Selling Lego on Amazon.com

[Serejai]

The double entries problem isn't just with LEGO, either. Video games are absolutely plagued with that garbage and it's not uncommon to see 5-6 listings for the same game. To make it worse, a fair amount of products I send in will come up as the fake/bad listings even when I scan the UPC. I've seen listings that Amazon themselves sell on that get pushed behind fake listings with some homemade picture and a bad description.

It has really gone downhill in the past 2-3 years or so. Between all the Renewed listings popping up, people making bad listings to get around approvals/restrictions, and Amazon seemingly losing control of their own ability to check in shipments (went six years without a single lost item, then suddenly Amazon loses $8k in LEGO across four consecutive shipments so far this year and refuses to reimburse, claiming they received 40-50 pound oversize boxes that had nothing but really, really heavy air in them).

And even as a buyer things have become a pain in the ass because of all the sellers with counterfeit/used-as-new/etc products. Same as above, I've been shopping on Amazon for almost 15 years and never once had to return an item for being expired or used or whatever. So far this year I've had to return 7 different things (some expired food, a half-used tub of pomade, and even some bootleg sticks of RAM). The worst part is that a few of those came from very large sellers; the kind with tens of thousands of reviews but barely above a 90% rating. It's frustrating knowing that if I dropped that low or sold expired food or whatever my account would be closed immediately, but these other sellers get special treatment because of their sales volume.

Sorry for the rant. I usually don't post much on here but this topic has really hit home lately. Also the Seller Central app search is absolutely terrible lately as well. You can search for something very specific like "lego #####" and get no results (or a completely irrelevant/bad result) for a product with a 1,000 sales rank, but the same search pulls it up just fine in the Amazon shopping app.

Edited June 27, 2020 by Serejai
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[Darth_Raichu]

2 hours ago, Phil B said:

I was working on a large FBA shipment last weekend and all the "(renewed)" listings were a PITA. They pop up in seller central instead of the real listing that has the right ranking and typically have no sellers even listing on them.

On the other hand, if you ever been the only seller on those real listings

[Deeker]

Can some one remind me on amazon reporting income.  I know it is 20k in sales, but is that 20k of sales including their cut or is it 20k of them sending you actual money?

 

Thanks guys

[joch29]

U.S. Income Reporting & Tax Identity Collection FAQ

Due to Internal Revenue Service (IRS) regulations, U.S. third-party settlement organizations and payment processors, including Amazon, are required to file Form 1099-K for U.S. taxpayer sellers who meet the following thresholds in a calendar year:

 

• More than $20,000 in unadjusted gross sales, and
• More than 200 transactions.

 

If you do not meet both of these thresholds, you will not receive an IRS Form 1099-K.

[Deeker]

thank you

 

[Serejai]

This isnt necessarily about us selling o  Amazon but I wasn't sure where to post this. Has anyone else noticed that Amazon seems to be selling lego sets far above MSRP lately? I just noticed they are selling the Treehouse for $310 right now which is well above the $199 MSRP. I've also seen about half a dozen other sets that Amazon has raised their price to well above MSRP on.

I wonder if this is a temporary "we give you permission to sell higher during the pandemic" from TLG or if Amazon raising prices of hard to find or retiring sets is going to be a continuing business model in the future.

[MotorCityMuscle]

15 minutes ago, Serejai said:

This isnt necessarily about us selling o  Amazon but I wasn't sure where to post this. Has anyone else noticed that Amazon seems to be selling lego sets far above MSRP lately? I just noticed they are selling the Treehouse for $310 right now which is well above the $199 MSRP. I've also seen about half a dozen other sets that Amazon has raised their price to well above MSRP on.

I wonder if this is a temporary "we give you permission to sell higher during the pandemic" from TLG or if Amazon raising prices of hard to find or retiring sets is going to be a continuing business model in the future.

I just came here to post something similar.  I wasn’t sure if it was a mistake or some kind of trend they will continue in the future. 

[landphieran]

18 hours ago, MotorCityMuscle said:

I just came here to post something similar.  I wasn’t sure if it was a mistake or some kind of trend they will continue in the future. 

 

18 hours ago, Serejai said:

 

I wonder if this is a temporary "we give you permission to sell higher during the pandemic" from TLG or if Amazon raising prices of hard to find or retiring sets is going to be continuing business model in the future.

I would guess with high certainty that this is more related to Amazon's price matching system, matching walmarts third party prices. I bet they don't have the MSRP restrictions setup correctly on a lot of sets.

They don't have order quantities setup on a fair number of sets either, which they should and normally do. I bet they are focusing on stream lining their business for Q4 and COVID's prolonged affects. I don't anticipate these loose guidelines lasting much past early fall.

[MarleyMoose]

On 6/27/2020 at 11:50 AM, joch29 said:

U.S. Income Reporting & Tax Identity Collection FAQ

Due to Internal Revenue Service (IRS) regulations, U.S. third-party settlement organizations and payment processors, including Amazon, are required to file Form 1099-K for U.S. taxpayer sellers who meet the following thresholds in a calendar year:

 

• More than $20,000 in unadjusted gross sales, and
• More than 200 transactions.

