New Variation Listings Not Showing in eBay search or active listings for 24+ hours (Sports Cards)

[brentandbecca]

This has been an ongoing issue for months in the Sports and Trading card categories.

I understand eBay says it takes up to 24 hours for a listing to show up in search; however, this seems to be something different.

I've noticed if I do a variation listing with more than 40-50 variations, it does not show up, sometimes for 48 hours or longer.

When I say it "does not show up," I mean anywhere. You can't even find it in your own store or your seller hub active listings.

The only place I can find it, is by going to eBay's site map, and going to Sell -> End Listing. There it will show if it's one of your most recent new listings.

I've spoken to at least 10 others in this category over the past couple of months and it continues to be an issue.
If you go into an older variation listing and revise it, it will also disappear. Sometimes they never come back. I did a revision of 2 listings last month that never returned after a week.

Yesterday I did 3 variation listings.

The first 2 were 20 items are less, they showed up in 1 minute as 99.9% of my listings do.
Then I started the bigger listing. I did the first 50 items, and it showed up and even got a couple views. I revised it to add the additional 150 items, and bam, gone.

devon@ebayIs eBay aware of this? Is there a glitch or way around it? I've called customer service, they don't know what's up. Again, it's been ongoing for months and appears to be getting worse.

Here is an example of my listing that is not showing up today:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/314895625483

[wastingtime101]

Have you checked @brentandbecca to see if your listings not appearing contain one of certain players?

Some examples are discussed here:

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Card-s-not-listing-on-eBay/m-p/33992012

and here:

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Targeted-Listing-Indexing-Issues-Patrick-Mahomes/m-p/33979231

Those are just partial lists and there is no published list. What I suspect is happening is eBay's taking longer to review listings before indexing them when certain players that are at a greater risk of fraud are included in the listing.

As long as the listing is indexing within the policy page's note of 24 hrs then it should be fine, though I do agree there is concern that the listings aren't even showing on your Seller Hub Active listings page! Hopefully Devon can provide some info there or escalate that issue.

[brentandbecca]

Yes.

This has not been the case for me.

The example listing from above are actually all minor league baseball players, new draft picks.

No "famous" folks as many are 18-19 years old.

It is the oddest thing to not have active listings show up in my active listings via title, item #, or any way you slice it.

I real quick did another listing now, keeping the same listing but limiting it to just the 1st 50 cards, and here it is, showing in all searches, etc. Showed up in less than 1 minute:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/335077472683

[onefootflipper1]

Here is the thing, a big variation listing is likely to contain those problem names anyway. If you have Tom Robertson and Brady Sykes in the same listing then you have Tom Brady.

[brentandbecca]

Perhaps so.
However, for me personally, anytime I list a Brady, Jordan, Mahomes, etc, they have always shown up for me within a minute of me listing.
I've never had any issue with a listing appearing within a minute OTHER THAN a variation listing, and only within the past 4 months or so.

Not sure if there is an issue within eBay's algorithms or item specifics or what.
Other sellers were able to do do the exact same listing as me, same checklist and it appear for them, but now as the weeks have gone by, more and more sellers are being impacted by this.

With my specific example today of 2023 Topps Pro Debut Base Cards #1-200; 1 seller was able to get his to show right away and it stayed. Myself and 3 others have not been able to. That is odd.

[biggymoe]

The first item link you showed appears to be working now.  I see the selection box for the 200 variations.

[brentandbecca]

Correct. The link works because I created it by knowing the item number when I listed it.
But the item title or # does not appear in eBay search on any web browser or the app.

Under my active listings in seller hub, it is not there either. I can't find it.
If I had not written the item number down, I would not have been able to find the listing as active.

[brentandbecca]

Here is a link to a search on eBay via item #:
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2334524.m570.l1313&_nkw=314895625483&_sacat=0&LH_...

It does not show.
If I search by title or item # in my active listings section. It does not show.

[brentandbecca]

OK, so my new listing from an hour ago, https://www.ebay.com/itm/335077472683

is still showing. It only has the 1st 50 variations so far.

I just now edited it to add the additional 150 variations.
We shall see if it disappears shortly after...

[brentandbecca]

Strangely enough, 2 more sellers have now credited the same variation listing as mine with all 200 variations, and both showed up right away.
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2334524.m570.l1313&_nkw=2023+topps+pro+debut+pick...

---------
As for my edited listing in the previous post...it did disappear from eBay search results and my active listings.

[devon@ebay]

---

@brentandbecca wrote:

This has been an ongoing issue for months in the Sports and Trading card categories.

I understand eBay says it takes up to 24 hours for a listing to show up in search; however, this seems to be something different.

I've noticed if I do a variation listing with more than 40-50 variations, it does not show up, sometimes for 48 hours or longer.

When I say it "does not show up," I mean anywhere. You can't even find it in your own store or your seller hub active listings.

The only place I can find it, is by going to eBay's site map, and going to Sell -> End Listing. There it will show if it's one of your most recent new listings.

I've spoken to at least 10 others in this category over the past couple of months and it continues to be an issue.
If you go into an older variation listing and revise it, it will also disappear. Sometimes they never come back. I did a revision of 2 listings last month that never returned after a week.

