The amount of the same item sold so far?

[collect247]

I don't know if anyone else has noticed the scam eBay are trying to pull off but I see on plenty of listings it shows that the seller has already sold x amount of the item in question and an example is 700 sold so far with more than 10 available.

But when I go through the sellers sold items the seller has only sold 1 item and not 700 lol.

So eBay are showing that the item has sold in huge quantity just to encourage a buyer to buy it when in fact it's a con.

Keep up the good work(lies) eBay.

[kopenhagen5]

The completed listings shows for 30 days meaning 1 sold in last 30 days.

But the listing could have been going for 5 years or more.

And they may reduce the price at certain times selling 50 in a month.

[collect247]

I hear what you're saying kopes but no that's not the case as I have followed a particular seller and they have not sold over 700.

When you go into the overall sold listings in the eBay search it will show you the last 10000 items sold and it goes past the 30 days you're talking about.

And I have gone through this process many times and counted how many of the same item from the same seller has been sold,lol as I have time on my hand to do these silly things and going back to when this item was actually available to be for sale and nope the seller has only sold 1 of the item lol.

My other theory is that the 700 could mean an overall amount sold in total from more than one seller?

Even if that's the case then that shouldn't be shown on an individual listing.

[kopenhagen5]

Well it does keep the mind active.

I see what you mean and perhaps it is as you say how many have sold on the site.

That is certainly misleading to show in a listing next to quantity available.

I and others would assume that seller has a great product with a good record.

[collect247]

The product/item is popular no doubt about that but it's just that I couldn't believe that one seller could have sold that many or even had that amount to sell as this particular item has a limited amount that we're produced and there are lots of sellers out there selling it also,but I did give the listing the benefit of doubt but then looking into it closely it just doesn't show up that the seller has sold over 700.

I know that there are sellers that get priority to selling items and do get a large amount to resell and those sellers are showing up in the sold section but not the 700 but around 50.

I have also very politely messaged the seller and asked if they have actually sold over 700 as it isn't showing up any where in the sold history.

So just waiting for a reply or even a mind your own business lady/pal lol 

[jfmgray]

the number sold relate to the total number sold by the seller for that item since the good till cancelled listing commenced.  As other have stated this may be over many years.  When you look at the item's sales history it only shows the number sold over the past 3ish months as I assume like all eBay records the other sales are not saved that long.  I have GTC listings I started several years ago.  I might have sold 30 of the one item but only the sales in the last few months show when you check items sold.

[digital*ghost]

Sales history is easy to game, if that is actually what's happening (not saying it is here, as I have no idea what the item - or who the seller - is.

Pretty much every aspect of a listing can be changed after it's had sales, it's not kocher, but theoretically someone could sell 500 phone covers then change to the listing to something completely different.

Sales don't have to be genuine to count, either. (As a perfectly innocent example, I had a one of a kind item listed. Someone bought it then changed their mind so I cancelled the order. Since I use the out of stock feature, the listing didn't end so I just put the quantity back to one, which meant the listing now said 1 sold, one still available. A few months later someone else was interested in buying it and asked a question about adjusting one of the specs, in my answer I mentioned it was the only one I made, forgetting that the listing would appear to suggest otherwise. They did buy it and never questioned me on that, but it must have seemed odd). 

If they don't have private listings and appear to leave auto-feedback after paying, you could always comb through their FB left for others to see how many have been bought and paid for under the current title. 

[collect247]

The item hasn't been around for many years it has just been released a couple of months ago so can everyone please stop throwing that into the ring as an answer cheers 

[collect247]

OK DG read your post and thought that's a great idea to have a look at the feedback of the seller and yep only 1 feedback for the item.

I've personally purchased around 20 items from the supplier of the item and purchasing 700 of them perhaps wouldn't be a problem and I don't care about that but to show that someone has sold more than 700 and then there's no proof it isn't fair, looks like eBay could just be playing the seller up?

Oh well good on them,just a bit annoying to me when I see things that shouldn't be on a listing that aren't true that's all.

[digital*ghost]

There's a lot of information you can check  most of which is ultimately circumstantial evidence so best not to allow it to lead to conclusions, and I presume this is something you would really only check out of sheer curiosity while continuing to ponder the mystery, but it can make you feel a little Sherlock for a moment.

If you sort listings by newly listed, it will show you the exact date and time it went live on site, so then you can know how old the listing is. If you check the revision history, it will tell you if the title, photos, description, postage / payment terms, and price was changed, and gives the dates the changes were made (you can't see what changes were made, though, so it will show whether someone changed the item for sale completely, or simply fixed a typo in the title etc).