Disappearing inventory

[mkwertz1140]

Has anyone else experienced items you have listed for sale that suddenly disappear from your inventory (as in they were for sale, but now can’t be found under “for sale”, “ended”, “unsold”, “sold”, etc)?

 I sell mostly used shoes and boots,  and have a very solid storage / inventory system, and recently noticed multiple pairs of boots I had for sale (and still have stocked on my shoe racks) have been deleted without a trace on my eBay seller account.  They’re fairly obscure, but sought after models and brands that generally sell within a few months at the very most (so these aren’t long tail items that maybe were deleted due to going unsold for years).  

I called ebay and they told me my account had possibly been compromised back in May but couldn’t say for sure if that’s what has caused random portions of my inventory to disappear.  They also basically told me tough luck, which is a frustrating and very unhelpful response, since trying to go back through hundreds of items that may or may not have been deleted is a big undertaking for one person. Was hoping someone on here might have more info than the customer service reps.  Thank you!

[reallynicestamps]

If you have been using Fixed Price /GTC, you would be getting a Note on your Active Listings that your item has not sold for 16 months.

Those listings are under observation by eBay and tend to disappear at some point after that.

I found it bes to take those 16 month old listings down, let them have a vacation on my Unsold Items list , then relist them as Sell Similar to get the Newly Listed boost.

But yeah, it's been going on for years.

I don't mind the disappearance so much as the lack of acknowledgement. I have all my descriptions save in a text file on my desktop, and a lot of those older items were originally scanned at 360dpi while these days eBay prefers 600dpi or higher. So an upgrade can be useful.

You seem to have a few items closing (and opening) every day.

It might be worthwhile to keep an eye on your listings daily to make sure everything is staying put. 

And to keep a backup of the pictures and descriptions, just in case.

[myjunqueyourtreasure]

What we call "poofed" listings are common on ebay and have been for years.

I usually find mine when I come across a widget while looking for something else that sold and think "hmm, haven't seen that listed for a while".

They just vanish into the ether, never appear in completeds or unsolds, just "poof", gone.

[myjunqueyourtreasure]

Of course now, with the mandated GTC, you don't get the opportunity to 'review' listings as you relist them anymore. You don't even see them go by on their way to renewal, so it will be harder to keep track.

[mkwertz1140]

Thank you for responding! I’ve also noticed that my old (over a year+) random items one oddly sized shoes that have few views will sometimes disappear.  I’m usually fine with that and realize they were bad items to try and resell and just pull and donate them.  It seems as though ebay usually “flags” those items and suggests I lower the BIN price (which usually means they go in the donate pile, haha).

The recent missing boots are all higher priced items I know sell easily in my store, and are fairly hard to find but I demand...and have a 100% sell through rate on eBay...the one she I noticed disappear had maybe been listed for a month or two at most in my store.  

[mkwertz1140]

Yep.  I was trying to price another pair of the same brand vintage military boots, and knew I had one pair still for sale.  But, poof! they had magically disappeared from eBay!  

[mkwertz1140]

And apologies for my seemingly terrible spelling and grammar...my iPad is being especially difficult today. 🙂

[myjunqueyourtreasure]

Yep, you're like "I wonder why they haven't sold yet" - well they can't very well sell if they're not listed.

It's one of the main reasons (that and transferring stuff between IDs) that it's a good idea to have a backup (either on your pc or a 3rd party lister), so when you find ones that've poofed you don't have to redo the whole listing from scratch.

ebay doesn't seem to be able to figure out how or why it happens.

[mkwertz1140]

Yep. I kept thinking, why haven’t these sold? And sure enough it’s because they weren’t listed!

 Was more concerned when I contacted customer service today and they said the listings may have been removed due to someone accessing my account illegally back in May.  Of course they couldn’t give me any further information or tell me which listings were possibly removed or altered by this unnamed hacker. 😑

[mkwertz1140]

And by “hacker” I wonder if they really mean an eBay system glitch 😉 

[myjunqueyourtreasure]

CS seems to be incapable of uttering the words "I don't know". They'd rather make something up (aka lie).

[mkwertz1140]

I know.  And I really feel for anyone that does customer service - they have to place blame elsewhere...but hearing them say this is an ongoing issue we just can’t seem to fix would be preferable to them saying your account has been hacked.

[myjunqueyourtreasure]

I know a couple of blues (ebay employees) who are no longer with us tried but said they couldn't begin to track them down without the item # which is a little hard when you have no idea WHEN it vanished from the system.

[mkwertz1140]

My account has not been hacked.  Also the “hacker” apparently caused an ongoing, known, possibly site wide issue with creating a new password today via text message...per my second CS call...the hackers tend to hit very specific eBay things...

[mkwertz1140]

Yeah the poor rep was asking which items were missing and I was like I don’t know, the item number/listing/everything! is gone haha.  She was super polite and did her best.