Selling Lego on Amazon.com

[Tonka858]

6 hours ago, Sozial said:

This is the thing I truely hate about this business.

On average we have approx 200 damage lego sets always on hand. Some flip on ebay as soon as they come in others, I can't give away

3 minutes ago, NIevo said:

Has anyone had decent sales lately?  Mine have all but dried up.  Everything I look at either doesn't have a buy box or if it does they are all through FBA sellers.  Even items I have lots of stock and lowest price by a good margin I can't get a BB for.

If your doing standard size sets you should be using FBA, 

[Bricklectic]

28 minutes ago, NIevo said:

Has anyone had decent sales lately?  Mine have all but dried up.  Everything I look at either doesn't have a buy box or if it does they are all through FBA sellers.  Even items I have lots of stock and lowest price by a good margin I can't get a BB for.

dry as the sahara. Economy related or late February doldrums?

What do we all think about undercutting Amazon on price for zombie's sets? There used to be chatter to the effect that Vory's or Amazon clamp down on sellers that do that.

[gmpirate]

I'm all FBM now.  Good variety so I can move at a decent daily pace but overall the volume is just not there like it used to be.  I blame Amazon more than anything economic.  Suppressed listings, no buy boxes, and no listings at all.  I've been in this game a long time and have always rolled with the punches and adjusted strategies but I'm not sure I'm going to fight my way through what is going on now.  It doesn't really matter the return if you can't move the product.

Tough to bet on a listing if Amazon carries it because how long will they continue with it?  No worries, I'll buy Lego exclusives.  Ooops, no listings for those now.  Retiring Lego exclusive?  Oops, Amazon suddenly has it.  GWP's?  nope.  Best I can do right now is maximize my pricing through FBM.

[behopkin]

13 hours ago, NIevo said:

Has anyone had decent sales lately?  Mine have all but dried up.  Everything I look at either doesn't have a buy box or if it does they are all through FBA sellers.  Even items I have lots of stock and lowest price by a good margin I can't get a BB for.

Can't speak on Amazon but non-existent sales on Ebay as well. Has been a steady decline the last two years, but within the past 2 months sales have truly gotten terrible, getting scary. 

[Darth_Raichu]

10 hours ago, gmpirate said:

I'm all FBM now.  Good variety so I can move at a decent daily pace but overall the volume is just not there like it used to be.  I blame Amazon more than anything economic.  Suppressed listings, no buy boxes, and no listings at all.  I've been in this game a long time and have always rolled with the punches and adjusted strategies but I'm not sure I'm going to fight my way through what is going on now.  It doesn't really matter the return if you can't move the product.

Tough to bet on a listing if Amazon carries it because how long will they continue with it?  No worries, I'll buy Lego exclusives.  Ooops, no listings for those now.  Retiring Lego exclusive?  Oops, Amazon suddenly has it.  GWP's?  nope.  Best I can do right now is maximize my pricing through FBM.

Yep, plus their price ceiling algorithm that is not backed up by competitiors' data.

Recently they sent out 3rd party survey for Amazon FBM and I gave them my thoughts.  Probably no real person on Amazon will read them, but maybe if more sellers give them feedback they can listen.  The email's subject is "Help us improve your FBM experience"

[Sozial]

14 hours ago, NIevo said:

Has anyone had decent sales lately?  Mine have all but dried up.  Everything I look at either doesn't have a buy box or if it does they are all through FBA sellers.  Even items I have lots of stock and lowest price by a good margin I can't get a BB for.

52% down compared to last year 

[cobrakai]

1 hour ago, behopkin said:

Can't speak on Amazon but non-existent sales on Ebay as well. Has been a steady decline the last two years, but within the past 2 months sales have truly gotten terrible, getting scary. 

Pretty much been straight downhill since about Easter of 2021.  Sales always increased for me from 2014 up until the big Covid spike. Since then, down 30-50% every year. 

[behopkin]

17 minutes ago, cobrakai said:

Pretty much been straight downhill since about Easter of 2021.  Sales always increased for me from 2014 up until the big Covid spike. Since then, down 30-50% every year. 

Had about a year in 2021 where I sold older sets in the 8-10 year range that still did well...but if I didn't have that I'd be looking at a period of about the past 3 1/2 years of decreased sales every year within the 30-50% range as well. No question it's concerning and appears to be getting worse.

[cobrakai]

1 minute ago, behopkin said:

Had about a year in 2021 where I sold older sets in the 8-10 year range that still did well...but if I didn't have that I'd be looking at a period of about the past 3 1/2 years of decreased sales every year within the 30-50% range as well. No question it's concerning and appears to be getting worse.

I think a lot of factors have lead to this.  The covid spike distorted demand obviously.  Inflation caused a lot of issues and was not addressed soon enough with higher interest rates.  The big toy companies all increased production based on the COVID demand that did not last, which led to massive amounts of excess toys everywhere.  Then media properties like Star Wars/Marvel/DC started to drastically decrease in quality and popularity, which drives a lot of toy/Lego demand. And of course kids are now on their tablets/smartphones/video games more than ever and have much less interest in toys. 

[Bricklectic]

Inflation, genuine economy worries, and the absolute #1 factor by MILES is the PLETHORA of amazing new releases priced significantly less that PY. 

Every collectible category from watches to comic books have plummeted in the last year or 2. Please explain why Lego should be immune?

[Bricklectic]

I just took out a leveraged short position against the S & P. If the economy goes south and affects Lego, at least I'll recoup some via profits on my hedge.

[spener90]

A short position. Is it in a specific stock of sorts? I’m not optimistic about the market currently, but short positions can get ugly quickly.

[Bricklectic]

22 hours ago, spener90 said:

A short position. Is it in a specific stock of sorts? I’m not optimistic about the market currently, but short positions can get ugly quickly.

spy options or the like. If market stays in a month I double money. If it goes up I lose everything. Selling call spread near the money