Many folks new to searching Ebay for merchandise find themselves discouraged by the overabundance of results that don't quite meet their search criteria. They have difficulty zeroing in on exactly what they are looking for. This short guide is intended to demonstrate that the use of the minus ( - ) sign can go a long ways to pruning down the results list of irrelevant returns.

  A good example of what I'm talking about is a search that I conducted awhile back for a leather vest. I am what polite society would refer to as a man of "ample proportions". It's quite difficult to find any clothing in my size in local shops. Searching for a "Leather Vest" on Ebay brought back countless results that would not interest me. You see, many men and women who enjoy the sport of motorcycling purchase and wear leather vests. Though I used to ride a big ol' Harley, on a few occasions I broke the #1 rule of motorcycling which is to ALWAYS keep the motorcycle oriented generally perpendicular to the horizon. Failure to do so caused grave bodily harm. But, I digress. Suffice it to say that I am no longer looking for a motorcycle type vest.

  The huge number of results that a search for "Leather Vest" produced were for leather vests of the "biker" type. Many of these have laces going up both sides or fringes. The vest I was interested in was to have no laces, no fringes. I just wanted a plain, casual leather vest that I could wear without being pigeon-holed into any specific social group. So I tried something that had worked for me on many general internet searches. The minus ( - ) sign.

  After surveying all of the unwanted results I made a list of, not what I was looking for, but, what I was NOT looking for. The list included such things as;

•           Fringes (Not a cowboy, I'm from Connecticut!)
•           Laces (Though handy for after holiday binge eating, loosen them and you can expand, they're not the fashion statement I'm looking for)
•           Biker (No longer a biker)
•           Black (I just didn't want a black vest)
•           Motorcycle (For obvious reasons)

  Now that I had my list of unwanted attributes I was ready to type in my new search criteria. It would first include what I was looking for "Leather Vest,".Then, of course, my difficult to locate size, XXXXL,. Now to include my list of undesirable attributes, -Fringe, -Laces, -Biker, -Black, -Motorcycle. So the finished search would read: "Leather Vest", XXXXL, -Fringe, -Laces, -Biker, -Black, -Motorcycle. After checking the little box marked "Search in Titles and Descriptions" I click "Search" and, bingo!, my new list of results appears sans all the unwanted attributes.

  After this search, to be on the safe side, I conduct a duplicate search replacing the term "XXXXL" with the term "4XL" which some sellers use instead and theoretically I have all the results pertinent to my needs.

  Try this technique on whatever you're searching for, be it a leather vest or a 14th century marble sculpture, and you can prune your returns from 12,487 to 73. Happy searching!