Selling through Amazon FBA

[brickology101]

Looking for a bit of advice: I've been selling FBA since 2016 and have always shipped in my Q4 Inventory 1 box / 1 shipment at a time, starting around now and continuing for the next couple of months. This has several distinct advantages: 
1) If I price too low and stuff starts to sell too early, I can adjust before sending in more inventory
2) Since it is 1 box per shipment, I've never had to deal with the issue where one of the boxes boxes in a shipment fails to get checked in. 
3) When the inevitable mess with "High Pricing Errors" or Documents Requests kicks in, I don't have to recall as much. 
4) Last year, aside from oversized inventory, every shipment went to my local Amazon center. 
The downside of this is approach is it takes a lot of time - time to set up, gather the inventory I want to send in that day, play Tetris to figure out what will actually fit in the box, create the shipment and label the sets then play Tetris a second time to get them back in the box, then clean up. Knowing that I assume the risks addressed in 1-4, I am thinking this year of sending about half of my inventory in at once to save a load of time, but am I missing anything, any other risks with this approach I haven't thought of?
FYI I'm relatively small time, I'll be sending in around 250 sets this year for Q4. I don't have the space / time to fulfill myself either, so no need to weigh in on advice with that. Thanks! 

I usually start shipping to fulfillment centers for Q4 in early September. I ship 100-150 sets per week every week thru first week of December. Shipments are usually 8-12 qty of 20x20x25 boxes. The important point for me is momentum and gradual increase of inventory to limit the drop with IPI. I don’t adjust my FBA shipment methods to avoid accidental delays or lost boxes because while it unfortunately happens it is not prevalent. Now, this year there are new unknowns. First noteworthy change are the restock limits that likely won’t allow more until inventory decreases. It is a timing issue. Second, more and more sets require wasteful bubble wrapping which adds work for nothing and takes more space in the boxes. Then, third, there is a whole new way to ship FBA inventory. It is actually better now in my opinion but it needs a little bit of learning. I don’t think there is a perfect method to ship in FBA inventory. My advise is to keep it simple and not changing your methods because of potential accidental issues that are not prevalent. I would pay more attention to what Amazon changed from last year and think about how to best adapt to those changes.


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[redcell]

3 hours ago, legorunner said:

Looking for a bit of advice: I've been selling FBA since 2016 and have always shipped in my Q4 Inventory 1 box / 1 shipment at a time, starting around now and continuing for the next couple of months. This has several distinct advantages: 

1) If I price too low and stuff starts to sell too early, I can adjust before sending in more inventory

2) Since it is 1 box per shipment, I've never had to deal with the issue where one of the boxes boxes in a shipment fails to get checked in. 

3) When the inevitable mess with "High Pricing Errors" or Documents Requests kicks in, I don't have to recall as much. 

4) Last year, aside from oversized inventory, every shipment went to my local Amazon center. 

The downside of this is approach is it takes a lot of time - time to set up, gather the inventory I want to send in that day, play Tetris to figure out what will actually fit in the box, create the shipment and label the sets then play Tetris a second time to get them back in the box, then clean up. Knowing that I assume the risks addressed in 1-4, I am thinking this year of sending about half of my inventory in at once to save a load of time, but am I missing anything, any other risks with this approach I haven't thought of?

FYI I'm relatively small time, I'll be sending in around 250 sets this year for Q4. I don't have the space / time to fulfill myself either, so no need to weigh in on advice with that. Thanks! 

You can also save on your load time if you can send in a minimum of 18 units of any products that Amazon considers standard sized.  Once you cross that 18-unit threshold, the Amazon system generally stops splitting the units up between multiple FCs and has you send them to a single FC, which makes things a lot easier.  Also, you may not want to spend as much time figuring out what sets will fit into a given box ahead of time and just figure out what you want to send in.  Even if you can't fit it into a single box and have to split it between 2 or 3, Amazon's shipping rates are so cheap that it doesn't make that big of a difference.

[gmpirate]

3 hours ago, legorunner said:

Looking for a bit of advice: I've been selling FBA since 2016 and have always shipped in my Q4 Inventory 1 box / 1 shipment at a time, starting around now and continuing for the next couple of months. This has several distinct advantages: 

1) If I price too low and stuff starts to sell too early, I can adjust before sending in more inventory

2) Since it is 1 box per shipment, I've never had to deal with the issue where one of the boxes boxes in a shipment fails to get checked in. 

