Question about a supposed simultaneous purchase

[CynthiaCranesPottery]

A friend just texted me this question which I copied and am pasting below. I don’t see how this can be possible. Otherwise it would have happened in my Shop because when I do an Update there’s always a mad rush to buy and if more than one person tries to buy something it only goes to ONE person, the others aren’t able to buy it because it disappears from their cart or something like that. I know this because I get messages all the time from disappointed buyers. 

Hi Cindy! Quick question:
In your experience as an Etsy seller, do you know if its possible for two separate buyers to buy the same item at the exact same time, both buyers receive a receipt and both buyers have the payment taken out of their paypal account?
I ask bc this happened to me, and the seller said i wouldn’t receive the item bc the other buyer was just seconds before me. Let me know your thoughts.

[NanaLetha]

 I don't know the statistical probability of that happening but it probably can. 

[CappuccinoLace]

It could be that the seller has 1 item listed on different platforms (etsy and ebay for example), and it was bought on the other platform.

[CynthiaCranesPottery]

Thanks for the replies. My friend (the buyer) said the listing showed it was in someone’s cart so she selected the Buy Now option to be sure to get it. Duplicating items between Etsy and EBay seems like a risky business but I can believe it’s done. Either way, one buyer was gonna go away annoyed, in this case it was my friend, and this seller just lost a potentially great buyer because this buyer friend of mine has spent a fortune in my shop over time.

[BootifulLabels]

There are millions of buyers on Etsy each day.  It stands to reason that sometimes more than one buyer could be purchasing the same item from a shop at the same time.  One buyer could have put the item in her cart, then continued browsing and adding items (from the same or other shops) and was in the process of checking out at the same time your friend was browsing.  Unless you have multiples of the item, there is not much you can do about this, first in, best dressed, as I learned as a child (you learn that quickly with 5 siblings).

It is disappointing for your friend, but it seems to me if you lose her friendship and her patronage, just because she got pipped at the post, she wasn't much of a friend.

[CynthiaCranesPottery]

"It is disappointing for your friend, but it seems to me if you lose her friendship and her patronage, just because she got pipped at the post, she wasn't much of a friend."

I'm afraid you misunderstood my post/question. My friend was not purchasing from me, it was another buyer who claims the item she purchased was also purchased by another buyer simultaneously. She reached out to me to get my thoughts on whether this could actually be true. As a seller I fully understand the cart process and my buyers (most are repeat) know to select the Buy Now option because the item sitting in a cart can easily disappear if another buyer purchases it and the sale goes through before theirs has had a chance. There is always a mad rush to buy when I do a Shop Update and not once in all my years selling on Etsy have 2 buyers purchased an item simultaneously, with both having been charged.

[CynthiaCranesPottery]

CORRECTED to state:

My friend was not purchasing from me, it was another buyer who claims the item she purchased was also purchased by another SELLER (not buyer) simultaneously.

[CynthiaCranesPottery]

Disregard my follow up "CORRECTED to state" Sorry for any confusion. This is what happens when you can't sleep and your brain isn't fulling functioning! LOL!

(I tried the "EDIT" under the down arrow but it won't cooperate.)

[CynthiaCranesPottery]

Here is what I should have said:

"My friend was not purchasing from me, it was another SELLER who claims the item she purchased was also purchased by another buyer simultaneously."

[Soapsmith]

I also wonder if it was on two different venues. That has happened to me several times as a buyer in the past when I purchased some thing from eBay and even from Amazon. After I bought it, the seller explained that someone else bought it from their other venue before me, and before they had a chance to update their listing. I have even purchased two of the exact same vintage powder dishes from two different venues and it turns out it was the same seller so of course I could only have one as that’s all they had in stock.

I sell the same items on my standalone, which gets about 85% of my business and here on Etsy part time. Most of my 250 item product line are items that are handmade and I can almost always make more with the exception of my "one of a kind" vintage powder dishes.  In almost 50 years in business, it has happened to me twice as a seller where I had to cancel the second  sale because someone purchased it before I could update the duplicate. I did explain and apologize to the second buyer, offered them a discount on a similar item if it was one of a kind or asked them to give me a few days to remake the item if it was something like a particular fragrance or fabric choice that sold out.

I have never heard of that situation happening on the same listing on Etsy but I imagine it could happen if they both acted simultaneously - would be extremely rare but maybe possible?