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Question: Why is my RelistItem call returning the following error even though I don't have a ReservePrice in my request?
<Errors>
<ShortMessage>Error in StartPrice.</ShortMessage>
<LongMessage>The StartPrice appears to be equal to or greater than the reserve price.</LongMessage>
<ErrorCode>81</ErrorCode>
<SeverityCode>Error</SeverityCode>
<ErrorClassification>RequestError</ErrorClassification>
</Errors>
Detailed Description
Answer: A requirement on eBay for ReservePrice is that the value must be greater than the StartPrice.
Here is a brief explanation on how the RelistItem call sets the data for the relisted item:
The RelistItem call will pick up all of the original item's data by default.
Each data point that is in the RelistItem request will overwrite the data point picked up from the original item.
Please note that this means if the RelistItem request does not include a data point that is in the original item, then the relisted item will keep that data point.
Here is an example of how this applies to the situation where the RelistItem call returns ErrorCode 81:
The original item is listed with the following StartPrice and ReservePrice.
<StartPrice currencyID='USD'>1.0</StartPrice>
<ReservePrice currencyID='USD'>16099.0</ReservePrice>
The original item ends with the ReservePrice not met, and the item not sold.
A RelistItem call is made with no ReservePrice in the request, and the following StartPrice.
<StartPrice currencyID='USD'>16299.0</StartPrice>
Since the original item ended with a ReservePrice and the RelistItem request did not have a ReservePrice, the relisted item will pick up the original item's ReservePrice. Therefore, the RelistItem request is for an item with a StartPrice of 16299 which is greater than the ReservePrice of 16099.
This is not possible, hence this error is returned for the RelistItem call.
If the intention in this case is for the relisted item to have no ReservePrice, then the following must be included in the RelistItem request in order to remove the ReservePrice.
<ReservePrice currencyID='USD'>0</ReservePrice>