Selling Lego on Amazon.com

[asharerin]

1 hour ago, Bold-Arrow said:

Amazon is biting Whole Foods for 13.7 billion 

Salivating at that high disposable income clientele that will now be heavily incentivized to purchase a Prime membership and get locked into the Amazon ecosystem. 

 

36 minutes ago, exciter1 said:

We used the Kroger curb side service the other day.  It was nice to not step foot in there.

That is all we use when we shop at Fred Meyer now. Well worth the $5 to just pull in and have them bring everything to the car. Costco are you listening? Of course in a few months Amazon will be delivering to my house from Whole Foods so I won't even have to set foot in the car. Don't think we will be setting foot outside at all in 10 years except for dinner and a movie lol. Wonder if we will even own a car then or just have an Amazon smart car as part of Prime whenever we need to be driven around.

[zskid00]

Can anyone tell me why Amazon is allowing these jackwagons with ridiculously high shipping prices and less than 100% feedback to claim the buy box on so many different items?  Especially when there are multiple FBA options with Prime shipping at cheaper overall prices.  Are these guys paying for the spot now?  It seems the buy box used to have a more consistent method which benefited both buyers and sellers.  Now it seems like a crap shoot.  

[Jackson]

I've noticed strange buy-box picks too in the video-games category. A used, higher-priced, seller-fulfilled video game will win the buy box over a new, lower-priced, Prime-fulfilled game. Makes no sense, so I wonder if Amazon's algorithm needs to be tweaked.

[chrisynd]

Has anyone else seen LEGO directly respond to customer questions on Amazon before? This is the first time I've seen this. I'm not aware of any other listings that have LEGO responding to customer questions. This is for 21309 Saturn V. I feel like LEGO being more directly active isn't a good thing in context of the recent Nike announcement and similar concerns with LEGO.

Thoughts? Anyone know of another listing with LEGO responding directly to a question? It'd be a good thing if this was somewhat rare but has been happening for years, I think.

[asharerin]

4 hours ago, chrisynd said:

Has anyone else seen LEGO directly respond to customer questions on Amazon before?

They have answered on 41150 as well. At the very least as of this month they are now monitoring listings. It would be smart to have backup plans. Lego selling on Amazon by 3P sellers will not last forever. I still think Amazon FBA is a license to print money for resellers but you want to be diversified as brands and categories that are unrestricted today may become restricted tomorrow.

[cladner]

16 minutes ago, asharerin said:

They have answered on 41150 as well. At the very least as of this month they are now monitoring listings. It would be smart to have backup plans. Lego selling on Amazon by 3P sellers will not last forever.

Edited June 24, 2017 by cladner

[DadsAFOL]

16 hours ago, cladner said:

 

Fixed that for ya...

[redcell]

They have answered on 41150 as well. At the very least as of this month they are now monitoring listings. It would be smart to have backup plans. Lego selling on Amazon by 3P sellers will not last forever. I still think Amazon FBA is a license to print money for resellers but you want to be diversified as brands and categories that are unrestricted today may become restricted tomorrow.

I am not so sure that Lego will ever move directly into Amazon in the same way that Nike and other brands have done. For a brand like Nike, the move on Amazon makes sense because all of the 3P sellers compete directly for sales that would otherwise go to Nike or its authorized retailers. For Lego, this is true insofar as 3P sellers are selling sets that haven't retired, but those sellers are already competing with Amazon and it's pretty hard to buy sets from authorized retailers and resale on Amazon before retirement at a profit when you're competing with Amazon...so how big of an impact on Lego do those merchants have?

