Search Tips

Abbys Good Stuff has partnered with nearly a hundred good online merchants, and since this section uses their datafeeds to place their entire inventory at your fingertips... it can be a little challenging to narrow your search to just the item that you are looking for.

If looking in the general area hasn't helped you find what you want, these search guidelines should help you zero in on your objective in short order.

To get the best return on your search it's usually best to start by being as specific as possible... then to try again with more general terms if needed.

By default the search engine tries to locate pages which have exact matches for all of the words entered in your search query. If that fails, it then tries to locate pages which contain any words in your search query.

In addition, there are several ways to modify the default search behavior.

use a 'phrase search'
The search engine supports three types of phrase search.
- To match an exact phrase, use quotes around the phrase
  Example: "disney iron-on printable"
- To match a near (within a couple of words) phrase, use square brackets [around the words]
  Example: [skin cream samples]
- To match a far (within several words) phrase, use braces { around the words }
  Example: {printable office stationery}
use the + and - qualifiers
If you start a word with + that word is required to be on the page.
If you start a word with - that word is required to not be on the page.
Examples:
+olay = olay must be on the return page
-trimlife = trimlife must not be on the return page
use the * wildcard
If a query word ends with a * all words on a page which start the same way as that query word will match.
Example:
gene* = every page with a word that starts with 'gene' will be listed
use the ? wildcard
If a query word contains a ? any character will match that position.
Example:
b?g = big, bag, bog, etc.
use a 'boolean search'
You can use the following boolean operators in your search: AND, OR, NOT. These operators MUST be in capital letters.
Example:
(contact AND us) OR (about AND us)

All of these techniques can be combined:
+alway*
-ne??r*

And... if all else fails, there is a Google search box towards the bottom of almost every page.