out of stock items

[markanderson1998]

I have been barred from listing items because I had too many out of stocks. Can anyone suggest a way to avoid this problem?

[toysaver]

"I had too many out of stocks. Can anyone suggest a way to avoid this problem?"

Go into your eBay site preferences (in seller hub under shortcuts) and under selling preferences is multi-quantity listings.   Make sure "Listings stay active when you're out of stock" is deselected, all white with the button to the left.

[baantiques]

This is something that has dogged me since I started selling full time.  It's very frustrating.  I've spent a considerable amount of time and energy trying to figure it out.  While I've not been able to eliminate it entirely, what I've finally figured out is it's not any one thing, it's a combination of things.

Wrong initial inventory, leading to running out of stock before the listing ends.

My third party listing software (Inkfrog) automatically entering items back into inventory when it shouldn't

Me being stupid and putting stuff in the wrong place

Me being stupid when I physically remove something from the store and don't remove it from inventory.

Me being lazy and bulk relisting from Inkfrog without physically checking to see if I actually still have the item.

Probably some other things too that I haven't figured out.

[thelongball]

Only way around it is to sell what you have. When you don't have something, you can't make money. Out of stocks make eBay look bad too. 

[ms.rodriguez*]

There was an ebay glitch that messed up some sellers inventory.  Perhaps this too has hurt you.  I do recall reading an article about that recently.  Goodluck.

[markanderson1998]

Thank you. I am now in the process of checking availability of every item listed. I am also wondering how this can happen - I carefully relist only items that have not sold and still sold items somehow get relisted. I guess I will have to check each item before relisting. Thanks again.

[44012]

Hi, as ms.rodriguez* said...I also have been reading a lot of posts about inventory issues with many sellers that had multiple quantity listings that after the glitch put more back into inventory (the original starting count?) than was available. It really messed some sellers up. Maybe look back on the posts and see if this is has happened to you. Good Luck.

[femmefan1946]

@baantiques  

You left out eBay relisting items that were sold months or even years ago.

They refuse to believe it can happen, but it does.

I don't use any third party listers and most of my products are singletons or one of a kind.

When checking inventory, it can be helpful to put the Active list into alphanumerical order. That makes duplicated listings, another occasional problem, jump out.

[monster-deals]

You aren't drop shipping, that was my first guess.

...how are you losing so many items?

[mam98031]

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@ms.rodriguez* wrote:

There was an ebay glitch that messed up some sellers inventory.  Perhaps this too has hurt you.  I do recall reading an article about that recently.  Goodluck.

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@ms.rodriguez* 

That wouldn't have caused the problem of the OP.  Ebay knows which sellers were involved in the problem that happened on May 26th.  Ebay is auto correcting their accounts and protecting them from any harm to the health of their accounts.

[mam98031]

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@markanderson1998 wrote:

Thank you. I am now in the process of checking availability of every item listed. I am also wondering how this can happen - I carefully relist only items that have not sold and still sold items somehow get relisted. I guess I will have to check each item before relisting. Thanks again.

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How many cancellations did you do?  There are warning signs before there are so many of these as to hurt the health of your account.  Did you ignore them or just not notice them?

I still suggest you put your account on Time Away and do a full inventory on the items you have listed on the site.  You can not afford to even get one more cancellation for out of stock.  I know that not having any sales during this period may hurt a bit, but you will be in a much worse position if your get your account shut down and your selling privileges taken away and that can happen.

[oldwestcoins]

Oh wait, I got this one!  Only sell items you have IN STOCK. You are welcome.

[iamalwaysright]

Ebay restricts sellers from listing for too many out of stock cancellations.

You have numerous out of stock cancellations.

You want to avoid being restricted from listing.

Solution: Hmmmm. I wonder what you can do about that. 2 + 2 = ?

[iamalwaysright]

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@shado-x wrote:

This cannot be a serious post??

Probably not, I was wondering if the OP used a drop-down menu?

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Or a poor attempt to advertise their listings to us.

[oldwestcoins]

Who could keep a good inventory of a couple of thousand postcards? Oh, well - I guess the OP can't. 🙂

[oldwestcoins]

Human error.  It happens.