Selling Lego on Amazon.com

[landphieran]

  On 8/30/2018 at 8:24 PM, cory730 said:

Same with Funko. I send them to Amazon in hard box in mint then they send to customer in envelope crushed and then suspend my listing because item not as recieved. I even did removal order of 7 funkos and they send to me in same envelope destroyed and wont refund me for destoying my product. Cost of business I guess. 

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  On 8/30/2018 at 6:36 PM, exciter1 said:

I'm getting a little tired of Amazon shipping small sets in envelopes and people returning them with "Product is not as described on website " after they are crushed.  I really wish they'd use the damaged in shipment option.  I guess I'll have to go back to shipping small stuff in double-boxed.

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I wanted to bring attention to this as this has been happening to me frequently as well on some of the non-lego items which are condition sensitive.

I attempted to get reimbursed for the items but this has never been successful.
I attempted to create a broad case calling out the consistent remarks of "poor packaging".

The only thing that has helped is double packaging the items such that even if Amazon puts it in a poly bag delivered by ace ventura it would still survive. This is obviously not ideal as it requires a fair amount of prep time I'd prefer to not have to spend. We are in fact paying Amazon to package and ship items for us. We should not have to go to extra great lengths to ensure that when they cut corners we aren't hurt.

If anyone has any recommendations for ways to get some retribution from Amazon's side id appreciate it.

 

[Phil B]

Not sure if I looked at the right list (the link posted here earlier didn't work on my mobile but I googled the holiday toy list for 2018) but the one LEGO item (17101) that could be interesting for me this Holiday period and was on the list allowed me to list for sale (FBM, no quantity) without issues. I'm extremely small fry on Amazon (~20 items per month).

[Jackson]

  On 8/31/2018 at 4:29 PM, landphieran said:

 

I wanted to bring attention to this as this has been happening to me frequently as well on some of the non-lego items which are condition sensitive.

I attempted to get reimbursed for the items but this has never been successful.
I attempted to create a broad case calling out the consistent remarks of "poor packaging".

The only thing that has helped is double packaging the items such that even if Amazon puts it in a poly bag delivered by ace ventura it would still survive. This is obviously not ideal as it requires a fair amount of prep time I'd prefer to not have to spend. We are in fact paying Amazon to package and ship items for us. We should not have to go to extra great lengths to ensure that when they cut corners we aren't hurt.

If anyone has any recommendations for ways to get some retribution from Amazon's side id appreciate it.

 

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FBA (and amazon.com) has been negligently using bubble mailers for condition-sensitive items for years. As a buyer and seller, it's infuriating.

I'm guessing someone pretty powerful at Amazon would have to take notice to make a nationwide change at all of the Amazon facilities. Who could we possibly contact who would actually listen, comprehend, and make the change? Seller Support is useless for this.

[joch29]

  Quote

August 2018

New policy: Cancelled, misrouted, and incomplete shipments

 

Effective August 31, 2018, you are required to send the stated quantity of each product in your approved shipment plan to the facility assigned by Amazon. Amazon will notify you when we observe actions that are not compliant with this policy (for example, cancelling parts of a multi-destination shipment plan after you've approved it, misrouting shipments, or sending incomplete shipments). We may suspend your ability to ship products to us if we observe continued non-compliance with this policy.

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I guess there are doing away with the changing 6 items or 5% of the total  inventory shipment

[zskid00]

  On 9/1/2018 at 12:38 AM, joch29 said:

I guess there are doing away with the changing 6 items or 5% of the total  inventory shipment

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That's going to be a real PITA.  It was nice to have a little flexibility to be more efficient with shipping.  Smaller shipments would be split up to send 1-2 units to a warehouse and that isn't cost effective for me.  I guess I'll have to stick to larger shipments.

[surfnut]

Anyone have any suggestions or ideas on items to sell to meet the minimum requirement for holiday sales?  The criteria is you have to sell at least 25 items from Aug 1 - Oct 1 to be eligible to sell throughout the holidays

[Bold-Arrow]

  On 9/1/2018 at 3:14 PM, surfnut said:

Anyone have any suggestions or ideas on items to sell to meet the minimum requirement for holiday sales?  The criteria is you have to sell at least 25 items from Aug 1 - Oct 1 to be eligible to sell throughout the holidays

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Poly bags even at a small loss 

[asharerin]

  On 9/1/2018 at 12:38 AM, joch29 said:

I guess there are doing away with the changing 6 items or 5% of the total  inventory shipment

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No just the workaround trick of making multi-destination shipments and then deleting all but the closest warehouse. This has been going on for years and they finally got around to closing the loop hole. The 5%/6 is a very limited difference that does not materially affect their algorithm or operations and is in place to account for human error and other factors so that will remain. The workaround trick meant hundreds or thousands of units were getting deleted from undesirable warehouse locations on a very frequent basis and was putting alot of pressure on the more desirable destinations. 

 

  On 9/1/2018 at 3:14 PM, surfnut said:

Anyone have any suggestions or ideas on items to sell to meet the minimum requirement for holiday sales?  The criteria is you have to sell at least 25 items from Aug 1 - Oct 1 to be eligible to sell throughout the holidays

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If you are doing FBA remember you automatically qualify and don't need to meet any thresholds at all.