3) When the inevitable mess with "High Pricing Errors" or Documents Requests kicks in, I don't have to recall as much. 

4) Last year, aside from oversized inventory, every shipment went to my local Amazon center. 

The downside of this is approach is it takes a lot of time - time to set up, gather the inventory I want to send in that day, play Tetris to figure out what will actually fit in the box, create the shipment and label the sets then play Tetris a second time to get them back in the box, then clean up. Knowing that I assume the risks addressed in 1-4, I am thinking this year of sending about half of my inventory in at once to save a load of time, but am I missing anything, any other risks with this approach I haven't thought of?

FYI I'm relatively small time, I'll be sending in around 250 sets this year for Q4. I don't have the space / time to fulfill myself either, so no need to weigh in on advice with that. Thanks! 

Think you are thinking too hard on this.  The only thing I really consider is avoiding storage fees.  Just send in everything that you expect to sell in a month (Or whatever).  Red Cell's 18 unit suggestion can save you a lot of time.

Limiting your business because there will be a percentage of errors doesn't make sense.  And you can adjust your pricing anytime.

[brickology101]

I have been selling Legos on Amazon for many years. I have been grandfathered into selling Legos as new. So, I am in this grey area, enjoying it while it lasts or while Lego does not care about it. You know what I mean…Now, my issue is that I am restricted on selling with most Frustration Free Packaging (FFP) Lego listings. Have any of you guys tried to get approval to sell a listing in the FFP category while allowed to sell in the non FFP category ? I read on amazon.com that you will be asked to provide a seller authorization from the supplier, or Lego In this case which is near impossible to get. I don’t want to take a gamble and lose my approval to sell any Legos on Amazon because of these restrictions on FFP listings but at the same time I feel that these FFP listings will eventually be the norm and only listings available in the future for medium to large Lego sets. Any advise would be appreciated. Thanks.


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[Bricklectic]

1 minute ago, brickology101 said:

I have been selling Legos on Amazon for many years. I have been grandfathered into selling Legos as new. So, I am in this grey area, enjoying it while it lasts or while Lego does not care about it. You know what I mean…Now, my issue is that I am restricted on selling with most Frustration Free Packaging (FFP) Lego listings. Have any of you guys tried to get approval to sell a listing in the FFP category while allowed to sell in the non FFP category ? I read on amazon.com that you will be asked to provide a seller authorization from the supplier, or Lego In this case which is near impossible to get. I don’t want to take a gamble and lose my approval to sell any Legos on Amazon because of these restrictions on FFP listings but at the same time I feel that these FFP listings will eventually be the norm and only listings available in the future for medium to large Lego sets. Any advise would be appreciated. Thanks.


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interested in this as well.

In general I try to lay low on amazon to not lose my ability to sell. Im stuck in an individual plan which is highly restrictive because I am afraid to upgrade to professional and have them ask me for seller authorization from lego.

[cladner]

25 minutes ago, brickology101 said:

I have been selling Legos on Amazon for many years. I have been grandfathered into selling Legos as new. So, I am in this grey area, enjoying it while it lasts or while Lego does not care about it. You know what I mean…Now, my issue is that I am restricted on selling with most Frustration Free Packaging (FFP) Lego listings. Have any of you guys tried to get approval to sell a listing in the FFP category while allowed to sell in the non FFP category ? I read on amazon.com that you will be asked to provide a seller authorization from the supplier, or Lego In this case which is near impossible to get. I don’t want to take a gamble and lose my approval to sell any Legos on Amazon because of these restrictions on FFP listings but at the same time I feel that these FFP listings will eventually be the norm and only listings available in the future for medium to large Lego sets. Any advise would be appreciated. Thanks.


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yes i can sell on frustration free listings but i don't.  i think this is a complete non-issue.  i have had so many damaged "frustration free" packaged sets from amazon that i don't even leave them in the outer carton anymore.  the outer carton is fine and you open it up and there is a dented box.  the idea that a sealed frustration free box is going to be extra valuable or the defacto choice i think will not happen.  if anything, you are setting yourself for the buyer to open up the outer carton to find a damaged box that you assumed was mint and get return or negative feedback.

