Can anyone share with me their experiences with selling on Amazon.   I sold some stuff years ago and am now thinking of listing some items on there again.  I know their policies and prices have changed.  I am getting tired of the ebay fees and more the people purchasing on there trying to scam.  I am wondering if it makes sense to sell and ship self, or if there is a way to send them all items and fulfill for you.  What are the cost benefits or lack off from either way.  

 

 

Thanks for any information or experiences.  

1 hour ago, yyyybird111 said:

 

 

got one of the return request like this...

Return Reason:

Missing parts or accessories

Buyer Comment:Missing 2 needed pieces - my 8 year old was bummed when he discovered they were missing.

 

How frequently lego can miss parts? guess I have to pay for return shipping and issue full refund

 

Email and ask if he would like you to send him the pieces. If you don't have them, get them from BrickLink. 

2 hours ago, landphieran said:

Maybe others can comment on an effective way of dealing with returns like this. I primarily do FBA and each season end up with a sizeable bin of opened, built, or partially complete sets. I usually just eat the losses. You used to be able to file a case and get some money back about 60% of the time however last year I tried on a few expensive sets and it was a giant waste of time (I filed like 40 cases). Endless circular conversations, template, responses etc. One of them was directly Amazon's fault because they threw a label on the outside of a modular and returned it to me wet.

 

since nov 12th anything i sent in fba standard size has pretty much been parked and stopped moving and is not available for sell.Has that been other people's experience or is this just the 2 fulfillment centers in my area ?

Has it been checked in? I sent a couple of boxes in October that took 3 weeks just to get checked in, but then moved pretty quickly through the system. Other FBA centers checked in same day around that time. I haven't sent in anything in November, but I imagine that with the Q4 rush some of the less efficient fulfillment centers are pretty backed up. Hopefully it gets going soon.

I felt better once I searched the Amazon forums and found other people complaining about how long it took for that particular fulfillment center to just check stuff in...

since nov 12th anything i sent in fba standard size has pretty much been parked and stopped moving and is not available for sell.Has that been other people's experience or is this just the 2 fulfillment centers in my area ?

Didn’t Amazon specifically send an email stating they would be focusing on receiving shipments up until date x, then focusing on fulfilling orders after that date.


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1 hour ago, Islego said:

Didn’t Amazon specifically send an email stating they would be focusing on receiving shipments up until date x, then focusing on fulfilling orders after that date.


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I'm not sure if it was an email, but I definitely saw something indicating that inventory had to be sometime around the first week of November to be in place for Black Friday.  I can't remember the exact date, but it was way earlier than it has been in past years.

FBM question: my ship by date was today. I ran out of tape so I rushed to the UPS store to send off 30 orders, but I missed the last pickup. They did take the packages and scan it in the system, but the truck will not get it till tomorrow, it shows up in my order like this on amazon.

My question is, assuming it meets the last delivery date, is this considered a late shipment since it wont be on truck till tomorrow, or since its scanned in the system it will be okay as far as late shipment metrics?

Or does ship by date only require that you create a label?

Edited November 30, 20232 yr by Bricklectic

9 minutes ago, Bricklectic said:

FBM question: my ship by date was today. I ran out of tape so I rushed to the UPS store to send off 30 orders, but I missed the last pickup. They did take the packages and scan it in the system, but the truck will not get it till tomorrow, it shows up in my order like this on amazon.

My question is, assuming it meets the last delivery date, is this considered a late shipment since it wont be on truck till tomorrow, or since its scanned in the system it will be okay as far as late shipment metrics?

Or does ship by date only require that you create a label?

you're good.  carrier received package.  they say truck won't get it til tomorrow.  15 minutes after you left another truck pulled up.

Edited November 30, 20232 yr by cladner

what do I need to do to send off 30 orders a day from 1-3 orders per 3 days

Can anyone summarize what this means to the average lego seller.

It's amazon's way of saying - we gonna screw you sellers even more.

Specifically FBA - Inbound placement fee, low inventory fee etc. The discounts they seem to offer for  non-peal std size items  etc negates the overall charges.

Edited December 5, 20232 yr by vasp

The way I read it is that they're instituting new fees designed to drive seller behavior that either increases efficiency for Amazon or reduces their costs.  The low-inventory-level fees are going to be a pain.

between the low inventory level fees and  placement fees it looks like a 25 percent jump in costs 

2 minutes ago, river41 said:

between the low inventory level fees and  placement fees it looks like a 25 percent jump in costs 

$4 an hour wage just fell to $3 an hour.

So, just had another FBM customer file a return (bought by mistake) and send a different box back (same set).  They filed right after I shipped.

Winter Fire Stations were purchased from Lego & Amazon, but what the customer returned has a magnetic barcode stuck on the box as well as an Asian seal tape.  Anyone seen this seal?

Anyone having luck fighting this with Amazon or is it just a crap shoot and waster of time in the end?

