• An "item" is the actual product or service that you’re selling.

• A "listing" is the ad or page on eBay containing a description of the item(s) you’re selling, your shipping and payment terms, and your User ID information. Buyers view your listing to decide if they want to bid on or buy your item.

"Item" and "listing" are often used interchangeably (for example, "revise your item" and "revise your listing") because most people sell one item in a listing. However, some people sell multiple, identical items (such as 10 identical DVDs) in the same listing.

If you use multiple item listings, the difference between "item" and "listing" results may become important in your reports. For example, suppose you had 3 listings that ended during the previous month:

Your ended listings total for the month would be 3, but your ended items total would be 5 (3 items from the multiple item listing, plus 1 item each from the other 2 listings).

Your successful listings percentage for the month would be 67% (2 of 3 listings had at least one item sold), but your sold items percentage would be 40% (2 of 5 items were sold).