Ok so a long time ago when I was like level 15 I found the Gobi Campaign Sniper Rifle, I didn't like it so I sold it too a traveling merchant, I killed the merchant and looted the body to see if the gun was there and it was not . Today I was in North Vegas square at level 30 and I see a traveling merchant, I looked at her inventory and she had the Gobi Campaign Sniper Rifle weird, i bought it back. The weird thing is it has been many hours of playtime since I sold the Gobi Campaign Sniper Rifle, and the merchant I sold it to I killed very interesting how a completely different merchant had the weapon.

All selling NPC's restock Wednesday and Sunday.

If they restock they shouldnt have had the Gobi sniper rifle though, I bought it back so it is weird they had it.

my guess is that you killed a generic trader with a merc follower? my guess is that when you sold it, it put it in its "to sell list, not get rid of list", and since you killed it, im guessing that since its sharing the same name, it probably puts the item in their trade list as well

Solution, perform a righteous slaughter of all those deemed "Traveling Merchant"

Godspeed, warrior of Mars.

Yeah that must have been what happened kinda awesome though.