[asharerin]

  On 8/31/2018 at 4:28 PM, cobrakai said:

Some of the highly counterfeited stuff (like Fingerlings) are starting to use the transparency program which requires you to have manufacturer approval and print off a QR code/2D label type thing that is required for each unit to prove it is authentic.

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They can't give Fingerlings away here in the northwest these days lol. All of our hot toys this year are going to ebay this year, too many shenanigans on Amazon these days to mess around with them on that platform.

[LegoBro]

500 units in the last 3 months. 1 feedback. Are you all fairing better on this front?

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[cobrakai]

  On 9/1/2018 at 4:59 PM, LegoBro said:

500 units in the last 3 months. 1 feedback. Are you all fairing better on this front?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Brickpicker Forum mobile app
 

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11500 orders in last 90 days and 185 or so feedbacks in that time. I use feedback genius free version and it definitely helps. I'm always around 1% feedback compared to orders.

[smittypop2]

  On 9/1/2018 at 4:59 PM, LegoBro said:

500 units in the last 3 months. 1 feedback. Are you all fairing better on this front?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Brickpicker Forum mobile app
 

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1250 units and 34 feedback. I don't use anything, but I do ship a number of things from home that definitely are more likely to earn feedback. 

[asharerin]

We average one feedback per 100 orders. This is pretty much the average to expect on Amazon for your run of the mill household/personal items for FBA and alot of sellers use it as a yard stick to gage how much volume competitors are doing. Ultimately positive feedback is meaningless on Amazon. It does not help your metrics at all. Negative feedback however does harm your metrics as it counts toward ODR so you will want to avoid that at all cost. The only situation a good feedback score can help is if there is no buy box and shoppers scroll down to the cheapest 100% seller. It does not happen very often and is a marginal advantage at best.

[crayxlp]

  On 9/1/2018 at 3:14 PM, surfnut said:

Anyone have any suggestions or ideas on items to sell to meet the minimum requirement for holiday sales?  The criteria is you have to sell at least 25 items from Aug 1 - Oct 1 to be eligible to sell throughout the holidays

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I dont sell on Amazon (never did and never will, for that matter). I understand that Amazon selling platform in US is somewhat similar to Google ruling the world with the search engine + many (questionable) free services around.. but look at you what you did to yourself.. not just that you dont get a proper (and earned in fact) feedback from the buyers, you are deliberately willing to undergo total monopoly and blackmailing AMZ practice - like the example you gave above ".. if you dont sell at least 25 items this month, you will NOT BE ABLE to sell throughout the festive season??!! - what else is this than pure and total blackmailing and misuse of monopoly market position! Youve become slaves to Amazon .. I wonder why dont you (there seems to be a lot of you from US) sue Amazon for malpractice based on some class action law infrigment. Lawyers are expensive, but you could share the costs. if you do nothing and continue your business on AMZ, be prepared for tightening the rope next year even harder..  you can say thats easy for me to offer these suggestions, but in my lifetime I sued several times against local giants and even won on several occasions. 

Edited September 1, 2018 by crayxlp

[jbacunn]

  On 9/1/2018 at 9:12 PM, crayxlp said:

I dont sell on Amazon (never did and never will, for that matter). I understand that Amazon selling platform in US is somewhat similar to Google ruling the world with the search engine + many (questionable) free services around.. but look at you what you did to yourself.. not just that you dont get a proper (and earned in fact) feedback from the buyers, you are deliberately willing to undergo total monopoly and blackmailing AMZ practice - like the example you gave above ".. if you dont sell at least 25 items this month, you will NOT BE ABLE to sell throughout the festive season??!! - what else is this than pure and total blackmailing and misuse of monopoly market position! Youve become slaves to Amazon .. I wonder why dont you (there seems to be a lot of you from US) sue Amazon for malpractice based on some class action law infrigment. Lawyers are expensive, but you could share the costs. if you do nothing and continue your business on AMZ, be prepared for tightening the rope next year even harder..  you can say thats easy for me to offer these suggestions, but in my lifetime I sued several times against local giants and even won on several occasions. 

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Yeah, but the prices are way higher on Amazon than eBay so that’s why we are “slaves” to Amazon. 

[crayxlp]

  On 9/1/2018 at 9:56 PM, jbacunn said:

Yeah, but the prices are way higher on Amazon than eBay so that’s why we are “slaves” to Amazon. 

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fair enough, that is a valid point..  hope you could deal with the ever-restraining limits of what you can sell and what not... for a lot of people this would be a kind of a first alarm to reconsider future diversification in terms of PoS.

[Migration]

  On 9/1/2018 at 4:59 PM, LegoBro said:

500 units in the last 3 months. 1 feedback. Are you all fairing better on this front?

 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Brickpicker Forum mobile app

 

 

No. And I consider no news to be good news.

[Darth_Raichu]

  On 9/1/2018 at 10:01 PM, crayxlp said:

fair enough, that is a valid point..  hope you could deal with the ever-restraining limits of what you can sell and what not... for a lot of people this would be a kind of a first alarm to reconsider future diversification in terms of PoS.