Yesterday I did 3 variation listings.

The first 2 were 20 items are less, they showed up in 1 minute as 99.9% of my listings do.
Then I started the bigger listing. I did the first 50 items, and it showed up and even got a couple views. I revised it to add the additional 150 items, and bam, gone.

devon@ebayIs eBay aware of this? Is there a glitch or way around it? I've called customer service, they don't know what's up. Again, it's been ongoing for months and appears to be getting worse.

Here is an example of my listing that is not showing up today:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/314895625483

---

Hey @brentandbecca! When it comes to listing indexing, it can take longer than the usual 24 hour time period if a listing has large quantities of variations. Also just as @wastingtime101 stated depending on some other factors that time can be past the 24 hour period to allow for a proper review of the item(s). 

[wastingtime101]

Thanks devon@ebay . The part that's concerning to me is how the listing doesn't appear on the seller's Active listings page in Seller Hub. Does eBay consider that "normal" behavior and how the system is supposed to function?

I always thought listings were supposed to appear on the Active listings page instantly, even if they haven't indexed in search yet.

[devon@ebay]

---

@wastingtime101 wrote:

Thanks devon@ebay . The part that's concerning to me is how the listing doesn't appear on the seller's Active listings page in Seller Hub. Does eBay consider that "normal" behavior and how the system is supposed to function?

I always thought listings were supposed to appear on the Active listings page instantly, even if they haven't indexed in search yet.

---

@wastingtime101 I can understand the concern on this and here are some reasons for why listings may not have shown up in the eBay search yet:

There are a few reasons why your item may not be visible in search:

• You searched for an eBay item number of a listing that is no longer active:

• Now the main search box only searches for active listings.
• If you're searching for the eBay item number of a listing that is no longer active, you can do any of the following:
  • Search for that item number from advanced search by selecting "Completed" or "Sold" listings.
  • Look up the item on My eBay or Seller Hub
  • Navigate directly to the view item page for that listing by going to the following URL: http://www.ebay.com/itm/<Your eBay item number>

• It's been less than 24 hours since you listed your item.
  • If you created your listing within the last 24 hours, then it's probably still going to be processed in the eBay search engine. This process is called indexing and can take up to 24 hours. Once the listing has been indexed, you should be able to find it.
• It's been more than 24 hours since you listed your item.
  • Did you revise your listing? If you've made changes to your new listing before it was indexed, it causes a delay. Every time you change it, the indexing process has to start over. If you must make changes, please do, but be aware that it will take longer for your item to appear in search results.
  • Did you turn on your store vacation settings recently?  If so, be sure to turn off your store vacation settings so your listings appear in search results.
    • If the seller closed a store with vacation settings on, the seller will need to sign back up for a store and turn the vacation settings off. 
  • Does your listing have any vulgar language? If so, it may not show in search until you remove those words. This can easily happen by accident, so review the listing to make sure it isn't because of a simple typo.

[wastingtime101]

Thanks devon@ebay but I'm not asking about search. I'm talking about the Seller Hub active listings page - visible only to sellers, not buyers.

Does eBay consider that "normal" behavior and how the system is supposed to function? I always thought listings were supposed to appear on the Seller Hub Active listings page instantly, even if they haven't indexed in search yet.

[brentandbecca]

Devon, thank you for the response.

Having been a seller on eBay for 25 years, doing 100,000s of listings, I can say this is new within the last 4-5 months specifically on variation listings.

I create 100s of these with large qty each year, and have never seen an issue.
As a top rated seller, with 100% feedback, anchor store, etc, I am not sure what they review process is, or why it appears to be so random.

Examples:
1) I listed a 10 variation listing last week, showed up immediately. I did another via sell similar, also showed up immediately. Then I did 1 more, and it took 26 hours to show. Each listing was 10 items of Topps 2023 baseball cards.
2) The listing in question from the OP. When I list it as only 50 variations, it shows up immediately, receives views, then I go and add the additional variations, and it disappears. This happens often. I had a listing up for 6 months with over 250 sales. I needed to revise some qty and pricing, and it disappeared for almost a full week! why?
3) The listing in question from the OP, 2 other sellers today ave listed the exact variation listing. Same title as mine, same 200 variations, as it is a 200-card baseball set with the same players/checklist. The item specifics are minimal but the same as mine. Their listings showed up right away. I can see the time stamps of when the listed was created, and I also reached out to them on eBay.
4) Finally, I created 2 other variation listings from the same Topps product at the same time that are insert cards. Both of those variations showed up right away and have had numerous sales and over 100+ views already.

Talking with several large dealers in the baseball card world, they experience the same thing, and say it is all very random. But it also feels somewhat targeted. I wish I knew what it was based off of or why it continues to happen.
It hurts sales, especially when a product releases and only part of my items appear, so buyers can't combine, or they go elsewhere to get their items since a lot of people are looking for the cards they want on a product's release date. The first 24-48 hours are the most crucial when it comes to new sport card releases of the basic items, but without the variation listings showing, it makes it much tougher and sales are lost as a result.