[Brickshopper]

If I sign up as a seller today on Amazon with no previous sales history will I be able to sell Lego either FBM or FBA??

[Mark Twain]

If I sign up as a seller today on Amazon with no previous sales history will I be able to sell Lego either FBM or FBA??

No.


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[exciter1]

Doh, don’t do this!

https://apple.news/A-rDmJrwOSSGkr3sVbEUiwg

[Sozial]

The magic of FBA: Amazon just found a 75112 from last year, which instantly sold for 129,99 Euro 🤪

[flyingpig1]

Anyone with strongly seasonal sales seeing their inventory restock limits going up now that we are approaching q4?

Anyone with strongly seasonal sales seeing their inventory restock limits going up now that we are approaching q4?

[FM]

364 days a year I don't think about my Amazon refunds service as the dollars trickle in. But that 1 day a year it's awesome... I don't know if the service triggered this return but I didn't get these type of shipments before I started using them.

 

Edited September 4, 2021 by FM

[Jackson]

2 hours ago, FM said:

364 days a year I don't think about my Amazon refunds service as the dollars trickle in. But that 1 day a year it's awesome... I don't know if the service triggered this return but I didn't get these type of shipments before I started using them.

 

What Amazon refunds service?

[skinsfan0521]

55 minutes ago, Jackson said:

What Amazon refunds service?

I have the same question 

[gmpirate]

yeah, me too.

[redcell]

It's likely one of the companies out there who pursues Amazon reimbursements for you.

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[Mark Twain]

Yep, service generally gets a percentage of the returned items cost as a fee for using their service.


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[redcell]

2 hours ago, Mark Twain said:

Yep, service generally gets a percentage of the returned items cost as a fee for using their service.


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DO they take a percentage of ALL reimbursements you get or just the ones that they identify and get back for you?  Put differently, are they constantly looking for reimbursements so that they'll claim credit for a reimbursement that you would have gotten without their help?

[Bold-Arrow]

25 minutes ago, redcell said:

DO they take a percentage of ALL reimbursements you get or just the ones that they identify and get back for you?  Put differently, are they constantly looking for reimbursements so that they'll claim credit for a reimbursement that you would have gotten without their help?

From my own experience the answer is yes . You need to tell them what to do and what not to do 

[Mark Twain]

DO they take a percentage of ALL reimbursements you get or just the ones that they identify and get back for you?  Put differently, are they constantly looking for reimbursements so that they'll claim credit for a reimbursement that you would have gotten without their help?

Yep. I could see it as being helpful to a seller who might have several hundred returns quarterly, but that wasn’t me and having a bot tell me they’ll take care of something that I can do in 20 seconds isn’t really worth a percentage or fee.


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[My_own_2_bricks]

Saw the post about Creeper Mine being back in stock at Amazon but I'm getting this message when trying to add the listing.

Any known fix?

[gmpirate]

1 hour ago, My_own_2_bricks said:

Saw the post about Creeper Mine being back in stock at Amazon but I'm getting this message when trying to add the listing.

Any known fix?

Probably not.  Most are not wanting to contact support to rock the boat.  Few years ago I did have success a couple times but honestly I'm afraid to try anything about it now.

[severalads]

3 hours ago, My_own_2_bricks said:

Saw the post about Creeper Mine being back in stock at Amazon but I'm getting this message when trying to add the listing.

Any known fix?

I thought this happens when it's Amazon exclusive? I cannot list Creeper Mine, Saturn or Ship in a Bottle. All AMZ exclusives in UK

[Bold-Arrow]

1 minute ago, severalads said:

I thought this happens when it's Amazon exclusive? I cannot list Creeper Mine, Saturn or Ship in a Bottle. All AMZ exclusives in UK

That doesn’t hold true in the USA and I don’t there is a reason as to why some can and others can’t list various sets 

[severalads]

16 hours ago, Bold-Arrow said:

That doesn’t hold true in the USA and I don’t there is a reason as to why some can and others can’t list various sets 

Ok, I am not sure then how it works in USA. Here in UK only Amazon UK would be selling those items, no third party sellers. Rarely there may also be Amazon EU as a seller, typically when UK is out of stock.