Am I missing something? Amazon related

[Momto2boys973]

No, you don’t have to pay for the listing, but if you take it down you lose your ratings and reviews, which help put your product in the first pages of results. And that’s the main goal after choosing a product to sell, to get your listing on the first page. Good reviews and ratings do that. If you take down your listing, and then you sell that product again, you have to start from scratch. So it’s easier to keep the listing with an outrageous price for a few days while you restock and then have it again on the first page when you’re all settled to sell.

My husband is an Amazon seller and he told me some use this tactic when they run out of stock, but don’t want to lose their listing, so they put a price no one would pay in order not to get orders for that product until they get restocked.

Interesting. So I guess sellers have to pay a fee for each listing? So if they take it down and repost it's another fee? I have no idea how it works but so far this makes the most logical sense.

I'm really hoping the seller responds to my inquiry.

[mojogirl]

Ok, thanks for explaining. Still doesn't make sense on this seller though. The only reason I found them is I had a product flagged on Amazon to notify me when it's available again. I got an email yesterday saying it was available and from this seller at this outrageous price. So it wasn't like they had a listing up already at a normal price and then jacked it up. It was posted at that price. Obviously, I need more stress in my life if this is what's bothering me. #firstworldproblems

I appreciate your explanations though, it definitely helps me understand why Amazon sellers do strange things sometimes.

No, you don’t have to pay for the listing, but if you take it down you lose your ratings and reviews, which help put your product in the first pages of results. And that’s the main goal after choosing a product to sell, to get your listing on the first page. Good reviews and ratings do that. If you take down your listing, and then you sell that product again, you have to start from scratch. So it’s easier to keep the listing with an outrageous price for a few days while you restock and then have it again on the first page when you’re all settled to sell.

My husband is an Amazon seller and he told me some use this tactic when they run out of stock, but don’t want to lose their listing, so they put a price no one would pay in order not to get orders for that product until they get restocked.

Interesting. So I guess sellers have to pay a fee for each listing? So if they take it down and repost it's another fee? I have no idea how it works but so far this makes the most logical sense.

I'm really hoping the seller responds to my inquiry.

[Anonymous 5]

Someone told me that things like this are usually out of stock situations. It’s easier for them to mark up the price enough that no one will buy it than to temporarily remove it.

The person I heard that from isn’t always the most reliable source of information, so I don’t know if it is true or not...

This is actually a smart idea if removing it would mean redoing the whole listing.

[MotherOfCats]

Actually the answer is probably much simpler. (I am an Amazon seller FYI)
Rather than risk running out of stock many vendors will raise prices SUPER high to prevent people from ordering from them. This means that even they do not have to temporarily deactivate a listing and lose sales ranking. No one will buy at that price, so their Amazon metrics appear that they are in stock. From the viewpoint of an AZ seller, this makes sense. Not something *I* personally would ever do, but I see it all the time.

[MrsDavidB]

This happens in reverse too. In some of the decorating groups I am in someone will post an expensive rug or light fixture for example listed for $3. The girls flock to amazon. Order, and then later get an email that their order is cancelled once the mistake is caught.