Selling Lego on Amazon.com

[Mark Twain]

Amazon's marketplace is dominated by  3rd party sellers and a number of brands are suing, citing counterfeits. My guess is they also want more control over their brands. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/04/amazon-may-have-a-counterfeit-problem/558482/

[exciter1]

6 hours ago, Mark Twain said:

Amazon's marketplace is dominated by  3rd party sellers and a number of brands are suing, citing counterfeits. My guess is they also want more control over their brands. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/04/amazon-may-have-a-counterfeit-problem/558482/

If they'd shutdown the counterfeit listings, they wouldn't have such a problem.

[Mark Twain]

If they'd shutdown the couterfeit listings, they wouldn't have such a problem.

 

True, but how much time would it take and man power vs business they might lose? Amazon prides itself on being THE marketplace for nearly everything. I doubt Bezos wants to let that go by cracking down.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Brickpicker Forum mobile app

[Bold-Arrow]

1 minute ago, Mark Twain said:

 

True, but how much business would the lose? Amazon prides itself on being THE marketplace for nearly everything. I doubt Bezos wants to let that go.


Sent from my iPhone using Brickpicker Forum mobile app

 

they are pretty aggressive with shutting down 3p sellers , even those would sell authentic products but don't have the invoices to prove it. 

[asharerin]

14 minutes ago, Mark Twain said:

 

True, but how much time would it take and man power vs business they might lose? Amazon prides itself on being THE marketplace for nearly everything. I doubt Bezos wants to let that go by cracking down.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Brickpicker Forum mobile app

They are at max capacity and it is only April. They are trimming 3P sellers left, right and center. They want sellers who stock in demand products at fair prices with very high turnover. The days of being the market for everything are long gone (that is what ebay is for). 3P on Amazon is not forever. More and more manufacturers are selling direct. Best Buy will be closing all of their stores at the end of the year and will be selling exclusively on Amazon. Wholesale and distributors, and retail stores, will become dinosaurs.

[ravenb99]

Wait I thought we buy dinosaurs with the purpose of reselling.  So are dinosaurs good or bad.  Pretty confusing...

[landphieran]

This seller central outage/problems are really really concerning. A fair amount of my inventory disappeared. The errors are sporadic and difficult to track... 

Items with 0 inventory but are still able to purchased from Amazon.com...

[exciter1]

This seller central outage/problems are really really concerning. A fair amount of my inventory disappeared. The errors are sporadic and difficult to track... 
Items with 0 inventory but are still able to purchased from Amazon.com...

I’ve noticed stuff like this too.

[Bold-Arrow]

Prime going up by $20 : http://money.cnn.com/2018/04/26/technology/business/amazon-prime-cost-increase/index.html

[crayxlp]

On 4/22/2018 at 3:26 AM, asharerin said:

They are at max capacity and it is only April. They are trimming 3P sellers left, right and center. They want sellers who stock in demand products at fair prices with very high turnover. The days of being the market for everything are long gone (that is what ebay is for). 3P on Amazon is not forever. More and more manufacturers are selling direct. Best Buy will be closing all of their stores at the end of the year and will be selling exclusively on Amazon. Wholesale and distributors, and retail stores, will become dinosaurs.

Hi,

Thanks for your input on Amazon: Personally Ive never been part of that as a seller and therefore my opinion could be largely askew(ed). - not even sure what the propper grammar is in this case

ebay is no life saver with the overall available amount of (your) specific set.. if you do not have a business account  which is TRULY a LIFE KILLER in EU.., you are  up to cca 13-14% of fees from both the sale and shipping price.. and you face the id-tic pervs who just want to scam you.. 

no no.. In my experience its better to forget some INSANE .:". to the moon" prices like these totally wasted "characters" like to brag about on the e-coin forums.. and strictly focus on achievent comfortable profit on LOCAL CLASSIFIEDS - usually no fees paid. And buyers also appreciate local collection. 

Edited April 27, 2018 by crayxlp

[asharerin]

16 minutes ago, Bold-Arrow said:

Prime going up by $20 : http://money.cnn.com/2018/04/26/technology/business/amazon-prime-cost-increase/index.html

So an extra $4 for shared accounts. $23.80 per year is still a heck of a deal

[landphieran]

Anyone know how to tell when free fba removals end?

[Jackson]

So when Amazon ships boxed LEGO sets to your FBA buyers and also back to you via removal orders in bubble phucking mailers, do you raise a stink about it, or do you just bend over and take it?

[redcell]

7 hours ago, Jackson said:

So when Amazon ships boxed LEGO sets to your FBA buyers and also back to you via removal orders in bubble phucking mailers, do you raise a stink about it, or do you just bend over and take it?

