Sold item, but can't find it. Going insane. Please tell me I am not the only one this happened to.
I sold a golf club driver cover yesterday and spent a good part of yesterday and today trying to find it. I have a very regimented system with most items in bins or on shelfs (bigger items). I litterally emptied my entire storage unit and went through each bin item by item and I still can't find it. It should have been in my miscelaneous bin and easy to find. IT IS DRIVING ME NUTS!
44 comments
rokkworks
·4 months agoOuch!
I feel this every time I sell something and realize I didn’t record its location.
Pure luck has kept me from ever having to tell a buyer I couldn’t find their whatever.
Since we’re sharing stories…
The last scare was a postcard I listed years ago, then I must have been in zombie mode, because I inadvertently put it right back into my big shoebox filled with of hundreds of unlisted postcards, and had NO CLUE, until it sold last year.
When it sold, I was absolutely clueless as to where I put it, but - and I swear this is true - I randomly “split the deck” of my “unlisted postcards” shoebox, and, yikes, I scared myself - because there it was!
I figure this worked because if I was on autopilot when I stored it, that’s how I should look for it - on autopilot - muscle memory, not mindful thought.
My only other suggestion to you is to think of how you’d protect your item while in storage (a bag? paper? Box?) and look for that. Would you fold it or lay it flat? Knowing how you’d store it now, might clue you in - and give you other ideas of what to look for besides the look or shape of the driver cover.
cardsforauction
·4 months agoI have always located the items I sell on eBay. Sometimes there are items I think I still have and want to sell. That's happened to me a few times, and then I found out I sold the item a year earlier. There is one card I thought I still owned, but I think I sold it to a dealer at a card convention a few years ago.
meme6253
·4 months agoI think we have all experienced this at some point, Just look harder it's there somewhere.
foster9
·4 months agoIf you own a cat check under your couch.
az93
·4 months agoYou are not the only one, not by a long shot. Sometimes I offer to substtute a similar item to keep peace. The only thing I never-ever found was a deck of playing cards. The buyer did not reply so I had to refund.. It's been years so we must have accidentally tossed them. I agree with the advice to sleep on it. My Catholic friend told me to ask for help from Saint Anthony, the finder of list things. I have found many things that way!
darn_yankee
·4 months agoYou'll find it shortly after you cancel the transaction.
krazzykats
·4 months agoTry checking where other items you took on the same day are located. I use different backgrounds sometimes, or check the date the pictures were taken to see what else I captured that same day.
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mordecai8614
·4 months agoUse to happen every once in a while to me with clothes. Then I'd ask myself "when was the last time my sister was over & was it her size?" The answer usually told me where it went.
squinkercat59
·4 months agoI recently sold a pair of salt & pepper shakers that I couldn't find - I KNEW they were there, they hadn't sold, but where were they? After looking and looking, I finally found them - I had forgotten I had already wrapped them in tissue and they were inside a bag, not immediately visible. I wasn't looking for the bag, I was looking for the pair of shakers. So check any small bags or boxes nearby in case you may have forgotten it was already packaged up and ready to go.
onefootflipper
·4 months agoI once mentioned in a video that I couldn't find an item and that it had a location sku of "metal" which made no sense to me because metal was not the name of one of my locations at all. I have numbered shelves, lettered boxes and tubs with the names of old arcade games (Gorf, Galaga, etc).
Not 10 minutes after posting the video someone commented that they bet it was in location M, and the word metal somehow came from a drop down box or autocomplete. I went and checked box M and there it was.
onefootflipper
·4 months agoI was filming a "what sold" video the other day, I did my all too frequent "I sold but cannot find" on a hat.
Turned off the camera when I was done, the hat was literally sitting on my shipping computer desk a foot away from the camera. Someone had asked a question about it a month ago, I had pulled it out and never put it away.
Here are my missing item tips. First, double search where it is supposed to be, then search each location that is immediately adjacent to the location that it is supposed to be in. Then check when you listed the item and pull up the other items you listed at the same time and see where those are.
If none of those work then I start where I would have taken the photos and follow the trail to where it would have been put away to see if it somehow didn't make the entire journey.
