i found the answer in another thread and tried it, and that works much better. it's not ideal, but it's a work around, right?

instead of using the 'marketplace' search - what you would expect the search options on the marketplace page to be referred to (ie. the Marketplace pulldown, the dialogue/text box next to it saying Title, etc.) - use the search at the TOP of the page.

it's the one that appears on every page and actually has the words "Search Marketplace" in it.

for me, i'm looking for M4 characters. i typed in M4 up there, and actually got a special page for my search optionis. on the left of it, there were all sorts of great options. one of them is Michael 4. another one is Characters.

i got to this page once when i spoke with a store admin at the first reshuffling of things. it's not easy to get to when you kind of expect the marketplace search to be the search you do when you click on the marketplace.

but if you just remember to ignore that stuff, and use the common site search at the top of every page, should be golden!

sorry if this has been repeated already elsewhere. i'm excited i found a solution. it was getting really frustrating! now, back to shopping!