Cost of doing business...throw it on the stack of damaged returns and move on.

[cladner]

7 hours ago, Jackson said:

So when Amazon ships boxed LEGO sets to your FBA buyers and also back to you via removal orders in bubble phucking mailers, do you raise a stink about it, or do you just bend over and take it?

if its an expensive small set like a speed champions or an elves set, I will pre-package the item in its own small outer box with fba stickers placed on both the item inside and also on the outside of the box with the sticker saying complete set do not open. boxes cost 50 cents.  i  have sold many dozens of $50+ small speed champions sets , had no returns or complaints and gotten some positive feedback.  for cheaper small friends sets or microfighters, you just have to hope the person ordered a few things and not just your little lego otherwise its gonna be smooshed.

in order to avoid having to do recalls/removals, i am focusing on only sending in small steady stream  of sets where i am willing to immediately compete on price and make a sale to increase my FBA sell-through and to avoid having to remove any slow inventory which ultimately costs you money in damaged goods + storage fees  and harms your sell-through and excess inventory components of your inventory performance metric.  at some point in the future, that metric could be the new gate that comes down on sellers and i want to be on the right side of that number if and when it happens.

[Phil B]

1 hour ago, cladner said:

if its an expensive small set like a speed champions or an elves set, I will pre-package the item in its own small outer box with fba stickers placed on both the item inside and also on the outside of the box with the sticker saying complete set do not open. boxes cost 50 cents.  i  have sold many dozens of $50+ small speed champions sets , had no returns or complaints and gotten some positive feedback.  for cheaper small friends sets or microfighters, you just have to hope the person ordered a few things and not just your little lego otherwise its gonna be smooshed.

in order to avoid having to do recalls/removals, i am focusing on only sending in small steady stream  of sets where i am willing to immediately compete on price and make a sale to increase my FBA sell-through and to avoid having to remove any slow inventory which ultimately costs you money in damaged goods + storage fees  and harms your sell-through and excess inventory components of your inventory performance metric.  at some point in the future, that metric could be the new gate that comes down on sellers and i want to be on the right side of that number if and when it happens.

I do the same regarding sending in items when the price is at a point where I am comfortable with the earnings. Invariably, between the moment I prep the shipment and the time it adds to my inventory at AMZ, some yoohoo comes in and lists significantly below the previous going rate, and I end up waiting to make a sale (or taking a significant profit hit). Grr.

[cobrakai]

1 hour ago, cladner said:

if its an expensive small set like a speed champions or an elves set, I will pre-package the item in its own small outer box with fba stickers placed on both the item inside and also on the outside of the box with the sticker saying complete set do not open. boxes cost 50 cents.  i  have sold many dozens of $50+ small speed champions sets , had no returns or complaints and gotten some positive feedback.  for cheaper small friends sets or microfighters, you just have to hope the person ordered a few things and not just your little lego otherwise its gonna be smooshed.

in order to avoid having to do recalls/removals, i am focusing on only sending in small steady stream  of sets where i am willing to immediately compete on price and make a sale to increase my FBA sell-through and to avoid having to remove any slow inventory which ultimately costs you money in damaged goods + storage fees  and harms your sell-through and excess inventory components of your inventory performance metric.  at some point in the future, that metric could be the new gate that comes down on sellers and i want to be on the right side of that number if and when it happens.

I've found Lego and most licensed toys are very price sensitive and will sell at the right price.  I can only think of one item that I ever had to have removed because it wouldn't sell.  It was an advent calendar type item that I forgot about until February and by that point the price didn't seem to make a difference.  If you are sitting on slow moving shoes or something, then dropping the price is sometimes not enough to move the product and avoid storage fees.  Most defective returns I get are still in saleable condition or can be sold on Ebay/Amazon Like new if they are just package damage.  Microfighters and Friends sets are the flimsy ones, but are usually bought for children and they are going to tear it open when they get it anyways.  Half the time, the person who buys it is just shipping it to their grandkid/niece/nephewfor a present anyway. When those gingerbread houses were selling for $100 on Amazon, I could see that most orders were shipping to a different address than the buyer and the person buying it probably didn't realize how small it was. I guess if you are selling older, valuable retired sets then this could be a big issue.  In that case, I would probably box and/or bubble wrap all my sets also.  If you are selling $20 MSRP sets for $35 to $45 in high volume, then it isn't viable or worth bubble wrapping them.  

[Jackson]

5 hours ago, cladner said:

with the sticker saying complete set do not open.

https://www.amazon.com/Separate-Stickers-Kenco-Fluorescent-Shipping/dp/B0743M4MH2/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1524947297&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=fba+sticker+do+not+open

Are those the stickers you use?

