# Mild Pitting of e-bay (uk) It isn't 'window shopper' friendly anymore. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 2, 2005, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mild-pitting-of-e-bay-uk-it-isnt-window-shopper-friendly-anymore/292630 "2005-03-02T18:33:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2005, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mild-pitting-of-e-bay-uk-it-isnt-window-shopper-friendly-anymore/292630/1 "2005-03-02T18:33:37Z")
Maybe I’m mistaken but on e-bay it used to be possible to get straight to the list screen (for 'items ending now, for instance) without having to navigate through the categories. This made ‘window shopping’ (looking, without anything specific in mind) easy. But now it’s almost impossible to window-shop there. I have to be very specific about what I am looking for in order to get to the list. I know it’s not _impossible_, that I can just look for something interesting on the category list. But that would be like going to a shop and only seeing the goods when you’ve told the keeper what you are looking for. The beauty of windowshopping is that you can end up possessing nice things which you would otherwise never have found, (and in some cases might not even known about the existence of such a thing) So there. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2005, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mild-pitting-of-e-bay-uk-it-isnt-window-shopper-friendly-anymore/292630/2 "2005-03-02T19:32:37Z")
Lob, two things: Have your Dope location always been the Isle of Man and I’m an unnoticing moron or is this a new development? And is eBay UK so small that one can window shop completely at random like that? I sure can’t do it over here. I need SOME idea of what i want and the more specific the better. Otherwise I’d be digging through a million pages, roughly. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2005, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mild-pitting-of-e-bay-uk-it-isnt-window-shopper-friendly-anymore/292630/3 "2005-03-02T19:42:06Z")
For years my location was ‘Isle of Man (UK)’ then I changed it to ‘Ellan Vannin’ (Manx Translation of ‘Isle of Man’). It stayed as that for a while (probably a year). Then a few months ago I changed it to ‘Isle of Man’ because I had posted in a thread which mentions the Isle of Man (wanted to indicate that I might be an authority on the thread subject) I might also have had the occasional sarcastic location (like ‘here’ or ‘somewhere else’), but they never lasted long. Perhaps you are only just noticing because you saw ‘uk’ in the title and this prompted you to glance at my location. I can’t remember exactly how but I think it was once a case of clicking on ‘items ending now’ and being taken straight to _all_ items ending now, sorted by exactly when they end. I could be mistaken though, perhaps I once did have specific things to search for and it just ‘felt’ like I was getting straight into the browsing. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2005, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mild-pitting-of-e-bay-uk-it-isnt-window-shopper-friendly-anymore/292630/4 "2005-03-02T19:43:43Z")
Slight correction. My location was ‘[lobley.livejournal.com](http://lobley.livejournal.com)’ for a bit recently. ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2005, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mild-pitting-of-e-bay-uk-it-isnt-window-shopper-friendly-anymore/292630/5 "2005-03-02T20:17:47Z")
Yep, I think **lobsang** is right. I have also wondered wehther _I_ was doing something different, or the site was. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2005, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mild-pitting-of-e-bay-uk-it-isnt-window-shopper-friendly-anymore/292630/6 "2005-03-02T20:44:58Z")
Why would I forget ever knowing that? Whatever. ☹ Well, being Manxish and all I can see why you value eBay. If I were surrounded by shoppes selling Mike Hailwood memorial tea sets and funny looking cats I’d spend even more of my life scrolling through its offering and calculating shipping costs than I do now. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2005, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mild-pitting-of-e-bay-uk-it-isnt-window-shopper-friendly-anymore/292630/7 "2005-03-02T20:47:24Z")
Simple workaround - from the homepage, click “all items ending now”, then do a search for ‘_and_’ with ‘search title and description’ checked - that picks up 99.99% of all listings. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2005, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mild-pitting-of-e-bay-uk-it-isnt-window-shopper-friendly-anymore/292630/8 "2005-03-02T21:08:21Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > Simple workaround - from the homepage, click “all items ending now”, then do a search for ‘_and_’ with ‘search title and description’ checked - that picks up 99.99% of all listings. Noted. Thanks! > [@dropzone](#): > > Well, being Manxish and all I can see why you value eBay. If I were surrounded by shoppes selling Mike Hailwood memorial tea sets and funny looking cats I’d spend even more of my life scrolling through its offering and calculating shipping costs than I do now. We have a few of ye moderne shoppes too here 😉 But on a more serous note: There are some shops conspicuous by their absence from the IOM: Dixons, Currys, Burger King, Subway, Dominoes to name but a few. And, e-bay would actually be less convenient for Residents of IOM because of the obvious delivery problem for large items. I couldn’t buy a car and drive down to the owners house’