Saved Search: The Best Search Shortcut

Learn how to utilize the Saved Search function to make your shopping experience easier and more efficient. If you’ve never heard of Saved Search, it’s like having a team of people doing the work of browsing for items for you! 

One of the most frustrating things about trying to buy anything in the secondary market is finding it! Unlike buying something new from your local store or distributor where items are usually always in stock (global pandemics aside), what you want isn’t always available when you need it. You may have to wait days or even months for an item you’re looking for to be available for purchase. So why buy through this avenue?

Historically, there have been two major benefits to shopping in the secondary market:

Price: You can often get items for pennies on the dollar rather than having to pay full price.
Planet: Buying these items means they stay out of landfills, stay productive, and reduce the need to manufacture more - a huge win for the planet!

In today’s shopping environment, there’s a third reason to start looking at shopping in the secondary marketplace: Supply Shortages. As a result of unreliable manufacturing and shipping, many everyday items are becoming more and more difficult to find. Many products can only be found on the secondary market, offering an opportunity for customers to shop sustainably and get discounts on items they need.

At the end of the day, spending the extra time looking for items in the secondary market is good for both your pocketbook and the planet, so it’s the best option for shopping whenever you can be flexible.

The Problem

Back to the biggest problem: Actually finding the items you need.

Shopping in the secondary market is a bit like a treasure hunt: unlike a new goods store, there’s no guarantee you'll always find what you set out to look for. Most assets are posted for sale by individual sellers rather than trained merchandisers, so sometimes the items exist but can't be found under the most obvious key word searches or in the categories you’d expect to find them in when browsing. Items on marketplaces like AllSurplus can often be coming from around the world as well, which means some of the listings for what you need may be further away than you’re comfortable with.

As a result, shopping this way can sometimes require a bit of extra work. This is where Saved Search comes in and makes shopping MUCH easier!

The greatest benefit of Saved Search is that it reduces the amount of work you have to do to find what you need! Utilizing Saved Search cuts down on browsing time by emailing you whenever anything new shows up or when listings are about to close, so you don't have to spend hours searching manually. You have the option to narrow down listings through filters for location, price, auction type, and more.

Additionally, you have the ability to choose as many filters as you’d like to try and find those hard-to-locate items and quickly access results for listings that meet your criteria.

This one simple search tool can save you a lot of time and will help ensure you don’t miss out on great deals.

Saved Search

A few handy tips and tricks for using Saved Search on the AllSurplus site:

1. Get as specific as possible!If you use search terms that are too generic, you’ll get recommendations for just about every listing that includes your search words. When this happens, emails with new items will quickly turn into spam.
   1. For example: If you’re looking for a 2006 Chevy Malibu, don’t put ‘Car’ as your search term! Try ‘Chevy Malibu 2006’ or ‘Chevy 2006’.
2. Use the Location Filter The closer to you an item is, the lower the shipping costs - in some cases, you can even pick up an item yourself. AllSurplus ships worldwide, so you may have to sift through listings for items that would incur import/export fees if you don’t utilize the Location Filter.
3. Set your sorting preference as Latest Online. By utilizing this tool, your Saved Search page will be organized to have the latest listings at the top. This feature still allows you to see all other available listings, so if you missed something listed yesterday or the day before, you can still see them! This tool is especially useful for those who want to shop around a bit and would like to weigh their options before making a purchase.
4. Alternatively, sorting by Closing Today allows you to prioritize items closing in the next 24 hours. The downside to this type of sorting is that you may miss items that were sold as ‘Buy Now’ or items that close before you look at your email, but those who check frequently or don’t want to play the waiting game when bidding will find this feature extremely useful.
5. Be strategic when naming your search. You have the option of naming your search when you create it, so choose something that makes sense to you and will be recognizable when you receive emails about new or closing listings – you don’t want to miss out on any deals!
6. Keep your Saved Searches updated. Keep your email from being overloaded and delete Saved Searches when you’ve found what you needed or no longer want that item. Deleting Saved Searches are the only way to stop receiving communications about listings. Simply click on your name at the top of the homepage and select ‘Saved Searches’, then remove the searches you no longer need.

How to Set Up a Saved Search

Follow these steps to get your Saved Search up and running:

1. Log into your account on AllSurplus.
2. Search for an item you want by selecting in the ‘Search Assets’ bar at the top of the homepage.
3. Click on ‘Save this Search’ just above the search results on the right-hand side of the page:
   
4. Enter a Search Name you will remember.
5. ‘Latest Online’ shows you the newest items listed, while ‘Ending Soon’ shows you the oldest items listed – you have the option to select one or both.
   1. NOTE: If this is your first time signing up for Saved Search, you may be prompted to agree to receiving emails from AllSurplus. Choose to receive email communications regarding this search.
      
6. Hit ‘Save & Apply’, and you're on your way to finding great items!

AllSurplus regularly lists between 15,000 and 20,000 items at a time, and are listed for an average of 5-7 days

Remember, buying items in the secondary market saves you money and helps the planet at the same time! Whether you are buying for yourself or your business, it’s always a smart decision to look first before buying new. Using the Saved Search function makes buying this way a snap!