eBay Search URL Structure Explained

One of the things I have found very hard as an eBay API developer (with two certified applications) is the eBay search results page URL structure. My latest project requires me to build more complex eBay search URL structures on the fly. Below I explain how to create eBay URLs on the fly based on my understanding. I am hoping this complements a few articles out there about adding eBay items to your wordpress blog and how to create an eBay niche store. eBay has given me NO HELP in producing this post so please don't consider this to be some kinda official eBay description of how to create an advanced search url... it isn't one!

The search will return BIN only items, items available to certain countries, search title and desc, select a category, include a price range and show the eBay "welcome new user banner". There are of course more variables possible but this is a good start:

http://search.ebay.com/4gb-ipod-nano-product-red__W0QQfnuZ1QQftsZ2QQsaatcZ3QQsacatZ293QQsaprchiZ150QQsaprcloZ200QQsascsZ2

The link above is a search for a "4gb ipod nano product red" the query section of the search should be simple enough to spot. You replace the " " with "-" and append the search string to the search.ebay.com as follows for a simple default search:

http://search.ebay.com/4gb-ipod-nano-product-red

If you wish to then start exploring more complex variables you append _W0 to tell eBay search they are coming and then each variable is preceeded by QQ. The order of the variables appears not to matter and the first variable on this list is QQfnuZ1 - this is the welcome new user banner as shown below:

http://search.ebay.com/4gb-ipod-nano-product-red_W0QQfnuZ1

The next variable is QQsacatZ293 which tells eBay to just search category 293 which in this case is consumer electronics in the US (siteid: 0)

http://search.ebay.com/4gb-ipod-nano-product-red_W0QQfnuZ1QQsacatZ293

The next variable is QQftsZ2 which tells eBay to search title AND desc expanding the search... if you don't want this to happen simply leave it out.

http://search.ebay.com/4gb-ipod-nano-product-red_W0QQfnuZ1QQsacatZ293QQftsZ2

Proceeding through my example URL we come across QQsaprchiZ150 and QQsaprcloZ200. These variables control min and max price (and don't have to appear together, you can have just one or the other). Here I set min price to $150 (QQsaprchiZ150) and max price to $200 (QQsaprcloZ200) as far as I can see the currency is controlled by the site you search on but I may be wrong.

http://search.ebay.com/4gb-ipod-nano-product-red_W0QQfnuZ1QQsacatZ293QQftsZ2QQsaprchiZ150QQsaprcloZ200

I now have two more variables left in my example url. The penultimate is QQsascsZ2. If this is present you only return BIN items (if you enter QQsascsZ1 you only get auction items and if you leave it off you get everything).

http://search.ebay.com/4gb-ipod-nano-product-red_W0QQfnuZ1QQsacatZ293QQftsZ2QQsaprchiZ150QQsaprcloZ200QQsascsZ2

Now the final variable in my list for understanding the eBay search URL is: QQsaatcZ3. This controls the ship to country, in this example it is "3" which is the united kingdom.

http://search.ebay.com/4gb-ipod-nano-product-red_W0QQfnuZ1QQsacatZ293QQftsZ2QQsaprchiZ150QQsaprcloZ200QQsascsZ2QQsaatcZ3

The full list of countries within the eBay advanced search form as of 4th February is at the end of this article.

So there you have an outline of some of the main variables in the eBay advanced search URLs, this definitely prooved really useful for me to create my little application, I hope it's useful for you.

