We are integrating the new Sell Message API ( /commerce/message/v1 ) to poll for new member-to-member messages on a production seller account. What we do We call getConversations ( GET /commerce/message/v1/conversation ) with conversation_type=FROM_MEMBERS to list conversations. We successfully retrieved a conversation and its first message, and stored that message's createdDate timestamp as our "last checked" marker. On the next poll we call getConversations again, using that stored timestamp as the start_time filter, to fetch anything newer. Problem After step 2, new messages were added to that existing conversation in production — both from us (the seller) and from the other party (the member who has the offer). These messages are clearly visible in the conversation on eBay. However, getConversations with our start_time filter returns an empty conversations array ( total: 0 ), as if there were no new messages — even though the new messages were sent after the start_time value we pass. Request / response (HTTP 200, but empty): GET https://api.ebay.com/commerce/message/v1/conversation?conversation_type=FROM_MEMBERS&start_time=2026-06-30T17:31:19.000Z&offset=0&limit=50 Response 200: {"limit":50,"offset":0,"total":0, "href":"https://api.ebay.com/commerce/message/v1/conversation?conversation_type=FROM_MEMBERS&start_time=2026-06-30T17:31:19.000Z&offset=0&limit=50", "conversations":[]} Question Does the start_time filter on getConversations filter by the conversation creation time rather than by the latest message / last activity time ? The documentation states "only messages sent after this time will be retrieved", which suggests filtering by message activity — but in practice, existing conversations that receive new messages after start_time are not returned. If this is expected behavior, what is the correct way to detect new messages in existing conversations since a given point in time?
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