As per cobwebcottage above.

I had a product flagged as a knife from which I clicked the link to contest.

It was a spoon.

A bot or maybe a real person replied to say the listing was reinstated.

Good, I thought all was well . . . 

Until the next day a regular buyer emailed wondering why he couldn't bid on it.

So something was obviously still broken at eBay’s end.

So yes, start a fresh listing.