stamps and DVDs
or
NOT DVDs and UHM

Is there a special (insert character) to make the NOT filter become additional?

Many thanks for your attention.

Stacking is done like this... NOT stamps NOT UHM.

I have a daily search that has many NOT statements in in and many OR as well and it always seems to work reliably, although most of my search terms in it are explicit ie " ".