As a longtime eBay seller who focuses on sports cards, I've experienced the eBay indexing delay for the first time in the last week. Curiously, I've found the indexing issue seems to be specific to one player.
I discovered this when I listed a fairly high-value Patrick Mahomes card several days ago, and it didn't immediately appear in my store. I contacted eBay and it was explained to me that it was an issue with indexing.
At first I thought the listing price might have flagged the item, so I let it go, and it took several days to get the card in the store. But in the interim, I discovered the more than ten other Mahomes cards I had listed had completely disappeared from my inventory. When I asked eBay about this, I was told there was no explanation because I couldn't provide an item ID (which I couldn't provide).
Meanwhile, every other item I list shows up within a couple of minutes in search and in the store.
So tonight, I decided to relist all the cards that had disappeared from my inventory, and sure enough, none of them are indexing immediately. As a test, I listed a Freddie Freeman card, and it showed up immediately.
It feels fairly obvious there is something in the eBay system that is, for lack of a better word, throttling Mahomes cards (and maybe others, but I have no evidence of that).
I will accept that since the NFL season is starting and Mahomes is among the most popular players that many sellers are probably listing their Mahomes cards at the same time. And I suppose I can accept that indexing delays happen when many people are trying to list similar items or similarly-titled items.
Nevertheless, I've not ever experienced something just like this, and I'm curious if anyone else has received any better explanation than the one I've just created for myself, since eBay basically offered little more than a shrug emoji.
I will say that this issue does significantly alter selling strategies, and I wonder if there is an indexing queue and if it's first-come first served or if other sellers get priority.
Any info much appreciated!
