40 minutes ago, brickology101 said:

I like how the business owner tries to justify that the 1.6 million bill is bonkers based on his company past revenues and how it would have taken annual sales of 150 to 200 millions to justify 1.6 million in taxes. The 1.6 million is mainly penalties and fines that have accumulated for not paying sales taxes since 2012 or 2013. He will probably succeed in settling for a lot lot less but the initial amount the state is asking is so high on purpose that even dropping it by one order of magnitude would still be a hefty bill of 160 k$. Good luck. I am small peanuts with my AMZ resale business but I knew from the start in 2016 that California isn’t a state to mess with. Was this guy living under a stone or what ? With such a brilliant business model and growth, how could he let himself get trapped in this contention with the state of CA. Sales tax should not be a hit on profits and even if it was to be paid out of his pocket because of other sellers not charging tax prior to the new laws enacted end of 2018, it is still manageable and certainly not worth the stress of being in such a situation now.

I disagree with this mentality completely. The state should stop going after the small business sellers and instead go after the platforms like Amazon & Ebay and force them to charge tax to customers automatically. It's much harder for thousands of sellers to individually research which state Amazon has warehouses to determine where it owes taxes (and even knowing that an Amazon warehouse would result in taxes owed is also a big stretch for many sellers). Then after you determine that, you have to figure out how to collect taxes and then remit then to the state (which is a pain in the butt for the state that I reside in). It takes me at least a day maybe more to report the taxes owed to my state. I can just imagine having to do it for all 50 states separately; that's at least a month of working on state taxes instead of working on growing and sustaining your business.

Whereas if the large platforms just auto-collected all applicable state sales tax for all 3rd party sellers and remitted it to the state; it would be much easier for everyone involved as large corporations have the resources and tools to automate the processes easily and efficiently.

Edited November 6, 20196 yr by cmartin33

14 minutes ago, cmartin33 said:

I disagree with this mentality completely. The state should stop going after the small business sellers and instead go after the platforms like Amazon & Ebay and force them to charge tax to customers automatically. It's much harder for thousands of sellers to individually research which state Amazon has warehouses to determine where it owes taxes (and even knowing that an Amazon warehouse would result in taxes owed is also a big stretch for many sellers). Then after you determine that, you have to figure out how to collect taxes and then remit then to the state (which is a pain in the butt for the state that I reside in). It takes me at least a day maybe more to report the taxes owed to my state. I can just imagine having to do it for all 50 states separately; that's at least a month of working on state taxes instead of working on growing and sustaining your business.

Whereas if the large platforms just auto-collected all applicable state sales tax for all 3rd party sellers and remitted it to the state; it would be much easier for everyone involved as large corporations have the resources and tools to automate the processes easily and efficiently.

The socialist state of California knows large companies can hire good attorneys who know the loopholes, while the little guy will fall to the scare tactics and pay up.

But yes, the platform should manage this from the time a law is instituted, and be held liable for inaction. Random dude from Maine shouldn't be expected to follow the tax laws for all 50 states. I look forward to the people selling their kids old junk on eBay being smacked with $50,000 tax bills from California, and the media circus that will follow.

I absolutely agree.  The platforms should automate this. 

I'm sure they're just trying to get out of programming and added costs to their platform to calc and receive taxes.  To Amazon / Ebay it costs less to force each seller using their platforms to effectively reinvent the wheel.

I wonder how many sellers will get frustrated, give up, and no longer using their platform.  I confess, I'm watching how much I sell so that I don't fall into certain tax categories.  So that means I'm already cutting back how much I use their platform.  Then again, I'm not a big-time seller either.

Sellers are getting stock photos replaced with home photos. How? Why? Please stop.

 

https://www.amazon.com/LEGO-Architecture-Fallingwater-Discontinued-manufacturer/dp/B002IXYSGO/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=21005&qid=1573679366&s=toys-and-games&sr=1-1

Oh man, that’s just...fantastic.

23 minutes ago, Jackson said:

Sellers are getting stock photos replaced with home photos. How? Why? Please stop.

 

https://www.amazon.com/LEGO-Architecture-Fallingwater-Discontinued-manufacturer/dp/B002IXYSGO/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=21005&qid=1573679366&s=toys-and-games&sr=1-1

How did they get the pictures off of my phone?

Anyone want to wager how hard/frustrating it's going to be to get Amazon seller support to fix it?

2 minutes ago, Jackson said:

Anyone want to wager how hard/frustrating it's going to be to get Amazon seller support to fix it?

