# Amazon.com Question \[On Low Stock Warnings\]

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-com-question-on-low-stock-warnings/932213>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 4, 2021, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-com-question-on-low-stock-warnings/932213 "2021-02-04T18:15:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\
**Post date:** [February 9, 2021, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-com-question-on-low-stock-warnings/932213/61 "2021-02-09T18:28:58Z")

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> [@jjakucyk](#):
>
> Understandable. I’m not usually buying commodity goods online where they always get restocked, like at the grocery store. I tend to buy things like bicycling clothing, outerwear, and tech products, and a lot of those things seem to be more “one and done” as far as manufacturing runs. Or at the very least, they’re the sorts of things that resellers may only stock a dozen total of, meaning only 2-3 in each size. If they don’t sell well enough they may not restock those items, or the manufacturer might stop making a particular model/design in favor of new ones (the “past season color/style” notices are very helpful, so you usually know once those are done they’re done, but they’re not used that often).

That’s me.

Which is why unless the item is bog standard cornflakes, motor oil, toothpaste, etc. I assume “3 left in stock” means “3 left from this vendor forever, or at least for longer than you’re (I’m) willing to do without the item.”

And if I am buying cornflakes, motor oil, toothpaste, etc., I’m almost certainly doing that at a B&M store, not on Amazon.

I might eventually switch most of my routine retail purchases to them. But probably not for years if ever.

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**Author:** ![Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/do_not_taunt/32/2968_2.png) [@Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Do_Not_Taunt)\
**Post date:** [February 10, 2021, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-com-question-on-low-stock-warnings/932213/62 "2021-02-10T19:06:26Z")

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> [@a6ka97](#):
>
> Now my pet peeve is “out of stock” but still listing the item. So the vendor is assuming it will be back in stock sometime? I have waited for over 2 years for an item that is out of stock and has yet to be “in stock”. Some items have an “estimated availability date” which is nice, but if you’re never getting it again pull the listing. I know the original thread was for Amazon but I am relating my experiences to Amazon and other websites.

There are two different things that Amazon might do: pull the ‘buy box’ and pull the listing altogether. The latter is extremely rare - I’ve seen it happen for items where copyright was violated, for example. Usually if Amazon thinks there’s a reasonable chance that the item won’t be replenishable in the near future, they’ll just put up the out-of-stock message and pull the buy box (so you can’t backorder it.)

This is actually preferable, IMHO. I’ve gone back to look at the detail page for a laptop I’ve purchased - years after, when there was no chance it would ever be sold again - in order to reference its specs. It’s also nice to be able to go back and read reviews for out-of-print books, for example.

Pulling the buy box brings down its search rank, so generally it just ends up there for reference purposes. I’d be disappointed if Amazon moved to a model of actually pulling the listings of old items.

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