Track stock you've bought but not listed yet (your "death pile")

Most sellers have a “death pile”: stock they’ve bought but haven’t got round to listing. The Unlisted Inventory page gives that pile a home, so you can see what you own, what it cost, how long it’s been sitting there, and link each item to its live listing the moment it goes up.

Where to find it

Go to Cost of Goods → Unlisted in the sidebar. If you land on an old /unlisted-inventory link, it will redirect you to the same page automatically.

Quick-adding an item

When you buy something for resale, add it to the pile straight away rather than waiting until you’re ready to list it:

1. Open the Unlisted Inventory page and start a new entry.
2. Add a photo so you can identify it later at a glance.
3. Enter what you paid for it (its cost).
4. Note the source, for example the supplier, car boot sale, or wholesaler you bought it from.
5. Add an estimated sale price, your best guess at what it’ll fetch once listed.

That’s enough to get it logged. You can come back and refine the details later.

Days in pile and status

Each item tracks how many days it’s been sitting unlisted, so the oldest stock in your pile is easy to spot rather than buried at the bottom of a box. Every item also has a status you update as it moves through its life:

• Unlisted, still sitting in the pile.
• Listed, it’s live on eBay.
• Donated, you’ve given it away rather than sell it.
• Scrapped, it’s not sellable and you’ve written it off.

Keeping status current is what makes the days-in-pile figure useful: it tells you which unlisted items are genuinely still waiting on you, rather than stock you’ve already dealt with.

Linking an item to its live listing

Once you’ve listed the item on eBay, go back to its entry and link it to the live listing, then update its status to Listed. This keeps your cost of goods and eventual profit figures connected to the right listing instead of sitting orphaned in the unlisted pile.

Why bother logging stock before it’s listed

Cost of goods is only accurate if it includes what you’ve already spent, even on stock that isn’t earning yet. Logging an item as soon as you buy it means your true spend, and how much cash is tied up in unlisted stock, is visible straight away instead of only appearing once you finally get round to listing it.