Can't even get them to change listing brands from "Lego Star Wars" to just "Lego".  Those extra words cause the listing to get flagged as suspected IP violation and yanks the listing.  Same with "Lego Disney Princess."

9 hours ago, Jackson said:

Sellers are getting stock photos replaced with home photos. How? Why? Please stop.

 

https://www.amazon.com/LEGO-Architecture-Fallingwater-Discontinued-manufacturer/dp/B002IXYSGO/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=21005&qid=1573679366&s=toys-and-games&sr=1-1

Just woke up today to see find 6 or 7 sets that I have been buying are now restricted. Lego city harvester, Technic Bash and many more. I don't understand how they pick these sets. Anyone else know what is going on? Makes it hard to continue.

15 minutes ago, cory730 said:

Just woke up today to see find 6 or 7 sets that I have been buying are now restricted. Lego city harvester, Technic Bash and many more. I don't understand how they pick these sets. Anyone else know what is going on? Makes it hard to continue.

Maybe a glitch?  They don't show restricted for me and there are still a lot of sellers on those listings.  93 sellers on Technic Bash.  

2 minutes ago, cobrakai said:

Maybe a glitch?  They don't show restricted for me and there are still a lot of sellers on those listings.  93 sellers on Technic Bash.  

This. I'm not restricted on the two that you mentioned either.

 

Do you guys have these listed to sell yet or have sold yet?  I don't have a listing yet since just started buying. 

Edited November 18, 20196 yr by cory730

10 minutes ago, cory730 said:

 

Do you guys have these listed to sell yet or have sold yet?  I don't have a listing yet since just started buying. 

I haven't listed or sold against these ASINs before, but am not showing up as blocked on them. 

10 minutes ago, cory730 said:

 

Do you guys have these listed to sell yet or have sold yet?  I don't have a listing yet since just started buying. 

This is what it says for myself when trying to add a listing for Bash but I'm a very small-time seller

4 minutes ago, grackleflint said:

This is what it says for myself when trying to add a listing for Bash but I'm a very small-time seller

That looks more like a holiday gate since they aren't accepting applications.  It should lift after the new year.

I also don't have any of those listed and haven't sold any of them, but am not gated/restricted.

I also don't have any of those listed and haven't sold any of them, but am not gated/restricted.

And I have none of them listed and havent sold any of them, and am restricted as well - cannot list them in any condition.

Yea not sure what is going on. I have been selling lego for 5 years. Just 4 or 5 random sets that I know of.  Thanks for the replies. Not seeming like a glitch now. 

Add Lockwood Estate,  Juniors T rex Breakout, City Heavy transport with helicopter. I only have hundreds of those sets. 

1 hour ago, Phil B said:

And I have none of them listed and havent sold any of them, and am restricted as well - cannot list them in any condition.

Add me to this list as well. Fingers crossed this is just a Holiday Gate, sort of like when they kicked folks off of retired listings last year on an inconsistent basis, then allowed folks back on in the new year. 

 

Usually I'm on the outside looking in. I'm ungated for all those listings this time though. Strange targeted algorithm?

Chiming in to say that random sets have been popping up as Restricted for me recently as well; usually right after Amazon puts them on sale. Two sets today just switched over to Restricted a few minutes after they were listed in the Daily Deals thread. Not saying someone at Amazon is reading these forums and randomly flagging ASINs that get posted; just pointing out that those particular sets were NOT restricted half an hour ago but suddenly are now, coinciding with what I presume was the start of the sale somewhere in there.

5 minutes ago, Serejai said:

Chiming in to say that random sets have been popping up as Restricted for me recently as well; usually right after Amazon puts them on sale. Two sets today just switched over to Restricted a few minutes after they were listed in the Daily Deals thread. Not saying someone at Amazon is reading these forums and randomly flagging ASINs that get posted; just pointing out that those particular sets were NOT restricted half an hour ago but suddenly are now, coinciding with what I presume was the start of the sale somewhere in there.

I wonder why some people were gated. Did you guys do the MF orders to qualify for merchant fulfilled toy sales? Unless it based on metrics, volume, time selling on platform? Or how long you've been selling Lego on Amazon. I'm a large seller,  but I know sellers larger than me who are gated in random toy brands that I'm grandfathered in. Seems like the sets restricted last holiday season were restricted for everyone. 

Don't do FBM on Amazon. No problems in the last 5 years. 500k+ in sales.