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How to Find Which Items are Out of Stock on Amazon

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Unfortunately it looks like, as of July 2024, Amazon has removed this feature. If it ever comes back, let me know and I’ll update this blog post. Thanks!

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It really happens. Amazon, from time to time, goes completely out of stock on items that sell often. Not only does Amazon go out of stock, but sometimes the 3rd party sellers also go out of stock. When nobody is in stock for a product, Amazon suppresses (hides) that product page from customer search results. Amazon is all about providing the best customer experience, so they don’t want customers to find product pages of items that are sold out (sold out product = unhappy customer).

But what if you, as a seller, need to find an item on Amazon, but it’s hidden because no one is currently selling it? Also, what if you wanted to find out which items are sold out on Amazon so you can go source those items yourself and meet the demand (for a pretty penny, of course)? How do you find the items on Amazon that are out of stock?

Here’s how to make Amazon show you “out of stock” product pages:

  1. On Amazon.com, enter in the search bar the item you are looking for (Note: this works on a desktop, laptop, tablet, or the full Amazon site on your smart phone’s browser app).
  2. Scroll through the first few pages of results to see if you can find your item.
  3. If you can’t find it, scroll up to the top of the page and pick a category to narrow your search results. Pick the most likely category.
  4. After you pick a category, a new search button will appear on the left column. Near the bottom of the “Show Results For” section, you can click the button for “Include Out of Stock.”
  5. Now you can scroll though the results again and see the items that are both in and out of stock. The out of stock items will not have a price listed with the image. You might find what you are looking for.

A real life example of finding an out of stock product page

Imagine you are out doing some clearance aisle sourcing and come across this brand new Masters of the Universe Castle Grayskull (pictured to the right). You scan the barcode on your smart phone, but get no results. You try a keyword search on the Amazon app, but you still get nothing. Here’s what to do next:

  1. Open the browser app on your smart phone and go to Amazon.com. If it shows you a mobile version of Amazon, be sure to click on “Full site.” In the Amazon search bar, type: “Masters of the Universe: Castle Grayskull Playset”
  2. Scroll through the first few pages of results to see if you can find your item.
  3. If you can’t find it, scroll up to the top of the page and pick a category to narrow your search results. For this item, the category will be Toys & Games.
  4. After you pick a category, a new search button will appear on the left
    column. Near the bottom of the “Availability” section, you can click the button for “Include Out of Stock.”
  5. Now you can scroll though the results again and see the items that are both in and out of stock. Remember, the out-of-stock items will not have a price listed with the image.
  6. This is what your search results look like on the first page:

What to do now you’ve found the hidden out of stock product page

You found it! Now you can do some Keepa research and see if this item is something worth selling.

Here’s a tip: If an item has been out of stock for a long time, then obviously the rank of that item will be very high (or zero), but don’t let that stop you from considering selling it. It may have sold well in the past, and if it’s a toy, it might sell come Q4. Remember this blog post on why I bought a toy ranked over 1 million? That toy sold very quickly. Rank is not always an indicator of sales velocity.

Another tip for discovering if an item will sell quickly is to look at the Amazon product reviews. If people have posted multiple recent reviews, then it should sell fairly quickly.

IEBay_logo.svgf Keepa does not contain enough data for you to make an informed buying or pricing decision and you still need help getting more information, then another tip is to look on eBay. You can use the Advanced Search link on eBay to see what buyers are paying for that item. Basically, do as much research as you can to make a smart sourcing decision.

If you do all this searching and don’t see the item you are looking for, then you could potentially have a very high priced item on your hands. You can either create an Amazon product page for that board game or consider selling it on eBay. If you want to create a product page on Amazon, then here is a resource that can help you create and optimize it for quick sales: Amazon Advantage: How to Create Product Listings That Sell

BONUS TIP

amazon12-1If you found an item so rare that both Amazon and eBay are not selling it, then here is a tip that might make you a lot of profit. If you are patient and don’t need to make a quick return on this item, then I would price it at least four times what I assume I’d actually be able to sell it for. Since you are the only person offering this item, you could possibly command a huge price. If, after a month or so, you don’t get a sale, then I’d start to lower the price by about $25 a month until it finally sells. Remember, if you only have one left of an item in stock, Amazon puts that information on the sales page, so it’s very likely that someone will want to pay a high price for this very rare item.

