Why are my items not populating in searches and why do I get an error everytime I send an offer?

[shakeyscorner1]

I must make multiple listings for every item I try to sell because the first one, and most time the second one will not appear in searches. Will eBay ever level the playing field for me and allow my listings to poplulate properly without me make 3-6 listings of the same item every single time? And will I ever get to actually send an offer to those people that are watching my items without getting the "unexpected error" message telling me to try again later. Note to Ebay: *When it happens on every listing, it is not unexpected. *

[slippinjimmy]

It can take up to 24 hours after listing for them to show up in search.

I can see that you listed a number of things multiple times because you are not waiting for the indexing process to complete. Have some patience!

[shakeyscorner1]

24 hours? That makes no sense. Why would a listing need 24 hours to populate? And if they needed 24 hours why do some post immediately? If I make 3 listings of the exact same thing within a 5 min window, why would 1 post immediately and 2 need 24 hours? One of my best qualities is I do not have patience for dumb stuff.... 

[slippinjimmy]

It makes sense if you understand that indexing 1.5 BILLION listings can take time. It also depends on what you are listing, some categories are slower than others, some sellers get slower indexing that others.

If you make "If I make 3 listings of the exact same thing within a 5 min window", the first one gets indexed quickly the other 2 are duplicates and will probably never show up. If these are Auctions the second identical listing will not show up until the first one has received at least one bid.

https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/listing-policies/duplicate-listings-policy?id=4255

[shakeyscorner1]

It doesn't work like that for me. It is the later listings that populate, like the 3rd one. Like nearly immediately. So how again does that make sense?  If there are 1.5 billion listings and I make 2 that the system needs time to proocess, then why does the 3rd one popluate in seconds? Keep in mind they are as you wrote identical. ... Actually correction, they are not identical. They have the exact same information but if I make one from scratch it wont show up in searches. I have to go into the sold items, find a listing that matches mine and use it as a template and then those will populate in searches. And what I am talkig about more specifically the listings are on the site and active and I can find them if I do  random search and look through 200-500 listings, I will find mine. However, when I use the exact same words and organize the listings into "most recent" it does not matter if I wait a week, the item will never populate under that search. I hope this helps clear up my post and what I am trying to find out. I thought it is some kind of new seller thing that must be earned or that te system is trying to force me to spend on advertisements or something.  

[inhawaii]

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@shakeyscorner1 wrote:

So how again does that make sense?   

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Ok fine, it doesn't make sense, but that's the way it is.

[shakeyscorner1 · Accepted solution]

Thanks inhawaii, that was as helpful as it was clear and true. If that was "the way it is" then the most recent searches would never populate any items from anyone. Or perhaps the vague "the way it is" means that as there are some sort of benchmarks a seller must achieve or pay for advertising in order to have the items populate on the 1st listing. Or who knows or even cares at this point. I'll just contunue to make listings until one of them works properly and then I will delete the other and carry on my business. Good day.