dynamic store with one-of-a-kind items inventory

[jenna_artist]

Hi. I'm setting up shop to sell my artwork via paypal and the way they handle items with an inventory of 1 is that once the painting is sold, the next person trying to buy it gets an error message - yuck! I'm looking to set up a dynamic store where, once a painting is sold, it's automatically removed from the store or a 'sold' message appears and it can't be added to the cart. Can I do this with Zen Cart?

I found out that ASecureCart includes a postback process that can be used to do this but it "does require a bit of programming like ASP or PHP on your website to a) capture the postback data from the cart in realtime b) update your own store database"

I'm not a programmer, so I'm hoping Zen Cart will be my answer.

Thanks so much,
Jenna

[kobra]

Install Zen Cart and then open the admin side

navigate to admin > config > stock > and check the first 7 settings

Check stock level
Subtract stock
Allow Checkout
Mark product out of stock
Stock Re-order level
Products status in Catalog when out of stock should be set to
Show Sold Out Image in place of Add to Cart

By setting these correctly you can either have the product removed, the product shown as Out OF Stock, or the sold out image displayed

[jenna_artist]

Thanks so much, Kobra. Whew! Thought I might have to go way out of budget to have a professional site.

[misty]

Kobra's instructions are fine, UNLESS download/s are item/s being sold..
then stock does not decrease.

[rjspomer]

I sell products that I make. These are made up in advance and a inventory is kept. Sometimes an order that comes in depletes the inventory and it is shown in red as a "made to order" item after placed into the cart.

All works great but I do have a few products that are made from limited material therefore can not be a made to order.

How can I make just those show as "out of stock"

Thanks

[ryanc44]

I did a search and it seems this topic is the closest to what I'm wondering, but I have an extra circumstance.

I too sell one-of-a-kind art pieces in my zencart store, but have the potential for people try to add a product at nearly the exact same time. From my understanding Zencart won't show a product as out of stock until the original purchaser has completed the entire checkout process? If that's the case, I'm wondering if there's a way to configure it to "lock out" anyone else from adding the item to their cart (ie- show it as out of stock) until the person that added it first has completed their order?

I'm currently running the latest version (1.3.9)

[stevesh]

Not without some custom coding, no.

I've seen similar sites which go to some length to inform customers that products are unique, and that the piece they've placed in their cart may not be there when they go to check out.

[ryanc44]

Not without some custom coding, no.

I've seen similar sites which go to some length to inform customers that products are unique, and that the piece they've placed in their cart may not be there when they go to check out.

Argh- I was afraid of that...

[rjspomer]

I guess the setting are all set globally and an individual product item can not be set as if out of stock can't add and another item set that it can be added if stock is depleted.

Thanks

[rjspomer]

I have some products that are limited supply like maybe only five.

Most of my products are in stock but if someone orders several and depletes the inventory it shows that the item is "made to order" requiring production time. I have this setup so that they can add to cart and check-out.

Now the problem is the ones that are limited supply. I need to show out of stock and not let any be added to cart after they are gone.

Is there some way to do this?