Instead of deleting a listing, can I reuse it to sell something entirely different?

[afoolisharrangement]

I had a couple of auctions that just renewed and I didn't catch them in time.  I was planning on ending them, but now since they have renewed for another 30 days, I was wondering if I could just repurpose the listing with entirely new content.  This would mean a completely different item, different category, different in all aspects.  In theory it sounds like it would work (change category, change text and pictures, etc.), but I wasn't sure if there would be listing bots or some behind the scenes workings that would end up putting the item in the old category or something similar.  I just thought if I could save myself $ of relisting I would like to be able to do that.  Every little bit helps!

Any thoughts on this?

[buyselljack2016]

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@upgradedendmills wrote:

My gosh, man!!!!!!! Its 35 cents.

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Thing here is.......................  it's the OP's  35 cents. X 2

I still pick up the pennies that younger folks get in their change, and just drop to the pavement after they leave the store.

[hurryagain]

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@upgradedendmills wrote:

If you did this daily on a 7 day auction it would be like getting 7 auctions for the price of one!!!!!

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You are hilarious!...and you would confuse the hell out of your customers every time they to go their watched list and find yet another surprise...Wait...where did THAT come from???...I wasn't watching that item...was I???

Your poor customers would need therapy after a week of that!

[mam98031]

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@hurryagain wrote:

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@upgradedendmills wrote:

If you did this daily on a 7 day auction it would be like getting 7 auctions for the price of one!!!!!

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You are hilarious!...and you would confuse the hell out of your customers every time they to go their watched list and find yet another surprise...Wait...where did THAT come from???...I wasn't watching that item...was I???

Your poor customers would need therapy after a week of that!

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It does make for a good joke!!!  But it won't work in application because once there is a bid you can't change the listing title or much of anything else.  

[bigdeals.etc]

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@mam98031 wrote:

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@kim_y_buran wrote:

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@bigdeals.etc wrote:

FYI, I've seen this as a tactic to manipulate best match search. Example: Seller has a some expensive jewelry to sell. They go to the 99c store and buy a bunch of stuff totally unrelated and create a listing to sell it dirt cheap (making tons of sales).

Then with thousands of completed sales under the listing, they revise it completely and start to sell the jewelry. The theory is that the listing may have an immediate kick up to the top of the front page because of the massive sales history that is retained in the listing. This sales history will also look appealing to buyers because many would assume that the listing has sold hundreds of units of that jewelry, but little do they know the massive sales history is from the 99c item. Not sure what's ebay's take on this.

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Amazon also has a ton of listings like that. 

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What, how can that happen on Amazon?  For everything I sell, I don't have access to nor can I change the titles of my listings.  

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I can confirm that I've seen these in Amazon too. I don't know how they do it, but they are there. Perhaps they have Brand Protection and they are the only ones who can sell from that listing. But I've also heard of sellers taking over the buy box and then changing the entire item on the listing too, haha.

[upgradedendmills]

I think most of my customers are already confused! They think I am a charity or non-profit. The three or four I have had in the last month have been really nice though. We are all planning on reunions at the ranch when eBay is gone. By that time I should have my first payout from MP and we will all eat well

[hurryagain]

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@mam98031 wrote:

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@hurryagain wrote:

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@upgradedendmills wrote:

If you did this daily on a 7 day auction it would be like getting 7 auctions for the price of one!!!!!

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You are hilarious!...and you would confuse the hell out of your customers every time they to go their watched list and find yet another surprise...Wait...where did THAT come from???...I wasn't watching that item...was I???

Your poor customers would need therapy after a week of that!

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It does make for a good joke!!!  But it won't work in application because once there is a bid you can't change the listing title or much of anything else.  

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That's why i said every time they to go their watched list (not their bidding list) and find yet another surprise...Wait...where did THAT come from???...I wasn't watching that item...was I???

Of course all of that would end and the listing would be locked in once a bid was placed. 

[upgradedendmills]

There are probably hundreds of programmers working on an app to do this as we speak.

[mam98031]

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@upgradedendmills wrote:

I think most of my customers are already confused! They think I am a charity or non-profit. The three or four I have had in the last month have been really nice though. We are all planning on reunions at the ranch when eBay is gone. By that time I should have my first payout from MP and we will all eat well

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I'm jealous.  No reunions planned with any of mine.  But a glass of wine yes!!!

[mr_lincoln]

@afoolisharrangement   Revise is revise ... I see no reason why you can't that.

[upgradedendmills]

Not a problem for me, my 19 auctions are all "energizer" auctions that just keep going, and going, and going with no bids. Really scared be back in 2013 when I got that one bid, but luckily it turned out to be a non-payer and didn't force me to list something different.

[upgradedendmills]

I'll send you an invite and you don't even have to buy anything. You bring the pom poms and I'll supply the wine. I really hesitated to respond to the OP, but couldn't resist.

[backroomnoir]

Used to be able too.

Another thing the brilliant GTC only policy has corrected.

[kim_y_buran]

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@mam98031 wrote:

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@kim_y_buran wrote:

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@bigdeals.etc wrote:

FYI, I've seen this as a tactic to manipulate best match search. Example: Seller has a some expensive jewelry to sell. They go to the 99c store and buy a bunch of stuff totally unrelated and create a listing to sell it dirt cheap (making tons of sales).

Then with thousands of completed sales under the listing, they revise it completely and start to sell the jewelry. The theory is that the listing may have an immediate kick up to the top of the front page because of the massive sales history that is retained in the listing. This sales history will also look appealing to buyers because many would assume that the listing has sold hundreds of units of that jewelry, but little do they know the massive sales history is from the 99c item. Not sure what's ebay's take on this.

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Amazon also has a ton of listings like that. 

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What, how can that happen on Amazon?  For everything I sell, I don't have access to nor can I change the titles of my listings.  

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I don't know how.  Perhaps when you are the only seller on a particular ASIN?  I wanted to show you the example,  I could find them through my reviews,  but to Amazon's credit they killed one listing and split ASINs or removed mismatched reviews on the other.

[the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth]

It used to be considered fee avoidance. eBay seems to have stopped considering things to be violations if they can monetize them.

[hurryagain]

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@upgradedendmills wrote:

I'll send you an invite and you don't even have to buy anything. You bring the pom poms and I'll supply the wine. I really hesitated to respond to the OP, but couldn't resist.

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After all is said & done, I think you should invite the OP as well...at this rate, they are going to be needing that wine more than anyone else in this post!  I would have inserted an emoticon but i couldn't find the wine in a gallon size.