Now it’s your turn. See if you can find this exact “Disney Lion Guard Kion Pillow Pet” on Amazon following my instructions above. Let me know in the comments if you were able to find it. 

Note: This toy is currently ranked over 300,000 in Toys & Games so it might not be sold out for long!

*This post was updated for 2021

Sales rank is easily the most misunderstood aspect of selling on Amazon. What is a good sales rank? What does a sales rank of zero mean? What do I do with sales rank for sub-categories? Why does sales rank have to be so confusing so much of the time?

I’m here to tell you it doesn’t have to be that way! You can finally get the clarity you need on the issue of understanding Amazon sales rank numbers. We at Full-Time FBA have launched a mini-course called The Reseller’s Guide to Sales Rank: Understanding Amazon Best Sellers Rank for Maximum Profits. The mini-course is a combination ebook (30+ pages) and video course (almost 2 hours). After you complete this course, you’ll have mastered the concept of best sellers rank and be on your way toward smarter sourcing decisions for your Amazon FBA business!

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About Stephen Smotherman

Stephen loves helping people turn part-time hours into a full-time income via Amazon FBA. When not reselling or blogging, Stephen enjoys reading with his wife Rebecca, playing games with his kids, serving at his church, and watching baseball.

Comments

  2. vicki says

    I was wondering if you do find your product is just sold out as you suggested, is there a way to use this sold out catelog listing to list your item, or do you still have to create new?

    Reply

    • Avatar photoStephen says

      Not right now, but one way you can see more of the sold out items on Amazon is to look toward the last few pages of your search results. There will be more sold out items on those pages.

      Reply

    • Dan says

      You could also do Ctrl “F” in the browser and type in “Currently” in the search box to pick up all the references on the page to the “Currently Unavailable” items. Somewhat of a shortcut to sold out items!

      Reply

  7. Mindy says

    Is there a mobile version of camelcamelcamel or keepa? Sometimes when sourcing I’d really like to see a product’s sales history, not just the sales rank that particular day. Thanks!!

    Reply

    • Avatar photoStephen says

      There are links for CCC and Keepa inside of the Profit Bandit app that we use daily. Otherwise, you’d just need to use your phone’s browser to look up CCC data.

      Reply

  8. Gail says

    Here’s a tip for quickly finding Keepa and CCC results on your phone. Navigate to the full site on your mobile device and Save the site as an icon on its desktop. Then one click takes you there! Copy and Paste the ASIN to make it even faster to get the results.

    Reply

  9. JOhn Sparks says

    How do you know of the item is not restricted or you have the right to sell it?
    And what if the seller is waiting for new inventory very soon?

    Reply

    • Avatar photoStephen says

      You can check using the Amazon Seller App to see if you are restrcited. If you use Scoutify, there is a link to see if you are restricted on the item you’re wanting to buy to sell.
      And nobody knows if other sellers are going to sell more items soon and have more on the way. That’s why we try to ship to Amazon as soon as possible to be the first in stock.

      Reply

  10. Clifford says

    I am a web developer that occasionally sell on amazon as well. I was wondering if I create a tool for this will it be helpful to any of you guys? I find it rather tedious checking the out of stock checkout and still seeing items that are in stock.

    Let me know what you guys think!
    thanks,
    Clifford

    Reply

  11. Craig Stuart says

    I’m still new to FBA but am loving your site. This may be a dumb question, but say you find an item that’s out of stock on Amazon. The price history over time is a fairly low number that would have a low ROI, but the most recent price was high, so selling at that price would be profitable. What parameters should we follow when setting a price for an out of stock item?

    Thank you

    Reply

  15. Mary M Morris says

    Hi Stephen – Thanks for always providing interesting and concise content. I thought you only used Scoutify, but you use Profit Bandit as well?

    Reply

    • Avatar photoStephen Smotherman says

      I use Scoutify. This is an updated blog post originally written in 2015, and I was using Profit Bandit back then. But late 2015, I switched to Scoutify and have never looked back. I LOVE Scoutify and it’s perfect for my sourcing goals.

      Reply

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