However, if Lego moved into Amazon in the same way that Nike did and effectively boxed out all 3P merchants that focus on the secondary market and that aren't authorized Lego dealers, Lego would effectively destroy the secondary market for Lego products on Amazon and that would have a direct impact on Lego's bottom line because few, if any, of those merchants are authorized Lego dealers. However, all of those merchants are sourcing their products from authorized Lego dealers. If they then lose access to the Amazon sales platform, they would have no reason to buy the extra inventory they would have purchased specifically to sell on Amazon. Given the power of Amazon as a sales platform for the secondary market, this reduction would be significant on an individual level and would likely add up to a fairly substantial amount on an aggregate basis. Speaking personally, I will currently buy between 200-500 copies of certain sets to resell on Amazon after the sets retire. If I lost the ability to sell Lego on the secondary market on Amazon, I would likely reduce my purchases of those same sets to between 10 and 30 copies to sell on eBay and other platforms...and there are many sets I buy now to sell on Amazon that I wouldn't buy at all to sell elsewhere.

If Lego understands the power of the Amazon platform to drive sales on the secondary market after a set retires, they will face a real dilemma when it comes to taking action to disrupt the secondary market on Amazon given that there is no parallel market out there. They could always decide to get into the secondary market directly, but that has never seemed to be in their gameplan.

[asharerin]

On 6/25/2017 at 8:18 AM, redcell said:

 

I am not so sure that Lego will ever move directly into Amazon in the same way that Nike and other brands have done.

 

It is not Lego I am worried about. Amazon is who you need to pay attention to. Look at what they recently did with CDs and now Textbooks - gated the category with NO grandfathering. Invoices required. This is a new step. I expect further gating with no grandfathering of brands and categories in the future, particularly brands that are prone to fakes.

[redcell]

It is not Lego I am worried about. Amazon is who you need to pay attention to. Look at what they recently did with CDs and now Textbooks - gated the category with NO grandfathering. Invoices required. This is a new step. I expect further gating with no grandfathering of brands and categories in the future, particularly brands that are prone to fakes.

One of the reasons that Amazon gated textbooks was because they were sued by textbook manufacturers over counterfeit sales back in January. I don't have any insight into what has come of that litigation, but my assumption is that the recent gating is a response to it.

The same thing could certainly happen in the Lego market if TLG took a similar step as the textbook publishers, but they don't have the same incentives to be as aggressive given that their business model is so different than textbook publishers. Those companies have a vested interest in destroying the secondary market for their products because every textbook that is resold is one less sale that the company will realize...that's why they refresh textbooks every few years with new editions. For Lego, the secondary market is fundamentally different...retired sets don't function as substitutes for sets that are currently available so Lego doesn't have the same inherent incentive to destroy the secondary market.

And Amazon is, I think, keenly aware that imposing a hard brand gate on Lego would effectively destroy the market given the restrictions that TLG places on who can become an authorized dealer. If they weren't, I don't think they would have been as generous with the grandfathering last year.

[exciter1]

I don't get feedback often on Amazon and I don't solicit it.  Has anyone else noticed an uptick in feedback from buyers this week?  I've received several over the past week and it almost seems unusual. I just wondered if Amazon has increased their automatic feedback request volume, or changed how they are doing things.  Come to think of it, I've noticed several in my inbox from 3rd party buys here recently too.

[minicoopers11]

1 hour ago, exciter1 said:

I don't get feedback often on Amazon and I don't solicit it.  Has anyone else noticed an uptick in feedback from buyers this week?  I've received several over the past week and it almost seems unusual. I just wondered if Amazon has increased their automatic feedback request volume, or changed how they are doing things.  Come to think of it, I've noticed several in my inbox from 3rd party buys here recently too.

Just added to that snowball. Was just inspired to leave feedback for all 3P orders I placed.

[junkrigger]

One of the reasons that Amazon gated textbooks was because they were sued by textbook manufacturers over counterfeit sales back in January. I don't have any insight into what has come of that litigation, but my assumption is that the recent gating is a response to it.

The same thing could certainly happen in the Lego market if TLG took a similar step as the textbook publishers, but they don't have the same incentives to be as aggressive given that their business model is so different than textbook publishers. Those companies have a vested interest in destroying the secondary market for their products because every textbook that is resold is one less sale that the company will realize...that's why they refresh textbooks every few years with new editions. For Lego, the secondary market is fundamentally different...retired sets don't function as substitutes for sets that are currently available so Lego doesn't have the same inherent incentive to destroy the secondary market.