1, United States
15, Australia
2, Canada
3, United Kingdom
4, Afghanistan
5, Albania
6, Algeria
7, American Samoa
8, Andorra
9, Angola
10, Anguilla
11, Antigua and Barbuda
225, APO/FPO
12, Argentina
13, Armenia
14, Aruba
15, Australia
16, Austria
17, Azerbaijan Republic
18, Bahamas
19, Bahrain
20, Bangladesh
21, Barbados
22, Belarus
23, Belgium
24, Belize
25, Benin
26, Bermuda
27, Bhutan
28, Bolivia
29, Bosnia and Herzegovina
30, Botswana
31, Brazil
32, British Virgin Islands
33, Brunei Darussalam
34, Bulgaria
35, Burkina Faso
36, Burma
37, Burundi
38, Cambodia
39, Cameroon
2, Canada
40, Cape Verde Islands
41, Cayman Islands
42, Central African Republic
43, Chad
44, Chile
45, China
46, Colombia
47, Comoros
48, Congo, Democratic Republic of the
49, Congo, Republic of the
50, Cook Islands
51, Costa Rica
52, Cote d Ivoire (Ivory Coast)
53, Croatia, Republic of
55, Cyprus
56, Czech Republic
57, Denmark
58, Djibouti
59, Dominica
60, Dominican Republic
61, Ecuador
62, Egypt
63, El Salvador
64, Equatorial Guinea
65, Eritrea
66, Estonia
67, Ethiopia
68, Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
69, Fiji
70, Finland
71, France
72, French Guiana
73, French Polynesia
74, Gabon Republic
75, Gambia
76, Georgia
77, Germany
78, Ghana
79, Gibraltar
80, Greece
81, Greenland
82, Grenada
83, Guadeloupe
84, Guam
85, Guatemala
86, Guernsey
87, Guinea
88, Guinea;Bissau
89, Guyana
90, Haiti
91, Honduras
92, Hong Kong
93, Hungary
94, Iceland
95, India
96, Indonesia
97, Iran
99, Ireland
100, Israel
101, Italy
102, Jamaica
103, Jan Mayen
104, Japan
105, Jersey
106, Jordan
107, Kazakhstan
108, Kenya
109, Kiribati
111, Korea, South
112, Kuwait
113, Kyrgyzstan
114, Laos
115, Latvia
116, Lebanon
120, Liechtenstein
121, Lithuania
122, Luxembourg
123, Macau
124, Macedonia
125, Madagascar
126, Malawi
127, Malaysia
128, Maldives
129, Mali
130, Malta
131, Marshall Islands
132, Martinique
133, Mauritania
134, Mauritius
135, Mayotte
136, Mexico
226, Micronesia
137, Moldova
138, Monaco
139, Mongolia
140, Montserrat
141, Morocco
142, Mozambique
143, Namibia
144, Nauru
145, Nepal
146, Netherlands
147, Netherlands Antilles
148, New Caledonia
149, New Zealand
150, Nicaragua
151, Niger
152, Nigeria
153, Niue
154, Norway
155, Oman
156, Pakistan
157, Palau
158, Panama
159, Papua New Guinea
160, Paraguay
161, Peru
162, Philippines
163, Poland
164, Portugal
165, Puerto Rico
166, Qatar
227, Reunion
167, Romania
168, Russian Federation
169, Rwanda
170, Saint Helena
171, Saint Kitts;Nevis
172, Saint Lucia
173, Saint Pierre and Miquelon
174, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
175, San Marino
176, Saudi Arabia
177, Senegal
178, Seychelles
179, Sierra Leone
180, Singapore
181, Slovakia
182, Slovenia
183, Solomon Islands
184, Somalia
185, South Africa
186, Spain
187, Sri Lanka
189, Suriname
190, Svalbard
191, Swaziland
192, Sweden
193, Switzerland
194, Syria
195, Tahiti
196, Taiwan
197, Tajikistan
198, Tanzania
199, Thailand
200, Togo
201, Tonga
202, Trinidad and Tobago
203, Tunisia
204, Turkey
205, Turkmenistan
206, Turks and Caicos Islands
207, Tuvalu
208, Uganda
209, Ukraine
210, United Arab Emirates
3, United Kingdom
1, United States
211, Uruguay
212, Uzbekistan
213, Vanuatu
214, Vatican City State
215, Venezuela
216, Vietnam
217, Virgin Islands (U.S.)
218, Wallis and Futuna
219, Western Sahara
220, Western Samoa
221, Yemen
222, Yugoslavia
223, Zambia
224, Zimbabwe

Comments

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[efi]

Hello alex,

How can i search on completed lists?
wihch param should I use?

i try to use
http://completed.shop.ebay.co.uk/items/keyword_W0QQLHQ5fCompleteZ1
OR
http://search.ebay.com/keyword_W0QQLHQ5fCompleteZ1

but it doesn't work...

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[Christopher]

@Sue, you need to alter the search string a little as there seems to be two different standards, the one above which uses "-" to append string (- is converted to a space), and this one which uses + to append, allowing "-" to be used as an exclude.

http://completed.shop.ebay.co.uk/items/_W0QQLHQ5fCompleteZ1QQ_catrefZ1QQ?_sacat=20389&_nkw=black+controller+-official

/\ search completed listings, in the Gamecube accessories category, for "black controller" excluding the term "official".

and... I'm just here to try figure out how I can search for consoles while *excluding* bundled accessories and games. I can include them ( BundledQ2520ItemsZ!!!QQ where !!! = Games or Accessories ) but can't figure out if there's a way to exclude.

[David]

These conventions might make things clearer:

Qxx => hex character code

Z => '='

QQ => '&'

[Wayne]

Is there anyway of finding out a list of the search words used by people searching ebay?

thanks

[Rodney]

Is there anyway to modify an eBay search url to include only items that have bids (in active listings) or items that received bids in ended auctions.

Thanks,
Rod

[Bryn Davies]

Paul: I think the keyword you are looking for is "few", i.e. QQfewZ(monopoly,scrabble,risk) will exclude those words from your search.

[Dave]

Hi, thanks for this. Just the info i was after.

Is it possible to add my affiliate PID into the search?

thanks

[Sue @ TameBay]

Genius! Thank you.

[Paul]

Could anyone of offer any guidance as to adding excluded words to the URL? For example the string below searches for common misspellings of the word 'box'. But if you wanted to exclude the actual word 'box' from the search how would you format the string?

http://search.ebay.co.uk/(ox,bx,bo,bbox,boox,boxx,obx,bxo,vox,gox,hox,nox,bix,b9x,b0x,bpx,blx,bkx,boz,bos,bod,boc,)_W0QQ

[Javier]

Nice Job Alex!
To much things to learn.
Time, need time : )

[Toriad]

thanks a lot, very useful information

[Jorge]

thanks alex very usefull