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You can use Advanced Search to perform detailed searches or you can refine your keywords using the tips below:
- Including Words You can specify words you want to appear in your search by simply entering the keyword(s) in the search box. By default, your search only will return classifieds that include all of your search terms in ad titles. There is no need to include "and" between terms. To restrict a search further, just include more terms.
- Excluding Words You can exclude a word from your search by putting a minus sign (-) immediately in front of the term you want to avoid. (Be sure to include a space before the minus sign).
For example, a search for bass that excludes the word "music" looks like this:
[ bass -music ] [search]
You can exclude multiple words from a search:
[ bass -music -guitar -drum ] [search]
- Common Words Searches on sell.com ignore common words and characters (known as stop words) because they tend to slow down searches without improving the quality of the results. These include terms such as "where" and "how", as well as certain single digits and single letters.
- Wildcards To provide the most accurate results, sell.com does not use "stemming" or support "wildcard" searches. In other words, we search for exactly the words that you enter in the search box. Searching for "wardrobe" will not yield "ward" or "war".
- Capitalization sell.com searches are not case sensitive. All letters regardless of how you type them will be understood as lower case. For example, searches for "mike modano", "Mike Modano", and "MiKe mOdAno" will all return the same results.
- Search By Category A convenient way to refine your search for a particular topic is to browse categories. For example, searching for "Saturn" within the Autos & Motorcycles >> Cars category of the sell.com directory returns only pages about Saturn vehicles. It does not return classifieds about the planet Saturn, or any other meanings of the term. Searching within a category of interest allows you to quickly focus on only the most relevant classifieds. Begin by clicking the Browse button on the site.
Advanced Search Syntax
Here are some specific tips for sell.com searches:
- min:
This specifies a search for the minimum price for an item.
Example: [ wine min:30 ] [go]
This search would find all classifieds with "wine" in the title that cost at least $30.
- max:
This specifies a search for the maximum price for an item.
Example: [ car max:9000 ] [go]
- pict: yes/no
This search returns only classifieds with pictures.
Example: [ puppy pict:yes ] [go]
- fulltext: yes/no
This search also looks for your keywords in item descriptions.
Example: [ gown desc:yes ] [go]
- zip: U.S. zip codes only
This search limits the results to those classifieds within a specific zip code.
Example: [ television zip:75243 ] [go]
- within: miles
This search expands the results of a zip-code search out to a specified distance.
Example: [ television zip:75243 within:30 ] [go]
- cat: a numerical category (found by using ‘browse’)
This search looks for classifieds within a specific category.
Example: [ Saturn cat:1-5-1 ] [go]
- after: mm/dd/yyyy or:dd-mon-2001
This search looks for classifieds that have been posted after a specific date.
Example: [ Christmas lights after:12/25/2000 ] [go]
or [ Christmas lights after:25-dec-2000 ] [go]
- member: sign-in name
This search looks for classifieds posted by a specific seller.
Example: [ member:CommanderTaco ] [go]
All of the above advanced search techniques may be combined for use in one very powerful search.
Example: [ anime pict:yes after:01/15/2001 member:CommanderTaco ] [go]
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