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Well eBay is becoming like Amazon.  Might as well go where the money is.  Oh and other selling platforms cannot even compare to those 2 in terms of volume.

[jbacunn]

  On 9/1/2018 at 10:01 PM, crayxlp said:

fair enough, that is a valid point..  hope you could deal with the ever-restraining limits of what you can sell and what not... for a lot of people this would be a kind of a first alarm to reconsider future diversification in terms of PoS.

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Of course. I have an Amazon and eBay account and both are in excellent standing so I could shift my Lego items to eBay easily if necessary. 

[brickolodon]

  On 9/1/2018 at 10:36 PM, Darth_Raichu said:

Well eBay is becoming like Amazon.  Might as well go where the money is.  Oh and other selling platforms cannot even compare to those 2 in terms of volume.

What do u exactly mean by eBay is becoming like AMZ?


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[Jackson]

  On 9/1/2018 at 10:43 PM, brickolodon said:

What do u exactly mean by eBay is becoming like AMZ?


Sent from my iPhone using Brickpicker Forum mobile app

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Maybe that eBay is trying to be more product-centric rather than seller-centric.

[landphieran]

  On 9/1/2018 at 9:12 PM, crayxlp said:

I dont sell on Amazon (never did and never will, for that matter). I understand that Amazon selling platform in US is somewhat similar to Google ruling the world with the search engine + many (questionable) free services around.. but look at you what you did to yourself.. not just that you dont get a proper (and earned in fact) feedback from the buyers, you are deliberately willing to undergo total monopoly and blackmailing AMZ practice - like the example you gave above ".. if you dont sell at least 25 items this month, you will NOT BE ABLE to sell throughout the festive season??!! - what else is this than pure and total blackmailing and misuse of monopoly market position! Youve become slaves to Amazon .. I wonder why dont you (there seems to be a lot of you from US) sue Amazon for malpractice based on some class action law infrigment. Lawyers are expensive, but you could share the costs. if you do nothing and continue your business on AMZ, be prepared for tightening the rope next year even harder..  you can say thats easy for me to offer these suggestions, but in my lifetime I sued several times against local giants and even won on several occasions. 

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You aren't wrong. Amazon is slowly constricting sellers until it has a small(er) group of what they deem as high quality, low risk, super sellers. This will require extreme amounts of bending to the will of Amazon. Selling your sole in various aspects. Whimsical product restrictions, triple bagging products, high turn over, low variability in received shipments etc.

It does feel daunting at times and we are definitely feeding the monster. Private label companies think they are safe but Amazon has shown a propensity for going "we can make that" and undercutting you with better value.

That being said the money is really good. I fully admit i'm selling part of my soul and my life strictly for $$$'s. To be honest most people who make a large amount of money do this. Whether playing politics, starting your own business and over working or hiring people with low wages. Some smaller startup companies are starting to get better about being run more ethically however there are very few.

[redcell]

  On 9/1/2018 at 11:57 AM, zskid00 said:

That's going to be a real PITA.  It was nice to have a little flexibility to be more efficient with shipping.  Smaller shipments would be split up to send 1-2 units to a warehouse and that isn't cost effective for me.  I guess I'll have to stick to larger shipments.

I think the policy has more to do with combating attempts to manipulate the FC destination of your goods.

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[redcell]

  On 9/1/2018 at 9:12 PM, crayxlp said:

I dont sell on Amazon (never did and never will, for that matter). I understand that Amazon selling platform in US is somewhat similar to Google ruling the world with the search engine + many (questionable) free services around.. but look at you what you did to yourself.. not just that you dont get a proper (and earned in fact) feedback from the buyers, you are deliberately willing to undergo total monopoly and blackmailing AMZ practice - like the example you gave above ".. if you dont sell at least 25 items this month, you will NOT BE ABLE to sell throughout the festive season??!! - what else is this than pure and total blackmailing and misuse of monopoly market position! Youve become slaves to Amazon .. I wonder why dont you (there seems to be a lot of you from US) sue Amazon for malpractice based on some class action law infrigment. Lawyers are expensive, but you could share the costs. if you do nothing and continue your business on AMZ, be prepared for tightening the rope next year even harder..  you can say thats easy for me to offer these suggestions, but in my lifetime I sued several times against local giants and even won on several occasions. 

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The 25 item restriction is not total blackmailing or a misuse of monopoly power...it is a measure designed to protect buyers on the platform from fly-by-night scammers during the busiest sales period of the year.  Amazon wants to be sure that the people selling toys will actually follow through on fulfilling the orders they receive, which is one reason that they don't impose this requirement for products fulfilled through Amazon's service.

And glad to hear that you won't ever be selling on Amazon...less competition for the rest of us.

[Darth_Raichu]

  On 9/1/2018 at 10:43 PM, brickolodon said:

What do u exactly mean by eBay is becoming like AMZ?


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The new rules they put around sellers (like 30 days return,  seller paid return to be TRS+, etc ) are slowly changing the platform to Amazon-lite.