If none of those produce the item then I contact the buyer, let them know that the item is hiding and might not ship on time and see if they are willing to wait or would prefer to cancel their order, and I pray that they just want to cancel, then I can shift the item to my missing SKU location at 10 times the price and wait until I stumble onto it again.
simba6
·4 months agoIt often helps if you have another person that can look for it.
inhawaii
·4 months agoAmen to that.
I spend 9 hours looking.
My friend finds it in 9 minutes.
iamalwaysright
·4 months agoThat's what always happens when my wife and kids spend hours looking for something like the TV remote. Then I walk in and see it sitting on the middle right of our bare coffee table. I'm like, where were you all looking in, another dimension?
goldrushfinds
OP4 months agoThanks for all your comments. You have talked me off the ledge (lol) ...
stuff4divas
·4 months ago@goldrushfinds Clear your head and let your intuition take over, this works for me.
Do something else that takes you away from focusing on the golf club driver cover.
I usually wake up in the middle of the night with the answer or the answer comes to me that following morning.
redlinear
·4 months agoI did that here while back.
Went through 300 totes full of parts, 100 shelves, and, and, and....finally found it.
Next day I thought I was going to have to do it again.
I have never had to do that before.
I save my photo listing sheets. I do have to go back and find a location on those handwritten sheets every now and then though.
adamcartwright
·4 months ago@goldrushfinds
Every single time I haven't been able to find something, it's been because I was looking for the wrong thing -- I was sure I knew what it looked like -- but I ended up being wrong.
Meaning, the item was wrapped or packaged differently than I remembered.
Open every box and unwrap every plastic wrap, even if you think you already know what's inside.
tarotfindsandmore
·4 months agoThis. I've worked to idiot-proof (aka Monica-proof) my entire work area and inventory so everything is always exactly where it should be based on its status. Unfortunately, my mind has been known to insist that a particular thing is in a particular box/wrapping/package, when no such thing is true.
I've also been known to move something(s) to get to another item and then forgotten to put the moved thing(s) back where they rightly belong. Later I'll find myself wondering why there's a couple mugs sitting on a stack of LEGO sets. Must be my son's fault of course. 😇
linenandlaceltd
·4 months agoYes it has. As long as it hasn't sold somewhere else and you forgot, you have it somewhere.
For me, it'll be somewhere where I didn't think it would be. I had a reason that it was in the spot it was, but I forgot it was moved there.
I also ask myself, did I bring it home from my storage unit for some reason in the past? And look at where it may be at home, too.
broto_64
·4 months agoYou're not the only one.
Some time in the not so recent past (I've been selling for a while) I decided to pre-package everything, each item(s) for sale is already in a box or envelope or whatever. On that package I write with magic marker a short excerpt of the item's title listing and the weight in lbs and/or ounces, sometimes the size like 4x3x6... Then I label the location of items, and then include that location in a HTML remark in my listings (I also save my listing's info to hard drive, where the description is stored in a text file - and the Name of that text file is the price of the item plus location).
Abbreviations are the key for me. Two letters works for me, so for example Garage might be GA (just an example) - Obviously I had to get specific with locations, I use a bookcase for most of my items so each tier of the bookcase is a double letter abbreviation.
Just examples.
Those double letters also go on the package with magic marker, so if a package is mislocated I can easily see that it's in the wrong place.
Makes it a lot easier for me, when trying to find one item, I only have to look through 5, 10 maybe 20 items total rather than my entire inventory.
Invariably it can still happen, I make sure to look and look and look...
Maybe give it a minute.
Then look again.
Because the worst is to cancel for out of stock, just to find the item later.
Make sure if you do cancel, write a highly apologetic message to the buyer.
Every time, too.
onlinecentral
·4 months agoStandup comedian George Carlin talked about the finding the misplaced item in the 'last place you looked'. If you told someone your story about finding your lost item, you wouldn't say that you continued looking. Refer to his book entitled Brain Droppings.
bashort
·4 months agoWe have had this happen several times over the years, here are different reasons that have caused it for us.
Accidentally listed 2 of something that we only had 1 of.
Had a listing with more than one and they all got shipped when the first one sold.
Had previously accidently sent this item to a buyer who had bought a similar item and they never noticed either.
