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.  

Well, there appears to be a definite thinning out effect already.

9 minutes ago, exciter1 said:

Well, there appears to be a definite thinning out effect already.

explain? did your sales just shot through the roof

explain? did your sales just shot through the roof [emoji6]

Some sales and noticeable drop in sellers for certain items.

1 minute ago, exciter1 said:

Some sales and noticeable drop in sellers for certain items.

hmm... may be they went on labor day vacation  .... 

 

2 minutes ago, newbie77 said:

hmm... [emoji4] may be they went on labor day vacation [emoji3] .... 

 
 

I haven't noticed a large drop in seller numbers yet. If you sold an item from one of the restricted brands within the last 3 months you were grandfathered in on 8/23 so that means all of the usual year round Lego sellers are still in business. In Q4 there will be alot less competition than last year which will be a very welcome change. The usual Q4 sellers don't even know they are blocked yet. 5 years down the track the effect is going to be extremely noticeable all year round, not just Q4.

Supposedly Amazon has hired a team to go through their catalog one item at a time and will be merging all of the duplicate listings (this make take a while lol). They are now also making sure UPC code prefixes match the brand so the days of buying UPCs and creating your own listings and bundles for the big brands are over. I imagine this is going to hit parts sellers very hard on Amazon. Only original items from the big brands will be allowed on Amazon now, not made up bundles.

4 minutes ago, asharerin said:

I haven't noticed a large drop in seller numbers yet. If you sold an item from one of the restricted brands within the last 3 months you were grandfathered in on 8/23 so that means all of the usual year round Lego sellers are still in business. In Q4 there will be alot less competition than last year which will be a very welcome change. The usual Q4 sellers don't even know they are blocked yet. 5 years down the track the effect is going to be extremely noticeable all year round, not just Q4.

Supposedly Amazon has hired a team to go through their catalog one item at a time and will be merging all of the duplicate listings (this make take a while lol). They are now also making sure UPC code prefixes match the brand so the days of buying UPCs and creating your own listings and bundles for the big brands are over. I imagine this is going to hit parts sellers very hard on Amazon. Only original items from the big brands will be allowed on Amazon now, not made up bundles.

So complete sets of Mixels would not be allowed?

2 minutes ago, asharerin said:

I imagine this is going to hit parts sellers very hard on Amazon. Only original items from the big brands will be allowed on Amazon now, not made up bundles.

I am very much okay with this. From a seller perspective this removes a lot of clutter from the catalog. Allowing a buyer easier access to the NIB goods they probably want.I feel like allowing custom lots on Amazon would devalue the shopping experience and I for one welcome removal of parted out pieces.

I feel like bricklink/ebay are the main markets for custom lots anyway so why not keep them there?

3 minutes ago, jaxman said:

So complete sets of Mixels would not be allowed?

No. When a seller creates a listing Amazon is now having the bots verify the UPC code against the GS1 database. The first numbers on a UPC code identify the company that owns the prefix. All of the major brands have supplied Amazon with the UPC prefixes in use by them so if yours does not match then the listing gets flagged and the seller is shown the exit. So unless TLG sells a complete set of mixels then it will no longer be allowed on Amazon. You can try and skirt the system by using a brand name other than LEGO but we all know how that is going to go down a few months down the track.

Interesting. So no more selling of (2) packs of holiday promos or RE + GT combos etc etc.

Interesting indeed. No option to sell a Ghost+Phantom combo unless you have the official 66512 (?) combo pack? I'm assuming listing under that UPC with the comment "missing the outer box" is asking for trouble, if you have the 2 sets but not the official combo?

This implies no more individual minifigs, either, huh? (unless they are CMF, I guess)

Bummer. 

The UPC thing has been going on for months 

17 minutes ago, SpaceFan9 said:

This implies no more individual minifigs, either, huh? (unless they are CMF, I guess)

Bummer. 

not yet at least - all the individual minifigure listings are intact and i can still list figures for sale.  hope that doesn't go away though it could also be a good thing for ebay sales.

Can't say I am going to miss the geniuses listing lego pieces for sale and shipping used pieces to Amazon customers in ziploc bags. Keep that crap on fleabay.

