eBay

richard1rst · ‎06-13-2017

I have seen a few comments in various threads saying that eBay relisted a sold item, apparently without or against the sellers wish.

How exactly does that work? And what should we be on the watch for?

Why would they do that without the sellers input?

Can someone fill in the blanks?

"Laissez-faire capitalism (AKA The Great Material Continuum) is the only social system based on the recognition of individual rights and, therefore, the only system that bans force from social relationships." ~ Ayn Rand

tunicaslot · ‎06-13-2017

It's a glitch - doesn't happen all the time but it seems when they make big changes - people seem to find completed and sold listings active again.

There is nothing you can do about it and just need to keep checking your unsolds to make sure they are in your inventory and going through your actives to make sure nothing new slipped in.

Of the 10 ghost listings - I've had during the past 2 1/2 years - three I didn't catch sold and I ended up with out of stock defects - 6 I caught while checking my active listings and the last one thankfully was an auction - which had bids ( higher than what I actually sold it for ) that I cancelled.

Now mistakes happen and I know I may have inadvertantly listed an item that I forgot to delete when I relisted it - but many of these items had sold months before and were purged from solds, unsolds, and archived items. I do not use Turbo lister or any other 3rd party listing system - so the glitch was not with them.

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tiramisu41 · ‎06-13-2017

@richard1rst

@richard1rst wrote:
I have seen a few comments in various threads saying that eBay relisted a sold item, apparently without or against the sellers wish.

How exactly does that work? And what should we be on the watch for?
An item which you previously listed shows up in your Active listings again that you did not relist. It just magically appears.

Why would they do that without the sellers input?
Because their software developers have no clue what they are doing.

tunicaslot · ‎06-13-2017

It's a glitch - doesn't happen all the time but it seems when they make big changes - people seem to find completed and sold listings active again.

There is nothing you can do about it and just need to keep checking your unsolds to make sure they are in your inventory and going through your actives to make sure nothing new slipped in.

Of the 10 ghost listings - I've had during the past 2 1/2 years - three I didn't catch sold and I ended up with out of stock defects - 6 I caught while checking my active listings and the last one thankfully was an auction - which had bids ( higher than what I actually sold it for ) that I cancelled.

Now mistakes happen and I know I may have inadvertantly listed an item that I forgot to delete when I relisted it - but many of these items had sold months before and were purged from solds, unsolds, and archived items. I do not use Turbo lister or any other 3rd party listing system - so the glitch was not with them.

klassic*kids · ‎06-13-2017

I had a sold item sneak into my active listings just the other week. A "ghost listing". eBay isn't doing it on purpose as you seem to think, it is a technical glitch.

I just happened to be giving all my actives a once-over and saw the listing there and I was able to end it. However, if I had not caught it and it sold (again!) I would probably have been stock with a defect for out-of-stock.

Keep an eye on your active listings!

Happy 2018! May this upcoming year be a prosperous one!

richard1rst · ‎06-13-2017

I am the OP.

Thank you to all who responded. Your advice is helpful.

"Laissez-faire capitalism (AKA The Great Material Continuum) is the only social system based on the recognition of individual rights and, therefore, the only system that bans force from social relationships." ~ Ayn Rand

yuzuha · ‎06-13-2017

My belief is that it is a glitch, but that it is a glitch that is somehow triggered by something a seller does. That's the only explanation I can think of for why some sellers seem to encounter it frequently and other sellers never have it happen at all. The only question would be what triggers it-- so far no one has been able to figure out the commonality.

rw011164 · ‎06-13-2017

It had only happened to me twice. Both times when I was bulk relisting. I keep track of the number of active listings that I have. It is very aggravating and I do not how exactly why it happens since I bulk relist all the time.

I have also had the reverse happen where I have 50 relistings and it drops one during the process. Those are a little easier to find, but also aggravating

pennysue1234swimwear · ‎06-13-2017

Had a swimsuit that pops up every day in my active listings.I have called ebay and made them return my money several times.I have ended it deleted it and every day there it is again.They will not remove sold items you have to be careful and look every day.

mistwomandancing · ‎06-13-2017

The opposite of this situation of a no-longer-available item springing to life as an active listing again is the "poofed" listing that simply disappears somewhere during the transfer between no longer an active listing and showing up in your unsold listings. POOF! It never makes it across the barrier. I do a periodic physical inventory (hate it) but it helps me keep track of inventory.

I've never had a listing that was ended or sold ever spring back into life though. I never check that box for eBay to automatically relist my items three times (or whatever)... just in case.

nowthatsjustducky · ‎06-13-2017

@yuzuha wrote:
My belief is that it is a glitch, but that it is a glitch that is somehow triggered by something a seller does. That's the only explanation I can think of for why some sellers seem to encounter it frequently and other sellers never have it happen at all. The only question would be what triggers it-- so far no one has been able to figure out the commonality.

My guess is that it has something to do with their in house database backup procedures and that it is severely misconfigured to cause partial database restorals at undetermined times.

If it works, sell it. If it works well, sell it for more. If it doesn't work, quadruple the price and sell it as an antique.

-- Ferengi Rule of Acquisition #80

2756anderson · ‎06-13-2017

This happened to me, twice recently. Couldn't figure out why.

yuzuha · ‎06-13-2017

@nowthatsjustducky wrote:
@yuzuha wrote:
My belief is that it is a glitch, but that it is a glitch that is somehow triggered by something a seller does. That's the only explanation I can think of for why some sellers seem to encounter it frequently and other sellers never have it happen at all. The only question would be what triggers it-- so far no one has been able to figure out the commonality.
My guess is that it has something to do with their in house database backup procedures and that it is severely misconfigured to cause partial database restorals at undetermined times.

That doesn't really explain why it seems to happen repeatedly to some people and then never to others, though. I would think it would be more widespread if it were a case of partial database restorals, but there are lots of sellers here on the boards (myself included) who have said they have never encountered a zombie relist even once.

monkeystein · ‎07-15-2017

I had this happen to me yesterday.
Received item sold notification on July 14, 2017.
I had already sold that particular item LAST YEAR on June 20, 2016.
Somehow, it was relisted by eBay on June 29, 2017.
And if the seller tries to cancel the transaction, there is no option for 'ebay generated listing error', only options are ' I'm out of stock or the item is damaged', 'Buyer asked to cancel the order' or 'Something is wrong with the buyer's shipping address'.

ourplunder · ‎09-09-2017

The relisting automatically that ebay does for items we sellers run as "good until cancelled" (regenerates every 30 days )are what it is happend on for me. Two items last week and three items this week. I called ebay the first time it happened and they acted like they had never heard of such a thing and would "let the technical department look into it". Just keep watching your listings is my advice and call them and let them know. If enough people call, they might really fix it.

ourplunder · ‎09-09-2017

It has happened to me a total of 5 times in 30 days. I don't mess with my listings. I list until cancelled at a fixed price. I leave them be and just check my cell phone to see if anything sold daily. It is a mystery to me.