Items remain active listings after being sold

[axeattaxe]

I recently got a Seller Subscription and listed some items for sale.  

The site works pretty nicely, but one thing I've noticed is that when a given item sells, if I then go to my "Active Listings" in the Seller Hub, those items are *still* listed as active listings, but with a Quantity of 0.  

Here's the catch:  I'm aware of the "Out Of Stock" feature, and how it could prevent sold items from being automatically removed from my active listings. 

But it's disabled.  Here's a screenshot showing  my "Out Of Stock" option right now in Selling Preferences.  I've never touched it - it's always been disabled:

I'd add that all of my items have a Quantity of "1" upon being listed - I've never sold anything I have more than one of. 

Can anybody help me understand why items I sell remain in my "Active listings" with a Quantity of 0 despite the Out Of Stock option being disabled?  Some of these items sold several days ago.  My understanding is that sold items should drop off the Active Listings page, since they're no longer active (or shouldn't be).  

[wastingtime101]

Can you post a few item numbers?

[mam98031]

Just for a little more information, If you were [I see you aren't] using the OOS inventory setting.  When you are sold out of an item, while the listing stays active, ONLY the seller can see that listing.  It does NOT show up in searches nor can it be seen in your active listing for a potential buyer.

Now with that said, would you mind to take a moment and give us some listing numbers for the listings you ran into this problem with so that we can take a closer look.  We just need more info in the hopes we can help.

[axeattaxe]

@mam98031 @wastingtime101  Sorry folks, I didn't get a notification for either of your messages.  I just saw the option below "Email me when someone replies".  It is now checked. 

I think you're asking for the "eBay item number" of some of my sold items, is that correct?  I'm definitely a newbie. 

Here are two:

356706779606

356708762717

The first # sold on 3/25.  The second sold yesterday, 3/26. 

Yet if I go to Seller Hub, then click on "Active Listings", both are still right there, along with all of my inventory that hasn't sold, except these now show a quantity of 0.   

I'd think they'd drop off after selling.  I realize I can manually "end listing" but I'd prefer to automate that if possible. 

Thank you in advance for your thoughts on this.  let me know if you need more that those Item #s.   

[mam98031]

@axeattaxe 

Good, now I can see what is happening.  It is actually just a misunderstanding.

When you look at Active Listings in the seller hub and you see some listings that have sold out, then you have the inventory setting in your Site Preferences to keep OOS [out of stock] listings active.  This is a very handy option if you plan on getting more inventory in.  Then you can just come back to the Active listings and call it up, add a quantity and you are now live with that listing again for sale.

Look a little closer at these two listings that you see in your Active Listings.  Look at the column for Qty Available.  It will say you have ZERO QTY.  On these listings, while you can see them in your Active Listings in the Seller Hub, buyers don't see them at all when they search for stuff.  Nor do they see these listings as active in your Store.

YOU ARE FINE.  There is nothing wrong.  If you don't want or need this OOS setting, you can turn it off.

https://www.ebay.com/uas/selling-pref

[axeattaxe]

Thanks.  But if you read my original post, I talk about OOS setting, and that it's *disabled*.  I also include a screenshot of my Site Preferences showing that it is disabled. 

I've read a lot about Out Of Stock in trying to troubleshoot this, so I was surprised to see it's not the cause.

[axeattaxe]

@wastingtime101 Did the item #s I posted help make any sense of this by chance?  Thanks.  

[rarefindscollectible]

If the quantity stays at zero, count yourself lucky. Wait until theres a few system "glitches" and eBay throws up an item you sold 2 or 3 years ago without any warning. Then lowers your account standing because of THEIR system errors.

After being locked out intermittently every week for months because their bot thought I was a "bot" I would also have to disgree with this site working nicely. You're going to see some interesting things eventually. Best of luck.

[axeattaxe]

Wow.  That sounds abysmal.  

I guess I'll just be thankful I'm only getting my Quantity to reduce to 0 while the listing remains active, and occasionally "End listing" for all those items. 

And yes, the site has many glitches.  I've already seen many.  I was just trying to take the positive approach lol. 

it just makes no sense to me that sold items with a quantity of 0 would be listed as "Active Listings" on such a big seller platform.  C'est la vie. 

Thanks for your insight. 

[wastingtime101 · Accepted solution]

Quick update here without revealing any of the original poster's personal info:

After troubleshooting, the most likely cause for this issue is a 3rd party app. Still working out the fix, but wanted to post an update for others.

[axeattaxe]

Thanks to the assistance of @wastingtime101  I got this sorted out.  

We aren't sure if it's a 3rd-party tool yet that caused it.  I use a bulk config/upload tool to post batches of sports/TCG cards at once on eBay.  And since I used that app to post all my cards that weren't dropping off once sold, it's very possibly the root cause. 

But the fix?  The fix was to  simply toggle the Out Of Stock option ON (it was OFF and had always been OFF before now), the one you find in Site Preferences that I posted a screenshot of in my original post, close my browser and wait a few hours (probably don't need to do this step but I did it just to let it "set in"), then toggle the Out Of Stock option back to OFF.

Since I toggled it ON, waited an hour, then toggled it back OFF, every card that I've sold has dropped off my Active Listings immediately.  

I'm going to upload some more cards soon using that 3rd-party tool to see if they get "set" with something that causes the issue to reappear; that way we'll know if it was the app itself that caused this issue, or if it was just some weird one-time thing where toggling the Out Of Stock option on and off resolved. 

Thanks again @wastingtime101 !