Item was listed, I got side tracked for a few days and item ended up being boxed up and put in storage with other unlisted items that pile up in my office .
Item was in a box that had previously been used and had a tag from a sold ebay item one one end and the correct tag on the other
Item was put in the wrong listed storage location.
lakefor94
·4 months agoI agree with the consensus. It is always right where it is supposed to be or very close by.
powell-collectibles
·4 months agoIt happens to the best of us. What I do is explain the situation to the buyer, send a free item to him, then refund the purchase. Then, I find the item.
inhawaii
·4 months agoIt will be in the last place you look. 😉
toomuchstuffagain35
·4 months agoAnd more often than not it's actually in the FIRST place you looked, but you only see it after you pulled the place apart and looked everywhere else as well and then start over.
deltilogical
·4 months agoI will go through my stock of postcards 3 times without luck. Then I turn them around and search via the back side and voila, there it is! I've tried to disengage emotionally when this happens but I can't, I CARE TOO MUCH! I want my customer to get their item, just like I would want.
sakic92710
·4 months agoA similar thing can happen when I look through trading cards. It happened yesterday. I was looking for an insert & it should be in a hard case I have. It was not to be found until I checked again & there it was. All because it stuck to another card. Glad I was stubborn & did not look through 10 other containers first. lol
onefootflipper
·4 months agoNothing gets lost worse than trading cards. Something ends up misfiled in a system with 10K+ cards then it is essentially gone forever. When I specialized in cards and was high volume at it I found myself having to source a card to fill an order of a lost one at least once a week.
paulyhamitup
·4 months agoYes I sold a cute size 3T girls dress! Went to find it and it was gone. Also a Santa Claus plastic light and it was gone too!
authentic*vintage
·4 months agoIt is propped in a corner somewhere. It may have fallen over. Either that or it has been there so long it has become part of the family and you don't see it anymore even though it's right in front of you.
Yes, this happens about once every couple of months but you take a deep breath and methodically eliminate. Don't skim. It's there. It didn't walk off.
loose_goose_garage
·4 months agoDon't worry, once you cancel the sale because you can't find it, it will turn up immediately after. At least that's what seems to be the outcome for me when something goes 'missing'.
toomuchstuffagain35
·4 months agoOr you give up because time is of the essence (according to ebay) and you find and buy another and once that ships THEN you find it, only to relist it and have it sell again and now you can't find it (again).
sakic92710
·4 months agoI'm not sure why I am replying because my situation is different & it is ALL MY FAULT! lol If this one occurrence makes you feel like you are going insane, if you were as disorganized as I am, you would be ready for a permanent rubber room! lol I do not think 2-3 weeks pass without me searching & searching. I guess I'm trying to make you feel better about having it happen only 1 time. It doesn't happen with my eBay items. It happens continually on Marketplace. Items sit for months & months while I shift things around 6 times. It is easy to misplace somethings. Fortunately, it is bigger than a lapel pin, so it may turn up sooner than you think. Best of luck.
johnrj1226
·4 months agoKeep looking - guarantee it will be the last place you look.
dhbookds
·4 months agoagree with KAT........it's usually near the place you first thought it was.
inhawaii
·4 months agoEveryone here has a very regimented system.
Everyone here has had this happen before.
iamalwaysright
·4 months agoIt happens to all of us. Just happened to me about a month ago on an old inventory that I stopped carrying. It was the last unit, last color, last size. Final one left from a listing over a decade old. I was excited when I saw it sold so I can finally end that darn listing. Until my minions told me they couldn’t find it.
Yea, it happens to all of us. I bet your cat took it.
krazzykats
·4 months agoNope, the dog did...🤣
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danapointbooksandart
·4 months agoRight.The cats always get blamed.
danapointbooksandart
·4 months agoIt's always those darn cats LOL....
mkaczorsee
·4 months agoSleep on it...
You will wake up tomorrow and it will "magically" be where you thought it was supposed to be...(hidden under something else.)
krazzykats
·4 months agoThings are usually right where I expect them to be. Sometimes a box is in the way or the item slid backwards.
Double-check the spot you thought it should be and take everything out if needed.
A bag, box or something else could be hiding it.
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