Is it a wind-up?

[popskipa]

A thing that annoys me when I look through dealers websites is the items shown as sold or reserved in the current stock list.

Yes I know it happens, there are other collectors out there, but why show a sold item on the stock list? Surely it should be put in an archive of past sales or sold items but not kept in stock.

By simply deleting the item or relocating it on the website it would save us collectors wasting our time by trawling through numerous pages of things we cannot buy.

For example, I have just visited a well known militaria dealers website that shows 500 pages of stock. However, when you look at the Cap Badges section of 20 pages, you find over half are sold and you have to trawl through all 20 pages that could be condensed into 10.

I would like to hear the opinions of my fellow collectors and from dealers.

[rhodesianmilitaria]

I agree with the annoying part especially since most of them don't show the price of what the item sold for. Maybe it's so dealers can show that they are actually selling something although some of the items have probably sold months before.

[slick_mick]

Whilst it might be annoying from a collector's perspective, as someone who runs an online shop, it's beneficial to leave stock online for search engine optimisation purchases.

Mick

[rhodesianmilitaria]

Originally Posted by slick_mick

Whilst it might be annoying from a collector's perspective, as someone who runs an online shop, it's beneficial to leave stock online for search engine optimisation purchases.

Mick

In what way?

[slick_mick]

On page optimisation, use of key words, images etc all contribute to improving a pages SERP.

Since this is a badge forum, I won't go into the details of SEO here.

Plenty of info on the web about it.

It's also beneficial in that some online shops have back in stock notification systems - this way the seller knows who is interested in an item and the buyer receives an email when the item is again available.

This is not used by the plethora of concept500 militaria shops mind you.

Mick

[popskipa]

Would the search engine pick up an item sold but still listed in an archive of past sales on the website?

[slick_mick]

Probably not.

[rhodesianmilitaria]

I bought something from an Aussie website 5 years ago and it's still on the site. Can't see any reason why it would still be there other than laziness on the part of the webmaster to remove it.

[Phil2M]

It also has a psychological effect on viewers of the pages. It doesn't look very good if the site doesn't appear to be selling anything, one wonders why there are no sold items, are they all fakes or does the seller have a bad reputation? etc. In hope that makes sense.

Cheers

Phil

In my own opinion it's just poor service from the seller and whilst it might bring people to the site via a search engine hit, for me once I get there and find stuff listed that has been sold it puts me right off and is very annoying, so I simply exit the site without looking further and tend to avoid in the future so maybe it's actually unproductive as there are more user friendly vendors about.

Of course only my own personal views as a buyer and any seller is free to do as they see fit.

Regards,

Marcus

[Sonofacqms]

I think this is something like estate agents who often have a full page in colour of houses all with "SOLD" on them. Yes, it does prove that people do buy from them, but I wish they'd leave the price that it sold for on the item.

Rob

[2747andy]

When setting up Sell My Militaria, I canvased members on what functions they would like the site to have, one was to leave sold items on show with the selling price, so it could be used as a reference!

I suppose some people like them left and others don't!

Andy

[Mike_2817]

As a buyer, I join the don't camp or at least show a 'Sold for' value

[gb64]

For me I'm in the same thinking as Andy in that i use the sold badges and there cost as reference and it also reminds me to be quicker off the mark and not miss any I want!!

Gerard

[JerryBB]

Sellers should either remove them within a week of selling or if left up the price they sold for shown would compensate for having to troll through pages of sold items. Having them listed with prices in a sold section would be useful.