2 minutes ago, asharerin said:

Can't say I am going to miss the geniuses listing lego pieces for sale and shipping used pieces to Amazon customers in ziploc bags. Keep that crap on fleabay.

 

1 hour ago, SpaceFan9 said:

This implies no more individual minifigs, either, huh? (unless they are CMF, I guess)

Bummer. 

 

47 minutes ago, cladner said:

not yet at least - all the individual minifigure listings are intact and i can still list figures for sale.  hope that doesn't go away though it could also be a good thing for ebay sales.

This is going to be a bummer. I sell a lot of single figs on Amazon. 

It's about time Amazon cleaned their room up.

All the minifigures are restricted for me...

36 minutes ago, Peteparker said:

All the minifigures are restricted for me...

Sounds like you're behind the brand gate.

now lego sales are going to fall through the cliff. not talking about the individuals and/or re-sellers but for the TLG as a whole.

good percentage of sales were going to resellers inventory and with amazon locking doors left and right i have the opinion that this year going to be very very hard for TLG as a whole.

btw, they are having very very hard to clear those latest star wars sets ... i am seeing people dumping their stocks. this has been going on since beginning of this year for sets listed below:75100, 75101, 75103, 75104, 75106

from august i am seeing 75102 and 75105, 75135, 75136, 75137 and 75138

not sure what to make of it but cautious times ahead

15 minutes ago, newbie77 said:

now lego sales are going to fall through the cliff. not talking about the individuals and/or re-sellers but for the TLG as a whole.

good percentage of sales were going to resellers inventory and with amazon locking doors left and right i have the opinion that this year going to be very very hard for TLG as a whole.

btw, they are having very very hard to clear those latest star wars sets ... i am seeing people dumping their stocks. this has been going on since beginning of this year for sets listed below:75100, 75101, 75103, 75104, 75106

from august i am seeing 75102 and 75105, 75135, 75136, 75137 and 75138

not sure what to make of it but cautious times ahead

What makes you say people are dumping their stocks? Do you have objective downward price trends from resellers? Hard sales data? Gut feeling?

I think a *lot* of resellers have the jitters right now. Liquidating plastic assets is not as easy as other investment vehicles. 

This holiday season should be telling. I'm proceeding with caution when it comes to new purchases. 

7 minutes ago, Deadfraggle said:

What makes you say people are dumping their stocks? Do you have objective downward price trends from resellers? Hard sales data? Gut feeling?

downward price momentum @ various selling platforms. people attribute these to "make space for new sets coming" but if one look closer then its not because of that alone.

there is so much inventory of some of these sets. its mind boggling.

some of the brick linkers in US have parted out over 300 of each of these sets and we are still seeing this kind of massive drop in the major retailers. that should speak for itself. i don't know how many more others are holding. 

i am guilty as well since i also have massive inventory of these. granted i am still in black but

An update for all you seasonal sellers out there.  I am a seasonal Amazon seller for the past 3 years.  I am now gated out of selling Lego since I was not on a pro account with active listings when the wall went up.  I sell about 500 sets a season all FBA.  I can list under the 50 or sets still in my inventory screen, but I haven't followed the chain all the way creating UPS labels.  So don't know if I can actually sell or not.

I had to upgrade my account to a Pro account to be officially told I needed 3 invoices, 1 authorization letter from Lego, and $1000 to be approved.

I am escalating the issue as far as I can with Amazon without much hope of a reversal.  I am basing my argument on the fact that an authorization letter from Lego is an impossible task.  Does anyone here have one?  My second side of attack is how ridiculous it is for them to require an authorization and an invoice to sell one used vintage Lego set?  I have a used 10030 as an example.  I really can't list this, I ask?  Not that I would sell it through Amazon, but as a point of argument.

One can only hope.  This holiday season may be a bust for me as I reestablish my eBay presence.

Congrats to all those who made it.  Price arbitrage may be the low risk profit approach for those of you who can sell.

Bat cave 6860

Bricklink - $80 + ship

Ebay - $90 + free ship

BrickClassifies - $100 + ship

Amazon FBA - $143