I don't understand this question : Is it still available?

[liawrig.nq8rdwqa3]

As a seller, I must get that question once a week.  (from another platform)  Why why why? do buyers ask that question.  If it wasn't available it wouldn't be online for sell.

[natoman777]

I am pretty sure you are speaking of FB Marketplace.  That is 95% of the time the first interaction someone has with your item on that platform.  Why?  Because FB is weird like that.

[s.scharmu0]

HI!   I do also get that question & not on FB. 90% of the time though they buy the item.  This week so far I have sold 2 items when I answered yes. I think like you do though "Gee, I would have taken it down if I did not have the item".

[divwido · Accepted solution]

I had that yesterday on another platform for something I just listed the day before.  I think FBMP is killing buyers brains.

By the way, for some odd reason, that question irritates me.  It seems to be a precursor to not buying anything anyway.

[lonebuck-books]

I get that all the time on Mer***i.  I think that they have the app set up where you can just touch that question and it automatically sends the message.  My guess is a lot of the ones I get are from accidentally touching that option.

[ittybitnot]

 I think that they have the app set up where you can just touch that question and it automatically sends the message. 

@lonebuck-books 

I don't know about that site in particular, but FB has that as an auto question one can select.  On a phone, I suppose it is often selected "by mistake".   I get 10 or 15 a day, and since I don't use a phone for internet work, I didn't know what it was about  either until someone told me. 

Some people buy, some say sorry, hit that in error, and some people just ghost you.   On bad days I have soooooo been tempted to reply:  Indeed it is available. Are you interested in purchasing, or are you just wanting to know if I still have it?  

I never have answered that way, but after the fifth or sixth ghost of the day, it sure is tempting. LOL. 

[kensgiftshop]

Have you noticed how many buyers come here and complain about buying an item, then the seller says they sold it somewhere else.

Or how many sellers, sell an item somewhere else but don't remove it from Ebay, then it sells here.

[stainlessenginecovers]

The world is full of people that sell things and then don't follow up with canceling the ad.  Many of them started posting Cars in the Auto Trader in the 80s' and because those 'ads' were 'left up until sold', after the vehicle was long sold- these people wouldn't bother canceling the listing. 

I would contact someone and they would say, "oh, that sold 6 months ago".

Same on CL, FB etc. Ads are up and people don't remove them. It's quite easy to do, but because so many do not, that is why you are getting that question. 

In fact, a person had an ad on CL for a Corvette just 6 months ago. It sold. I asked them 'are you going to take the ad down?'

Weeks later, that same ad was still up. 

[redmodelt]

I know a site, old car stuff, that after 60 days you can't edit the ad to say it is sold. The ads on that site never expire, so there are still listings from when the site came online over 10 years ago. While not easy to do an on-line search for listings on that site, people do find a way to look at those long-expired ads. 

[donsdetour]

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@liawrig.nq8rdwqa3 wrote:

As a seller, I must get that question once a week.  (from another platform)  Why why why? do buyers ask that question.  If it wasn't available it wouldn't be online for sell.

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Some times an item sold fails to complete:

they be trying to get it.

Simple just say No if it is not available...

[fern*wood]

On FB it makes sense because a large percentage of people never remove items listed that already sold.  It does auto-fill when looking at items. 

On ebay it might be due to having experienced sellers cancelling on them after purchasing with sorry, I lost it.  It also might save those sellers that have sold items relisted unbeknownst to them.

[gosimus]

@liawrig.nq8rdwqa3 

< Is it still available? >    

It hasn't been mentioned yet that this might be the opening move to start a conversation that eventually leads to their obtaining your contact information.  Once they have that, they can send you a fake, phony message that says you've been paid and it's okay to ship.  In other words, attempt to trick you into sending an item without its having been paid for. 

[flyingmvp]

Or maybe your buyer had an experience with "ghost listings" when old/out of stock sold listings come back to life due to Ebay glitch without the seller being aware?

The buyer wants to verify the item actually exists before he is making the purchse?

[katzrul15]

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@liawrig.nq8rdwqa3 wrote:

As a seller, I must get that question once a week.  (from another platform)  Why why why? do buyers ask that question.  If it wasn't available it wouldn't be online for sell.

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We get it too - I think Buyers forget they are not on CL or FB.  Especially as you answer, "yes" and they then want to haggle about price!

[divwido]

Learning to remove sold items was the hardest lesson, but it can be done since most sites (including eBay) have a simple search option to find the item. 

It's not a hard thing to do, you just have to decide how important it is to you that it's done with every item, every time.