Question for sellers about quantities.

[inhawaii]

If I have 10 of a item, I set the quantity at 10.

I've noticed that some sellers who have multiple items for sale set the quantity at 1 then when it sells lists another one or changes the quantity from 0 to 1 and keep doing that over and over.

I imagine the only reason they do that is so that buyers think they are getting the "last one"?

Do you really think "last one" entices buyers to buy and do you think it's work the extra effort?

[ads*and*ends]

Depends on what the item is.  I sell collectibles. I have almost 5000 current listings, and probably have duplicates of a third of that. I only list 1 at a time. Concerning collectible items -- condition matters, and varies from item to item. The reason I only list 1 at a time is because I want the buyer to see the actual item they will receive. On the flip-side, I would also think that as a buyer, any sort of "used" or "pre-owned" item, I would want to see the pictures of the actual item if I were considering purchasing. 

[toomuchstuffagain35]

^^ This.

It's also possible the seller did only have one, but then when it sold they listed the one they just found/bought/unearthed?

Or - they did only have one, acquired another but the first one sold before they could add the restock?

Personally I'd prefer the listing NOT to be "last one" as keeping the listing stocked keeps the sales velocity going. If it runs out and then you restock/relist it can take a few for sales to pick up again and yes, I WOULD use OOS function IF it wasn't a global setting.

[dirk12955]

One of  my competitors uses the "Last one"  way of doing things.    He believes that some buyers 'will pull the trigger if they think he's down to 1 item.

I use the 10 items or whatever to start, and let the counter run down to zero (Hopefully)   but when I made that 

decision it was laziness.   Set it and forget it.   

The "Last one"  way might be better for inventory control.   

[buyselljack2016]

I use it as the "you snooze, you could lose" enticement.

I do not find it to be an overwhelming "extra effort" to hover and make 3 clicks of the mouse.

[ga_open_box_llc]

I think it depends on the item. We list certain items 1 at a time due to physical deference from one to the next. If the item is considered collectable,  we do those 1 at a time as well, because manufacturing could be slightly different,  and we want the buyer to see the exact item they are buying. If say it's something a buyer with typically buy in multiples, we will list what we have overall in stock, if the item is in brand new, unopened condition. There are some items, we have noticed don't move as fast as they should due to having multiple,  because the buyer most likely will shop around for awhile, before pulling the trigger due to the fact we may have 10 or more in stock. We have considered may decreasing the total in stock on certain items to see if perhaps it may cause things to sell faster, but have yet to actually do that. Considering how sales have been, this may be something we will test out to see if it really matters or not.

[slippinjimmy]

---

@inhawaii wrote:

If I have 10 of a item, I set the quantity at 10.

I've noticed that some sellers who have multiple items for sale set the quantity at 1 then when it sells lists another one or changes the quantity from 0 to 1 and keep doing that over and over.

I imagine the only reason they do that is so that buyers think they are getting the "last one"?

Do you really think "last one" entices buyers to buy and do you think it's work the extra effort?

---

I am one of those sellers and personally I hate that eBay adds the "last one" tag.

I list one at a time because my inventory is stored in a "remote" location so even though I have multiple I only keep 1  readily on hand for shipping where I have limited space.

So about once a week I take a list of my sold out items, go to my main inventory location and replenish and reset the available quantity to one.

I use this system to avoid any chance of an out of stock situation or being forced to to go to my "warehouse" to get 1 item that I need to ship. At one time my "warehouse" was located 2 hours away (it's much closer now).

Where I am actually located and where I have my currently listed inventory has space constraints, I simply don't have the space to store all my overstock especially as many of my items are long tail and I might only sell 1 over the course of many months (or even years). If I listed multiples available I'd be driving back and forth every few days just to pick up one or two items and there is no way to predict which items I would need to have more than 1 close at hand.

Still I wish I could tell eBay to NOT place the "last one" flag, even though it doesn't seem to cause any issues with buyers I have no way of knowing if buyer think "that's a lie" when they see the "last one" flag on all my listings.

It's all a holdover from the early days when it was a two person operation and my lister partner would make incorrect assumptions that another was available which resulted in frequent out of stock situations. Other than the Last One flag my system works perfectly and I have not had an out of stock for more than 10 years.

[lonebuck-books]

One other reason is to thwart "black hat" tactics other sellers can do.  A seller that has the same item you have and is your competition can buy up your entire inventory to eliminate the competition for a period of time and then do a bogus return 29 days later.  It is a very common thing for unethical sellers to do over on Amazon because returns are so easy.

[inhawaii]

---

@lonebuck-books wrote:

One other reason is to thwart "black hat" tactics other sellers can do.  A seller that has the same item you have and is your competition can buy up your entire inventory to eliminate the competition for a period of time and then do a bogus return 29 days later.  It is a very common thing for unethical sellers to do over on Amazon because returns are so easy.

---

Very interesting.

I never even thought of that.

[dirk12955]

I was thinking about this and had another thought.    Only showing 1 item for sale would hinder my sales. 

  Many stamp collectors buy multiples of certain items.    I would like to sell that "Last item"  for sure, But would rather sell 2 or 3 or 15 instead.        

[inhawaii]

---

@dirk12955 wrote:

I was thinking about this and had another thought.    Only showing 1 item for sale would hinder my sales. 

  Many stamp collectors buy multiples of certain items.    I would like to sell that "Last item"  for sure, But would rather sell 2 or 3 or 15 instead.       

---

Another reason I don't do it the "last one" way.

But the biggest reason is  ... that i'm lazy.

I don't want to keep adding 1 every time I sell one.

If ebay says I have 9 left, I have 9 left.