The Mystery that is eBay

[DaveG38]

Anybody got an explanation for this:

When I go onto any eBay page for a specific category of coins e.g Victorian or Early Milled, or whatever, I notice that a small drop-down menu on the right, which is concerned with sorting the items for sale, always defaults to something called 'Best Match.' Whilst it is easy enough to change the sorting to 'Ending Soonest' or whatever, I wondered what the hell 'Best Match' actually means. Best match to what? Can't be my previous purchases, because it does it for Elizabeth II and I haven't bought one of those in years, if not decades.

Any ideas?

Edited December 18, 2018 by DaveG38

[Paddy]

I suspect it means: "What Ebay wants to push the hardest"! It will be things from their favoured sellers - the ones that make them the most money.

 

[1949threepence]

1 hour ago, DaveG38 said:

Anybody got an explanation for this:

When I go onto any eBay page for a specific category of coins e.g Victorian or Early Milled, or whatever, I notice that a small drop-down menu on the right, which is concerned with sorting the items for sale, always defaults to something called 'Best Match.' Whilst it is easy enough to change the sorting to 'Ending Soonest' or whatever, I wondered what the hell 'Best Match' actually means. Best match to what? Can't be my previous purchases, because it does it for Elizabeth II and I haven't bought one of those in years, if not decades.

Any ideas?

Probably means what they consider to be nearest to what you are searching for, which means it won't be anywhere near.  

[DaveG38]

You are probably right, although quite what the algorithm is that could make such a prediction is a bit beyond me.