EBay Misspelled Listing Search Tool

Find bargains on eBay by looking for auctions that have spelling errors. Most people can't find listings with the primary keyword spelled wrong. That means fewer bidders and great deals if you can find them.

See instructions and tips below for ideas on how to use this tool to find misspelled eBay auctions. Updated 9/6/2019.

Primary Keyword Spelling variations will be based on this word. Enter only one keyword using the correct spelling. Exclude primary keyword

Allow dictionary matches

Additional Keywords Additional words to use in the search. This helps focus the search to specific items. Separate multiple keywords with a space. Switch Keywords Excluded Keywords Exclude words from the search. Use this to remove unwanted items appearing in the search results. Separate multiple keywords with a space. EBAY SITE Austria - www.ebay.at Australia - www.ebay.com.au Belgium - www.ebay.be Canada - www.ebay.ca France - www.ebay.fr Germany - www.ebay.de Italy - www.ebay.it Ireland - www.ebay.ie Netherlands - www.ebay.nl Spain - www.ebay.es Switzerland - www.ebay.ch United Kingdom - www.ebay.co.uk United States - www.ebay.com Select the eBay site to search.

It is very easy to bargain hunt on eBay using this tool. Just enter the primary keyword for the item that you want to find. For example, if you are interested in Louis Vuitton purses, you would use "vuitton" (without the quotes) as the primary keyword. Only enter one primary keyword as this word is used to generate the spelling variations. The keywords are not case sensitive. Avoid using punctuation characters as eBay treats these characters strangely.

TIP #1: Use the longest keyword possible as your primary keyword. This will produce more specific spelling variations that will result in fewer false matches.

Next, click on the "Search" button to see what turns up on eBay. In many cases, the number of listings found is fairly small and you can easily browse through them. If no matches are found, try checking the "Allow dictionary matches" box and search again.

If you end up with hundreds of listings, you can prune them by entering additional keywords in the Additional Keywords box. For example, if you are looking for Coach purses, you would use "coach" (without the quotes) as the primary keyword and add "purse" (without the quotes) in the additional keywords box. You can enter more than one word separated by a space. For example, enter "black purse" (without the quotes) to look for eBay listings that have "black" and "purse" in the title.

TIP #2: For items that have more than one keyword (i.e. Pottery Barn), use one of the words as the primary keyword and add the remaining words as additional keywords. You can interchange keywords between the primary and additional keywords using the "Switch Keywords" button to find different combinations of spelling errors.

Sometimes a spelling variation will match a group of unrelated items. You can filter them out by adding them to the Exclude Keywords input box. Any listing that matches one of the excluded keywords will not be included in the search results. For example, if you didn't want any listings with the word "bag" or the spelling variation "vitton", enter them in the excluded keyword box (without the quotes).

TIP #3: Some sellers intentionally include a common misspelling in the title to catch people looking for spelling mistakes. These listings are not bargains as the correct spelling is also included in the title. To filter out these listings in the search results, add the correct spelling to the excluded keywords list.

Exclude primary keyword

On some searches, eBay will automatically add the correctly spelled keyword to the search string. Checking this box will remove the correct spelling from the search string.

Allow dictionary matches

By default, misspelling variations that match dictionary words will be included in the search results. However some spelling errors will match words that will cause unrelated items to appear in the search results. For example, if you are looking for a Canon camera, the common spelling mistake "cannon" will be included. You can override this behavior by unchecking the "Allow dictionary matches" box. You can use this in conjunction with additional keywords and/or excluded keywords to reduce the number of unwanted listings in the search results.

Auctions only

The misspelled search is applied to "All Listings". To find the best deals, click on the auction button at the top of the reulsts page to filter out unwanted listings.

Not Everything is a Bargain

Be sure to check the feedback of the seller before bidding. Many eBay scammers live in foreign countries and they often have spelling and grammar errors in their auctions. The last thing you want to do is give money to a scammer no matter how good the deal looks. See How To Avoid eBay Scams and Fraud for more information.

See the $500,000 eBay Typo is an astonishing example of what happens when there is a spelling error in the auction.

We would love to hear about any bargains you find on eBay using our tool. Send us the completed eBay item number so we can see what a great deal you found. Please use the Contact Us form to let us know.