Are you pasting (Ctrl-V) or using Paste-in-Front (Ctrl-F) when you paste? Ctrl-F will paste EXACTLY in the same place, but in front of the original. There's also Paste-in-Back, which pastes EXACTLY in back of the original.
FYI, if you are copying/pasting and you want the pasted object to go right in front or right behind any particular other object, you can Copy, then select the object you want to paste behind, THEN paste and the pasted object will be right in front or behind that specific object.
OK, now I'm starting to feel like Andrew (apepp) with a whole slew of posts, but hey...
Another cool thing you can do with Paste-in-Front is when you want to add something to the contents of a clipping mask, just Copy or Cut your object, then select the contents of the mask but not the mask itself, and Paste in Front, voila your object goes into the mask in front of the other contents.
One thing you'll notice, is that if you Copy, and then go to the next layer and paste in front, sometimes it will paste back on the original layer. If you make sure to deselect the contents of that layer, this will not happen.
One last thing, if you want to take contents of a number of layers from one document and paste them into another, you'll get everything on one layer. To prevent this and essentially paste with the layer structure intact, you can go to the layer flyout menu, and towards the bottom check the option "Paste Remembers Layers". Don't forget to turn the option off again after you're done.
If you want to copy one object to another layer and keep it in the same position.
Select the object(s) you want to copy. On the layers, you will see a square beside layer on the right. Drag that up or down to whatever layer you like. It will be on that layer and in the exact same position.
I always forget about that one, I have been using Illustrator since 3 versions before layers and have never gotten into the habit of using some of their features.
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