 

If you do not meet both of these thresholds, you will not receive an IRS Form 1099-K.

Unless you live in Massachusetts and Vermont. Anything over $600 you get one. 

Edited June 29, 2020 by MarleyMoose

[Miami Bomb Squad]

How long is your longest PENDING order from Amazon? 
I have one going on 6 Days now.  
 

[Serejai]

7 minutes ago, Miami Bomb Squad said:

How long is your longest PENDING order from Amazon? 
I have one going on 6 Days now.  
 

Longest is a Nintendo Switch that has been pending for three weeks. Price has dropped almost 30% since then.

[joch29]

35 minutes ago, Miami Bomb Squad said:

How long is your longest PENDING order from Amazon? 
I have one going on 6 Days now.  
 

I'm guess for items sold? .. I think my longest was like 9 days.

 

As for bought... I have an order from November 2019 that still opened for a lego that has long retired. 🙄

[teamhappyfrog]

3 weeks back in April.

 

[cladner]

Trying to add products today and encountering many new restrictions that block me when I try to add using a browser and seller central, however when i use phone, and app using the ASIN, i am able to add most of these.

Sets include:  friends gymnastics, duplo jurassic world, speed champs F40, london skyline.

Not sure what's going on, but you might want to add any products you intend on selling but haven't added to your inventory list before some random gate blocks you.

Edited July 1, 2020 by cladner

[cladner]

also noticing a lot of sets, the button to "SELL ON AMAZON" has disappeared.such as 75972.  no way to add it to your inventory through the browser but using app and entering ASIN, it works.

[SpaceFan9]

This may be a glitch, and not a change in policy.  Can you see 75972 at the following link?

https://catalog-retail.amazon.com/abis/listing/syh?asin=B07G5Y6HJX

[cladner]

12 minutes ago, SpaceFan9 said:

This may be a glitch, and not a change in policy.  Can you see 75972 at the following link?

https://catalog-retail.amazon.com/abis/listing/syh?asin=B07G5Y6HJX

yes, but sell on amazon button is still mia.

glitch, change in policy - i doubt we'd be able to tell the difference with the opaque empire.

Edited July 1, 2020 by cladner

[Sauromosis]

For some of these, you can look it up in "Add Product" and then click the link that shows the number of sellers, and that will show you "Have one? Sell now" or whatever.

I can get everything I own to list except Vader's Castle...that one seems restricted. Hadn't tried it until today.

[Phil B]

Two weeks ago I sent shipments to 4 different FCs (FBA). All had multiple boxes, and all have been marked as Shipment Received. One FC also checked in all my items, two FCs are still waiting to start checking in, which I think is fine given the current situation and the fact it's been only a week. But one FC started to check in 1 out of 4 boxes, and those items are listed, but the other 3 boxes in the same shipment still have not had their contents checked in. Is this normal? Getting a bit worried, because of course that was the one shipment that carried my expensive items, such as my Brick Banks, my Old Fishing Stores etc.

Any advice? I'm trying to be patient but it's hard 😕

[skinsfan0521]

4 minutes ago, Phil B said:

Two weeks ago I sent shipments to 4 different FCs (FBA). All had multiple boxes, and all have been marked as Shipment Received. One FC also checked in all my items, two FCs are still waiting to start checking in, which I think is fine given the current situation and the fact it's been only a week. But one FC started to check in 1 out of 4 boxes, and those items are listed, but the other 3 boxes in the same shipment still have not had their contents checked in. Is this normal? Getting a bit worried, because of course that was the one shipment that carried my expensive items, such as my Brick Banks, my Old Fishing Stores etc.

Any advice? I'm trying to be patient but it's hard 😕

I have a shipment that was like 8 boxes and they've checked in and received 5 of the boxes completely. The other 3 boxes still say that they're at a ups facility for the past week. So, yes, it's normal for them to check in partial shipments. Also, I feel your pain about it being hard to be patient! 

[anon33]

For those sending shipments to Amazon for the past month are you winning the buy box often? It just seems like fbm sellers are still dominating the box.

[redcell]

I'm still winning the box whenever I price to win it.

[Serejai]

I haven't had any issues with the buy box. As long as I'm lowest FBA I'm still getting it even if I'm twice the price of FBM sellers. The only category I have any trouble with is video games, where the buybox is always given to used items now even if the used price is higher than the new price. 

[33Lego]

Just got a FBA return, box was perfect but feels funny.

Opened it up and it was filled with trash.

[Brystheguy]

4 minutes ago, 33Lego said:

Just got a FBA return, box was perfect but feels funny.

Opened it up and it was filled with trash.

I don't sell on Amazon so curious what the process is from here for this situation? Do you report it and if the user gets too many of those types of returns, is there any consequence? I'm pretty sure that Amazon doesn’t care though and nothing happens.