Why do so many online pen stores insist on including "Sold out" models in listings?

[AlohaPens]

I can see reasons for having an archive of sold out or no longer available models on a retail FP site, but the nearly ubiquitous habit of mixing them in with the available listings, I find really tiresome. If I'm browsing or looking for a new pen, I don't want to see a bunch of pens I can't actually buy. Is there some reason for this near standard practice and/or am I the only one so annoyed?

Aloha.

[silverlifter]

The illusion of surfeit.

[Empty_of_Clouds]

Padding

[Farmboy]

I’m going to go with website design and or laziness.

If the pen is a regular catalog item it is much easier to leave the listing at sold out vs take it down and put it up later.

Also possible that the back end of the site doesn’t have much for automation and it can be a lot of work to edit.

[AlohaPens]

All good explanations. I also get the impression sites want to advertise that they had some rare pens which are now gone, so you better get your pen now! All in all, I find the practice not very consumer friendly.

Aloha

[Jaguarish]

Sometimes these are new pens that aren't yet available... But yes, older expired pens is an annoying artifact! Some sites do prompt you to note that you'd like to be contacted if it is restocked, though. Also, in some cases I think the items may be only temporarily sold out, pending receipt of more deliveries which are delayed by COVID.

[eachan]

That's something Deb has always avoided. Once the pen's bought, it's gone!

[penwash]

Good question.

On my website, I clearly separate the pens that are For Sale, vs the ones Sold.

Now, having said that, do I sometimes forget to or unintentionally missed marking SOLD ones?
Yes, but that's on me, not the system or the pens.

Why do I keep the ones that are Sold? For education.
I want people who are learning about fountain pens to be able to see the variety of pens that I have found/restored.
And this resulted in many, many who wrote me that they learned a lot about the variety of vintage pens from my website, regardless whether they buy a pen or not.
So I am not being deluded in thinking that it serves a good purpose when it's not.


EDIT: Clarification.

[christof]

somtimes I am looking for informations like year of production, correct naming etc...of vintage pens I am not yet familiar with. SOLD-Archives like the ones of penboard.de or fivestarpens.com are great resources of informations. Although sold pens and pens for sale are clearly seperated, google doesn't make any difference between these...

[SlowMovingTarget]

There are a number of reasons for a modern web store to do it.

A customer's order information is sometimes linked to the catalog entry, so if the pens were sold, the customer may link back to the online entry for information purposes. The advantages include people sending this link around instead writing their own description or taking their own photos. The site then gets traffic and the possibility of a sale of "related" items.

Another reason to do it is if the store has reviews or ratings. For those users that spend time to write reviews, upload their own pictures, etc., it could be very frustrating for that information to just disappear because the items had sold out.

The last reason would be that the retailer is potentially unsure whether they will get new stock as it was unclear that the item was a one-time run, or popularity might make it a regular item.

Modern digital stores can, and should, filter, or sort to last, listings of things that are no longer available.

Sites that just have static listings where the first few pages full are unavailable for purchase can be frustrating. That simply requires more curation than a dynamic site would have.

[Farmboy]

I think the comment made us about sold pens interspersed with available pens vs a sold archive and a sale catalog.

[eachan]

After a couple of years selling in eBay, Deb and I decided to open a sales site of our own. We looked at the possibility of retaining sold pens in a separate category for informative purposes but it certainly never occurred to us that it would be a good idea to mix them up with pens currently for sale. After much discussion between ourselves and with the coders we decided that when the pen was sold it should disappear from the site. This was for two main reasons: it wouldn't take long before sold pens outweighed those for sale and became a distraction. Secondly, we had already been writing the Goodwriters blog for some time by then and that seemed to be the place where we could write about pens more fully and in context. We kept the sales site and the blog closely associated so that someone who came to buy might stay to find out more about vintage pens.

[TSherbs]

For a browsing consumer with a mild itch to buy something, "sold out" listings that occupy visual space are distracting and annoying. For other reasons stated above by other posters, I can see how they would serve a seller, and also in some circumstances, the consumer.

But mostly they are annoying, sometimes even cluttering. I used to get the same feeling when I would go to a store to buy shoes, select a model off the rack, and the salesperson would return from the stockroom and say, "Sorry, we don't have those in your size." Honestly, I only want to see the shoes that they DO have in my size. I much prefer the stores that have the shoes on many shelves, sorted by size, and all in view. If you don't see them, they don't got 'em. Yeah, I'm a lower brow consumer. I actually don't much enjoy shopping, so "sold out" is just annoying clutter.

[penwash]

After a couple of years selling in eBay, Deb and I decided to open a sales site of our own. We looked at the possibility of retaining sold pens in a separate category for informative purposes but it certainly never occurred to us that it would be a good idea to mix them up with pens currently for sale. After much discussion between ourselves and with the coders we decided that when the pen was sold it should disappear from the site. This was for two main reasons: it wouldn't take long before sold pens outweighed those for sale and became a distraction. Secondly, we had already been writing the Goodwriters blog for some time by then and that seemed to be the place where we could write about pens more fully and in context. We kept the sales site and the blog closely associated so that someone who came to buy might stay to find out more about vintage pens.

Eachan, I think that is a good approach because Deb also have the blog which is where someone can learn about the pens that you both have restored.

I don't have a consistent blog (yet), so I have a separate tab on my website for the Sold pens. And yes, the number of pens there is more than the for sale, but my website is also for education, so it fits that purpose nicely.

[HerrFlik]

Its frustrating when a large online store that sells new pens keeps items that are sold out or clearly will never be back in stock mixed with the for sale items. I just want to know what is actually in stock that I can get, and at that 'level' of trade you should be able to get a more refined website. I lose interest quickly if I have exhausted local options, need to order online and its a mess to navigate with all the things they don't have.

Saying that, when it comes to vintage/Out of production pen sellers and restorers I have a different opinion as there is a lot of really interesting information about the pens that you may have missed out on and there is a chance one may come their way again by the nature of the work. And since its harder to find items they specialise in for sure you want to let people know about what you have recently sold in an easy to find area of your site.

[AlohaPens]

I agree with a lot of the sentiments here. I like seeing the old/gone/sold out pens to see what has been or do research on a not-new pen, but I really find it distracting when there is no clear way to separate them from what's available now if I'm shopping for a pen. I rarely want to see both the sold out pens and the available pens at the same time, so if I'm forced to, it's just annoying and sometimes, I've simply left the site rather than go through a bunch of pages of stuff with little information I'm searching for.

Aloha

[Frank]

Most of the time these days.. we have to.
There is not much say or choice in the matter.
Covid has absolutely ruined the supply chain. Much of the time, the expected launch date/arrival date of a particular product does not turn out to be correct arrival time...
We have to put in "Sold Out" from time to time, because our distributors do not always/are not able to keep dealers updated with stock, ETA, Drop-Ship updates, etc...

You also have to appreciate the fact that all US retailers (no matter how big or small) buy from the same distributors. This is a license requirement from the major makers.
The supply matter is more compounded with dealers like myself- who deal direct with makers/producers (Robert Oster, Magna Carta Pens, Ayush Paper, etc...) that have do all distributions of their product worldwide.

Frank