Sold Items Re-Listing

[snowyowlgoods]

Help!

I keep selling items that have already sold.  I have over 2600 items in my store so this is not an easy problem to solve.  

What to do??????

[tobaccocardyahoo]

I have seen what looks like similar issues for months.

I have been deleting drafts and deleting anything which I think can cause such a problem, but I had another one last night.

I am not yet willing to blame it on the fundamental unsolvable problem with distributed databases, but that problem will get worse as the number of listings in the database grows.

It cost me top ranked status a while back and though I almost regained it, it happened again.

I have close to twice as many listings as you have.

[wastingtime101]

In your shoes @snowyowlgoods I would put my store in Time Away mode, sit down and cross check my listings against my inventory chart. Might take a several hours, but it's do-able within a day.

I would also see if I could identify a reason why this was happening to prevent a recurrence.

Running your ID through @shipscript 's awesome duplicate listing scanner, the tool identified 62 sets of what are potentially duplicate listings. I would start there!

https://www.isdntek.com/ebaytools/DuplicateListings.htm

Are you using third party listing software? That would be my guess here due to the vast number of duplicates.

[lakefor94]

Only thing I can offer up is that I use the Out Of Stock option and the items, when sold out have stayed out of stock for months until I add stock or I end the items. No random sales without stock unless it is a operator error on my part.

[powell-memorabilia]

That is a great tool - I’ve used it before.  But, it won’t tell the OP items they have listed that already had a separate duplicate item already sold and no longer with an active match.  A full inventory reconciliation is in order.  

worse yet on OP’s items is that some duplicates show multiple available under one listing, and last one on the duplicate.  

[12345jamesstamps]

Just remember, if you by chance you sold something and someone buys it again....I always email them and   ask if I have a replacement for item sold within a price range, of course...but you will have to give them a higher price range than item sold first time. A seller should never have to do out of stock. I mean, you have 2600 items for sale...surely there's a similar replacement to send. 

Its possible when you re- drafts you might not have delete the original ones.

I wouldn't worry too much.

I have had a few resold or I can't find that darn item and later find it.

I usually always tell buyer if I find original item I would send it for free.

Sometimes, also a free gift included helps in such a problem.

Its all about not getting a nasty feedback.

[wastingtime101]

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@powell-memorabilia wrote:

That is a great tool - I’ve used it before.  But, it won’t tell the OP items they have listed that already had a separate duplicate item already sold and no longer with an active match.  A full inventory reconciliation is in order.  

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Correct, which is what I suggested. We are in agreement. 🙂

But with that many flagged as possible duplicates, the duplicate listing scanner is where I would start. At least clear those up before doing the full inventory check.

A lot of the dupes were originally listed June 8th so I think this looks like user error, listing items already listed, probably in bulk through a third party lister.

[femmefan1946]

This has been going on for years and years.

My best workaround has been to put all my listings in alpha-numeric order from time to time and then scroll down looking for duplicates or listings that feel familiar.  The pictures are often more useful than the words.

The duplicated listings are not, in my experience, usually showing the same listing times, so it's not as if I were accidentally listing the same item twice, which the system would reject anyway.

I put those duplicates and familiars on my Unsold List with a Note, and then when I have a few minutes review them with an eye to relisting or tossing.

Is  your experience more than one in a hundred  sales? I get perhaps one a year over my four active selling accounts, which together have slightly more listings than you do.

[snowyowlgoods]

Very Interesting.   I have never used that option.

[snowyowlgoods]

I have never used a third party listing software.  I will definitely look into ship script.  Thank you

[mam98031]

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@lakefor94 wrote:

Only thing I can offer up is that I use the Out Of Stock option and the items, when sold out have stayed out of stock for months until I add stock or I end the items. No random sales without stock unless it is a operator error on my part.

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This is a fabulous tool.  I use it too.  It saves me a lot of work when I bring in more stock.  It has many positive things to the program.  One is when your stock is zero, while the seller can see the listing under active listings, buyers can not see it when they do a search.  The other thing that I really like is when I do go to a zero stock, the listing will retain the watchers on the listing, so when I restock, the watchers get notified that new stock has arrived.

[mam98031]

This isn't like due to duplicate listings.  This type of issue has been reported for years off and on by sellers.  They sell out of an item.  Then it mysteriously shows up again as an active listing.

What can be some reason that this can happen and how does a seller properly deal with these types of transactions when they happen to make sure Ebay is satisfied as well as the buyer.  

kyle@ebay 

devon@ebay 

elizabeth@ebay 

[mam98031]

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@snowyowlgoods wrote:

Very Interesting.   I have never used that option.

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 It is a very useful tool for those that carry stock that sometimes they run out of and have to wait a little to get more stock in.  It isn't useful for one off type listings.

[wastingtime101]

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@snowyowlgoods wrote:

I have never used a third party listing software.

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Thanks for the added info @snowyowlgoods . That's one thing we can cross off the list.

Do you often relist from your unsold items? Or end listings then sell similar? These are some of the more common reasons we'll see sellers with the vast numbers of duplicates that you have. Sellers might 'sell similar' (especially in bulk) but forget to delete the items from their unsold folder, which leaves the item available to 'sell similar' a second time.

Another common event is when multiple copies are saved in your drafts and you end up listing twice.

Not ruling out a tech issue here, but if the cause is user error that's easier to self-correct than getting eBay to address an intermittent tech issue, so it's worth exploring avenues that you have control over fixing. 🙂

[toomuchstuffagain35]

I would happily use the OOS function IF it could be applied listing by listing rather than globally.

I tried it for a while but just got tired of deleting many items which I have when sold as they're one offs.

The duplicate tool of ship's is great, but unfortunately won't catch sold items that have  relisted as there's (usually) only one appearing.