A "Ghost Listing" strikes again!

[movieman630]

Just when I thought I'd seen the last of the "Ghost Listings" today I had another one.  It's been some time since I've had one, I was hoping they were all gone now.  I really hate having to cancel a sale for "out of stock" that I wasn't responsible for.

I wish I knew when that ebay glitch happened, I think it was 2017ish. 

Have any of you been able to narrow down when the "Ghost Listing" glitch started? 

[powell-memorabilia]

100% seller error.  Understandable with a high number of listings. But still just plain old seller inventory management.

[chapeau-noir]

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@powell-memorabilia wrote:

100% seller error.  Understandable with a high number of listings. But still just plain old seller inventory management.

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Ghost listings are an actual phenomenon and quite a few of us have been hit with them. I even traced one of them and located when it had occurred, and was also able to actually track one from the time it recurred to the time I had to cancel it (period of 10 days). Fortunately, they are not frequent.

My theory is a database event. One thing I do know (and verified with my investigations) is that they do NOT show up in one's local listings, only on the site, so unfortunately, doing inventory does nothing to help it.

[movieman630]

It's not though.  I only sell on ebay and once a listing sells that's it.  I don't ever relist from my sold page.  I always run GTC listings and update them once a year.  There's NO way I could re-list an item that was sold.  And I don't sell these items off ebay. 

If it was my fault I would take responsibility, trust me.  I've thought about how it could happen and the only way is for it to be a glitch.

This isn't the first time.  This has been an on and off again with GTC listings for years.  I've seen this happen for the last 8-10 years for sure.

[yuzuha]

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@powell-memorabilia wrote:

100% seller error.  Understandable with a high number of listings. But still just plain old seller inventory management.

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I'm of the same mind. Over 3k listings and I've never had a single one, but I have come close a few times because I've done "Sell Similar" on an old listing and forgotten that the quantity of the old listing was set to more than one. If I hadn't caught it and corrected it, it would be easy to think that it was a "ghost listing" if the item sold more than one.

[movieman630]

Yes...  I knew I wasn't the only one.  I've never taken the the time to "investigate" exactly how it happened other than to look back in my records and find when something sold. 

The thing that most annoys me is when it counts against our stats.  I take a lot of care to try and keep my stats clean and when I have to cancel an order because of a "glitch" it's really a bummer.

[ten_o_nine]

May help explain.

eBay Punishes Sellers for What Are Being Called Ghost Relists (ecommercebytes.com)

[gamersbaystore]

Not seller error, ebay messes up listings like this all the time. I've had situations where literally every item sold was still listed for sale.

[chapeau-noir]

I investigated two I had had over time because I couldn't figure out what was going on (it was an actual investigation, I took some time over it - it's the operations manager in me). I'll take responsibility for being stupid and relisting accidentally or not taking down a sold listing from another site, but the last one was a mouse I had sold 10 days previously. It sold on its first listing and I only had the one - there was no other listing I could have duplicated save that sold one, which would not be in my unsolds file. There was no mouse in my store at that time. Then bam - up pops a sale on this same mouse.

Some years back eBay did admit that these listing glitches did happen from time to time.

[gamersbaystore]

Why cancel for being out of stock when ebay screwed up? I refuse to do so. If its ebay's error, then its their problem to fix, not ours. No one should be taking hits to their accounts for ebay's mistakes. 

[powell-memorabilia]

Plenty have them - no doubt.  On occasion, someone will come here to complain about ghost listings, and we can find obvious duplicate listings.  Another source is a seller just having the wrong quantity in a listing.  Dulpicates are easier to create than some would imagine.  

Regardless, sellers with “ghost listings” should ask themselves why so many sellers never have them.  A “glitch,” over time and number of listings, is going to be spread out fairly evenly.  Those with even occasional - ahem - ghost listings would be better off focusing on what they are doing wrong, not a supposed glitch that affects a minority of sellers.

[chapeau-noir]

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@powell-memorabilia wrote:

Plenty have them - no doubt.  On occasion, someone will come here to complain about ghost listings, and we can find obvious duplicate listings.  Another source is a seller just having the wrong quantity in a listing.  Dulpicates are easier to create than some would imagine.  

Regardless, sellers with “ghost listings” should ask themselves why so many sellers never have them.  A “glitch,” over time and number of listings, is going to be spread out fairly evenly.  Those with even occasional - ahem - ghost listings would be better off focusing on what they are doing wrong, not a supposed glitch that affects a minority of sellers.

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Sorry, but fixing eBay's database so they don't happen is beyond my pay grade. 🙄

[ten_o_nine]

@chapeau-noir 

Some years back eBay did admit that these listing glitches did happen from time to time.

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I wonder who admitted?  Some CSR? or a credible person.

[chapeau-noir]

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@ten_o_nine wrote:

@chapeau-noir 

Some years back eBay did admit that these listing glitches did happen from time to time.

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I wonder who admitted?  Some CSR? or a credible person.

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It was one of the mods, called "pinks" in those days. It just stuck in my mind that they said this did happen so I felt somewhat vindicated, even though this ghost listing thing happens to me very seldom. I'm actually not surprised that this *does* happen, either - a system may be 99.9% accurate, but that 0.1% in a DB this big will be noticeable. It's not a "didn't happen to me therefore it does not exist" situation - it's simply periodic and random, and easy to confuse or second guess.

[sumsum70]

I would never OOS a ghost listing. There's a much smarter move.