[Phil B]

Anyone here like me selling on a personal account at Amazon (so no professional account)? 

As I sell on my personal account, I cannot levy sales tax for my in-state customers (that option only exists for professional accounts). So, to play nice as per my legal obligations, I have been self-paying the sales tax to the state on all those transactions. But the buyers have no idea I do this (and their invoice from Amazon shows $0 tax paid) so theoretically they will have to pay the tax themselves on their tax return, which means the state is double-dipping. Anyone have a solution for this (apart from upgrading to a professional account)?

 

[HappyHawkeye]

25 minutes ago, Phil B said:

Anyone here like me selling on a personal account at Amazon (so no professional account)? 

As I sell on my personal account, I cannot levy sales tax for my in-state customers (that option only exists for professional accounts). So, to play nice as per my legal obligations, I have been self-paying the sales tax to the state on all those transactions. But the buyers have no idea I do this (and their invoice from Amazon shows $0 tax paid) so theoretically they will have to pay the tax themselves on their tax return, which means the state is double-dipping. Anyone have a solution for this (apart from upgrading to a professional account)?

 

While this is an issue in theory, I wonder how much it actually happens in practice. Maybe I'm underestimating, but I've got to think that the percentage of people that self-report untaxed purchases is minuscule.

I've done this for my personal returns in the past because my father-in-law is our accountant and is a super thorough & by the books. Maybe all personal accountants are this way?

[Phil B]

10 minutes ago, HappyHawkeye said:

While this is an issue in theory, I wonder how much it actually happens in practice. Maybe I'm underestimating, but I've got to think that the percentage of people that self-report untaxed purchases is minuscule.

I've done this for my personal returns in the past because my father-in-law is our accountant and is a super thorough & by the books. Maybe all personal accountants are this way?

I have always reported the obvious ones (non-business Amazon/Ebay purchases). It's always just a few dollars, and I figure that IF they are going to crack down, they will first go after the people who claim they didn't make _any_ online purchases before they go after people who have always declared some

[asharerin]

4 hours ago, Phil B said:

Anyone here like me selling on a personal account at Amazon (so no professional account)? 

As I sell on my personal account, I cannot levy sales tax for my in-state customers (that option only exists for professional accounts). So, to play nice as per my legal obligations, I have been self-paying the sales tax to the state on all those transactions. But the buyers have no idea I do this (and their invoice from Amazon shows $0 tax paid) so theoretically they will have to pay the tax themselves on their tax return, which means the state is double-dipping. Anyone have a solution for this (apart from upgrading to a professional account)?

 

We sell our Lego on an amazon personal account. We are in Oregon so don’t have to collect for Oregon customers since it is a sales tax free state but technically we are supposed to collect for customersin states where our inventory is kept in fba warehouses. We don’t worry about it if the day ever comes we will just pay the penalties and interest and not give it a second thought. I highly doubt any of your customers are self reporting their internet purchases tho lol. Each state has very complex requirements so hopefully they all sort out some uniform rules but the us govt has been broken for a long time so I’m not holding my breath.

[Bold-Arrow]

Just got this: 

Hello from Fulfillment by Amazon,

In March, we announced adjustments to our policies designed to encourage improved inventory management, which will help your products be received and delivered to customers more quickly, particularly during the busy holiday season.

To help guide your inventory decisions, we created the Inventory Performance Index (IPI), a number on a zero to 1,000 scale. An IPI of zero represents far too much inventory relative to sales, while 1,000 is the absolute best performance of inventory to sales. Most sellers' IPI scores will range from 400 to 800, which indicates the right balance of investing in inventory and storage fees relative to expected sales.

To ensure there is available space for the products customers want to buy, particularly during the holidays, beginning July 1, 2018, we will limit storage space for sellers whose IPI is under 350. These storage limits will affect fewer than 5% of FBA sellers, who hold 25% of all seller inventory in Amazon fulfillment centers.

Your current Inventory Performance Index score is XXX out of 1,000. You will not have storage limits during the upcoming quarter, July 1 through September 30, 2018, during the upcoming quarter, July 1 through September 30, 2018, for standard-size, oversize, apparel, or footwear storage types. (See New FBA Inventory Storage Limits for details on quarterly storage limits and storage types.)

[landphieran]

The metric that really stood out to me is that the people below 350 (5%) held 25% of Amazon's inventory.

As someone who sells slow moving products. I've started to exit those areas due to this measure. Seems like a lot of book sellers are being affected as well.

Interesting to see how this will affect us in the future... Times change quickly

 

 

[Phil B]

A glimmer of hope for us dealing with scammers, and a word of warning for those of us who make regular returns on Amazon:

http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-bans-people-too-many-returns-2018-5