ebay duplicate listings tool

soolin

This is a heads up as eBay's latest cull on sellers concerns duplicate listings, they appear to be concentrating on them at the moment with many first time offenders being given restrictions and suspensions on just one found example.

I saw it being mentioned on the community boards and also on a different forum I frequent and it appears there may be a glitch (who would have guessed!) where relisting in batches as many of us do, it sometimes results in a listing being relisted twice. It only appears to happen for relists, for new or sell similar listings the ebay system automatically warns you if you are about to list a duplicate.

I had a warning last year (but no suspension as I could show it was eBay's fault as both went live at exactly the same time, and ebay removed my warning. However I just checked my accounts using a tool (see below) and was rather concerned to find a duplicate on my business listing again which I have obviously removed.

The tool is here and it is well worth checking.

http://www.isdntek.com/ebaytools/DuplicateListings.htm

Incidentally, some of the suspended sellers are absolutely insistent they had no previous warnings, and went straight to a 7 or 31 day ban on a first offence. If that is the case, and if ebay software is allowing these duplicates then that seems very harsh. Some sellers are also very unhappy that there are mega sellers with duplicates who seem to be above the rule and despite reporting never get the listings even pulled!

charlies_mum

Thanks for that. I checked and did have a duplicate, so have ended it

I sell greetings cards on one account and its a nightmare trying to find different titles for cards.

forgotmyname

One of my pet hates. If you want something generic like a fuse or a bulb. You have a choice of several thousand, but if its something that has slight variations then its a nightmare.

I was looking for a particular bulb and all the results were washed out by a seller with over 4000 identical bulbs. they went through virtually every make and model of car and motorbike ever made in their 4000+ listings.

I was so annoyed i had a whinge to ebay who as usual said there doesnt appear to be a problem. But when i asked if it was OK to create 1 million listings for a single 13A fuse they said no. But this fuse fits the microwave at number 1 high street M1, then another 999 listings for different appliances that house number 1 may have, then move onto house number 2 etc etc.

This was unnaceptable it seems. But its OK to list a 21w bulb fitted to virtually every car since the 60's thousands of times if you put this fits a xyz...

Nesty

The other day I had 2 of the same item.
Both had wear marks but in different places. I listed them.
Then I get the reminder from Ebay they taken down 1 listing, as duplicate listing.
Yes, I agree same item, but different listing, as description is not the same!
I have to wait until one sells and then list the other. How ridiculous.

soolin

I've just checked mine again and I have 3 duplicate listings- all of them are a few seconds apart so must have somehow listed twice when I hit relist.

Removed one and turned the other two into similar items so that I don't waste a listing fee.

soolin

Just another reminder to keep checking your listings- I thought I had been very careful and yet this tool has just shown up 2 duplicate items that I have listed few days apart. The issue for me is that when I relist from my unsold page the item ususally no longer shows in the unpaid, but on some occasions it re lists but remains as an unsold and gets relisted without any ebay warning that it is a duplicate.

Luckily I found these 2 before ebay did!

forgotmyname

Half posted this in anothe thread.. lost it LOL

Its mad that your worrying about the odd duplicate when there is a seller with automotive in their name with 5 identical listings for LIME air fresheners.
5 x1pack, 5 x2pack and 3 and 4.
Or how about carpets with a lime trim, 12 identical listings of those..

If your sitting down.... How about 1615 identical listings for the same 501 bulbs? Universal to every car that uses a 501 bulb. But they have listed lots and lots of cars to make it appear to be a different item.

They have about 89,000 listings and probably less than 100 unique items in total.