How does an item get relisted for sale that was previously sold on Dec 3

[mabel1912carol]

How does an item I sold on Dec 3 get relisted for sale?  I did not have it in my unsold items list but it was relisted and a buyer bought it.  I did not have the item to send to her because it was already sold.  How does this happen.

[budstewart]

Good question.  It happened to me this week.  I was lucky enough to notice the relist.  I have no idea why this is happening.  I spend a lot of time going thru my listings looking for other sold items that have been relisted by eBay.

[dtexley3]

Been happening for YEARS, it's very sporadic but does happen.

[Anonymous]

I had the same thing happen to me last month for one item. Stupid me cancelled the order using "out of stock" and got dinged with a deficit for THEIR error. It's the only time in 3 years of selling that this has happened, giving me a new learning experience. So sorry that you're getting the same lesson.

[xmenmarvels]

Happened a few times over the years, would think I had gone crazy and would look for days to try and find them. It happened last year and the same buyer got another item the same as they had just received a month earlier. eBay has things that could be fixed to prevent this from happening. Good luck. Have a wonderful New Year!!!

[Anonymous]

LOL, I was questioning my sanity too when I went searching for the item and had forgotten I sold it. An hour into the search, I remembered. Another tech glitch and time wasted. Happy New Year right back at you!!! Hmmm, maybe we can have a glitch free one.

[xmenmarvels]

That would be great,my new years resolution is to have a better sales year on eBay and BUG free year on eBay!

[monster-deals]

Phantom listings. Happens all the time... though ebay will not acknowledge it.

[brites7214]

it happens all the time, just happened again to me, now my customers ask me do you have the item I  ordered,  your not crazy, they know all about it and can't get it under control, what is so sad is looking for hours and hours for an item that sold months ago, joanna

[sofiestreasures16]

I was looking for a solution to a problem I’m having and found/read this post. As an FYI, you can run a duplicate listings report. It’s it’s much faster than going through 900+ listings.

When I started eBay I watched Suzanne A Wells on YouTube (IMO she’s a wealth of knowledge). She gave the info on a video. And darn it, I can’t remember what it was to save my life (one of many joys of turning 50! LOL). 

I have it written down and happy to find it if someone hasn’t already given it to you. I did try searching for a duplicate listing report on eBay with no luck. LMK if you need it. 

Thanks & happy selling!

[photonphil]

As many people know, intermittent problems are the hardest to fix.  However, ebay keeps DENYING that the ghost listings (as many people have called them) are real.  There is one theory that ebay has not confirmed/discredited, so it's unclear as to whether they investigated it or not...it has to do with ebay using multiple servers (depending on the status of the item).  So, if the item sells the first time at just when it is about to relist on an auto-relist, then one of the servers doesn't get synced/updated and thinks it needs to be relisted... then, something later on triggers that server to list it.

Therefore, my question is whether anyone has data as to whether their ghost listing originally sold just around the time it was scheduled to auto-relist?