Bug alert on relisting as " Sell Similar" with quantity of more than 1

[Sigilini]

If your item ends and you relist is as “sell similar” and your item has more than one in the quantity, beware! The Ebay system may ad additional items to your quantity or even relist items that you already sold out on. I am not sure if this happens with just “sell similar” or if it happens with “relist” or both.

This has happened to me several times. I caught one of them, it listed 8 when I had 7 (originally I had 10 and sold 3). Once I had to refund a buyer and inform the them that in fact there were none in inventory — this is after a frantic search through boxes for the the item and then realizing that they all sold out. And this morning again, I had an item listed with 2 quantity. I sold 1. Item ended and I relisted as “sell similar” and it listed it as 3 quantity. I only found out because a buyer sent a question about the item.

I have reported this to Ebay and will do so again.

• This topic was modified 7 years, 6 months ago by Sigilini.

[Sharyn]

When I use Sell Similar with an item of multiple quantity, it usually will create the new listing with the original starting quantity no matter how many had been sold. I thought that was by design. I set up my listings with Good til Canceled, so I have to be careful when something is close to 16 months old, and I have to end and sell similar. Any multiple quantity items have to be checked for the correct amount.

That said, I have found a few listings in the past where the quantity did not match up with what I had in stock. I’ve assumed that was due to “operator error”, but I don’t know for sure. I also recently found an item where the listing is missing. It’s going to be a pain to recreate it because it was kind of complicated, so I’ve been putting it off.

Anyway, I agree that you have to be careful with multiple quantity listings. I don’t have enough of them to really say whether there is a glitch or not.

[Sigilini]

I believe it is a bug because I am confident that I did not make any changes to the listing before I relisted it.

Example: I had one listing show up as having 3 when originally it was 2 and one sold, so should have listed as 1, which is what it was before it ended.

This bug is not consistent so it is hard to see exactly what happens. But definitely, I highly recommend, that any quantity listings be verified so you don’t end up with egg on your face as happened to me a couple of times now.

[Ryanne]

yes i’ve had this issue when ending and “selling similar” items that are flagged older than 16 months as well. but i think instead of “sell similar” if you “relist” the ended items, it keeps your current quantity. i did a test of only 3 items ending them and relisting yesterday, wrote down my current qty and compared it to the relisted qty and it was correct. so i went ahead and ended and relisted all my 16 month old listings yesterday and they seem correct.

[Sigilini]

Thank you Ryanne. I will try that too.

I did get a message back from ebay on facebook to try using the inventory feature. I have not yet investigated that but your solution seems easier.

[T-Satt]

Something to think about on multi-quantity listings…list them as GTC.

The eBay algorithm likes sales, so when a listing sells, it moves up in search. So if you have multiples, keep the good sales history on that item and list it GTC.

Addendum…if you don’t have sales after 60 days, end the listing, make some changes if needed, and relist GTC.

[Sigilini]

Good points TSatt. Thank you. I will do that.

[wellspring]

Although our listings are “GTC” now, it helps to occasionally sort active listings by “title.” If the same exact title is used for a “sell similar,” it’s pretty easy when scanning the list to see a duplicate listing via the title and/or photo.

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