@TOM_G 

I applied the credit card charge to my Inventory asset account.

I think that's where things got off-track.  When you bought the item with your cc, the item itself should have been selected under 'Item details'.  If you posted it to your inventory asset account under 'Category details', that doesn't add the item to inventory - it just adds the cost to inventory.  Then, when you sold it in November, presumably there was a quantity of 0 in QB, so QB made an automated adjustment to compensate because you can't sell an item you don't have in inventory.  Does that sound like what happened? 

At this point, you must have both an extra COGS entry and another offsetting entry to beginning inventory.  Is that what you're seeing?