 

Regarding the low level inventory fee:

The low-inventory-level fee won’t apply to the following:

• New professional sellers, for the first 365 days after the first inventory-received date.
• New-to-FBA parent products for the first 180 days after the first inventory-received date. Sellers need to be enrolled in FBA New Selection to get this benefit. For more information, including seller and product eligibility, go to FBA New Selection.
• Products that are auto-replenished by Amazon Warehousing and Distribution.

So it looks like you won't be effected if you sell an item for less than a year. For most ASINs I'm done with them within a couple of months after I start selling them (at most), so hopefully this won't have too much of an effect.

Edited December 6, 20232 yr by MinifigW

3 minutes ago, MinifigW said:

Regarding the low level inventory fee:

The low-inventory-level fee won’t apply to the following:

• New professional sellers, for the first 365 days after the first inventory-received date.
• New-to-FBA parent products for the first 180 days after the first inventory-received date. Sellers need to be enrolled in FBA New Selection to get this benefit. For more information, including seller and product eligibility, go to FBA New Selection.
• Products that are auto-replenished by Amazon Warehousing and Distribution.

So it looks like you won't be effected if you sell an item for less than a year. For most ASINs I'm done with them within a couple of months after I start selling them (at most), so hopefully this won't have too much of an effect.

That's not how I read that section that you copied/pasted. I read that as if you are a new seller, you won't have to pay the fee for the first 365 days. Nothing about if it's an item that I have only been selling for less than 365 days.

But, I did read the details of how they calculate if you are "low inventory" or not and it seems like it wouldn't really apply if it was an item that you just started stocking. It's a bit unclear, but it doesn't seem that it would apply in many/most cases if you're selling through your stock in a few months.

40 minutes ago, skinsfan0521 said:

That's not how I read that section that you copied/pasted. I read that as if you are a new seller, you won't have to pay the fee for the first 365 days. Nothing about if it's an item that I have only been selling for less than 365 days.

But, I did read the details of how they calculate if you are "low inventory" or not and it seems like it wouldn't really apply if it was an item that you just started stocking. It's a bit unclear, but it doesn't seem that it would apply in many/most cases if you're selling through your stock in a few months.

Gotcha, you might be right then. 

I love how Amazon can make fee announcements that we can all "speculate" on.  So much fun.

2 minutes ago, gmpirate said:

I love how Amazon can make fee announcements that we can all "speculate" on.  So much fun.

My thoughts exactly

Edited December 6, 20232 yr by Brick625

The reduced fee for apparel stems from this.

Amazon Targets Shein With Big Fee Cuts for Cheap Apparel Sellers

Amazon Targets Shein With Big Fee Cuts for Cheap Apparel Sellers (msn.com)

More news.

Amazon restructures seller fees to match its regional fulfillment strategy amid FTC lawsuit (msn.com)

I mailed a FBM order to the address given, using Amazon Buy Shipping and sent it out on time (same day, in fact).  USPS tried to deliver it, marked it as an insufficient/invalid address, and returned it to me.  I refunded, minus the original S/H.  A few weeks later, the buyer filed and won an A-Z claim for the original S/H fee, but it stated I wouldn't get an order defect since it wasn't my fault.  Days later, an order defect shows up anyway for that A-Z claim, so I appeal, saying I mailed it on time, to the address provided, and using Buy Shipping, and it was returned to me as the address was invalid (also gave the tracking link that states invalid address).  They denied my appeal, saying that the package was lost, and I'd have to follow up with USPS....uh, it was already returned to me, as stated.  I wrote seller support and they said they'd forward it to the relevant department, and it's been ignored for about 2 weeks and I still have the defect I was told I wouldn't get.  Anything else I can try?

Edited December 6, 20232 yr by I am Niko

It blows my mind with something called low inventory level fee. We've already paid Amazon inventory fees as storage cost for the set, and they will charge an extra for aged inventory which I also understand. But what's is this low inventory level fee for? Encourage sellers to send more items to Amazon? I thought Amazon doesn't like their warehouse used as storages.

4 hours ago, freakchem said:

It blows my mind with something called low inventory level fee. We've already paid Amazon inventory fees as storage cost for the set, and they will charge an extra for aged inventory which I also understand. But what's is this low inventory level fee for? Encourage sellers to send more items to Amazon? I thought Amazon doesn't like their warehouse used as storages.

When u only have one item or few items they can’t be distributed efficiently to reduce shipping costs.  So Amazon is charging you extra because it might cost them more to ship your item then if you sent them in 12 and they were spread out across the country.  Some bean counter figure it out there’s a couple billion lying around there.  I think they are trying to encourage more fbm which is even more profitable for Amazon because fbm involves no actual labor for Amazon just more fees to charge without actually doing anything besides running marketplace. Fbm fee increase will be coming next.  Assume the position.

Edited December 7, 20232 yr by cladner