first post counted as reply in custom script

[LifesGreatestGift]

I am working on building a classifieds section on my forum and the current code is counting the first post of a thread as a reply. is there a way around this? Here is my current code

$cats = array(18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42,43,44,45,46,47,48,49,50,51,52,53,54,55,56,57,58,59,60,61,62,63,64,65,66,67,68);

foreach ($cats AS $cat => $forumid) { 
$t_count[$forumid] = array( 
    "forumid" => $forumid,  
    "forum_name" => $vbulletin->forumcache[$forumid]['title'],  
    "threadcount" => vb_number_format($vbulletin->forumcache[$forumid]['threadcount']),  
    "replycount" => vb_number_format($vbulletin->forumcache[$forumid]['replycount']) 
    ); 
} 
foreach ($cats AS $cat) { 
    $total_count_thread += vb_number_format($vbulletin->forumcache[$cat]['threadcount']); 
    $total_count_reply += vb_number_format($vbulletin->forumcache[$cat]['replycount']); 
} 
  
$classifieds = array_merge($t_count);  

if (is_member_of($vbulletin->userinfo, 6)) {  
/* print_r($total_count_reply);  
echo "<br />"; 
print_r($total_count_thread); */ 
}  

vB_Template::preRegister('FORUMHOME',array('classifieds' => $classifieds)); 
vB_Template::preRegister('FORUMHOME',array('total_count_thread' => $total_count_thread)); 
vB_Template::preRegister('FORUMHOME',array('total_count_reply' => $total_count_reply));

Here is where its rendered

https://www.thesecond.org/forum/#classifieds

if i make a "classified" aka thread, my "Listings" and "Replies" count is 1 when I'd like it to be Listings: 1 Replies: 0

Hope that makes sense.

Thanks in advance!