And Amazon is, I think, keenly aware that imposing a hard brand gate on Lego would effectively destroy the market given the restrictions that TLG places on who can become an authorized dealer. If they weren't, I don't think they would have been as generous with the grandfathering last year.

It is absolutely outrageous that textbook manufacturers expect American students to subsidize international students cheap international edition textbooks. If those students want quality textbooks they should pay full price like the rest of us, cost of living, local market conditions and pirated copies arguments be damned. Writing quality textbooks is time consuming and costly and it's time the costs be shared equally. Quality education and knowledge is valuable and expensive. An iPhone or lego set is not cheaper in India so why should textbooks be. International editions are the problem and if students can't afford the real thing then they should be stuck with their crappy homegrown books. Textbook manufacturers have been ripping off American students for years selling the same books abroad for less than half price, and I have no sympathy for them.

[exciter1]

8 minutes ago, junkrigger said:

It is absolutely outrageous that textbook manufacturers expect American students to subsidize international students cheap international edition textbooks. If those students want quality textbooks they should pay full price like the rest of us, cost of living, local market conditions and pirated copies arguments be damned. Writing quality textbooks is time consuming and costly and it's time the costs be shared equally. Quality education and knowledge is valuable and expensive. An iPhone or lego set is not cheaper in India so why should textbooks be. International editions are the problem and if students can't afford the real thing then they should be stuck with their crappy homegrown books. Textbook manufacturers have been ripping off American students for years selling the same books abroad for less than half price, and I have no sympathy for them.

Back in the day we just used the school bulletin boards to buy/sell used books.  I saved a little bit over several semesters.  Always had to buy the lab books though, for obvious reasons.

[HappyHawkeye]

[LegoEdison]

23 minutes ago, junkrigger said:

It is absolutely outrageous that textbook manufacturers expect American students to subsidize international students cheap international edition textbooks. If those students want quality textbooks they should pay full price like the rest of us, cost of living, local market conditions and pirated copies arguments be damned. Writing quality textbooks is time consuming and costly and it's time the costs be shared equally. Quality education and knowledge is valuable and expensive. An iPhone or lego set is not cheaper in India so why should textbooks be. International editions are the problem and if students can't afford the real thing then they should be stuck with their crappy homegrown books. Textbook manufacturers have been ripping off American students for years selling the same books abroad for less than half price, and I have no sympathy for them.

Are you sure American students subsidize international students? I still remember i bought all my college text book from oversea (same hard cover, not international version) for 1/4 of the price at US bookstore. i sold all my text book after my semester for 75% off US price  

[Pebble&Park]

24 minutes ago, junkrigger said:

It is absolutely outrageous that textbook manufacturers expect American students to subsidize international students cheap international edition textbooks. If those students want quality textbooks they should pay full price like the rest of us, cost of living, local market conditions and pirated copies arguments be damned. Writing quality textbooks is time consuming and costly and it's time the costs be shared equally. Quality education and knowledge is valuable and expensive. An iPhone or lego set is not cheaper in India so why should textbooks be. International editions are the problem and if students can't afford the real thing then they should be stuck with their crappy homegrown books. Textbook manufacturers have been ripping off American students for years selling the same books abroad for less than half price, and I have no sympathy for them.

You're absolutely right. Any company selling any tangible good should be required to sell that good worldwide at exactly the same price, without regard to supply and demand. I'm sure people in Hawaii are sick and tired of subsidizing our low soda prices on the mainland, too.

[junkrigger]

Back in the day we just used the school bulletin boards to buy/sell used books.  I saved a little bit over several semesters.  Always had to buy the lab books though, for obvious reasons.

Unfortunately the college textbook industry really is a racket. The manufacturers spare no expense lobbying professors to adopt their book then charge outrageous prices, which have gone up over 1000% since 1980. Why because textbook demand is not affected by prices. Calculus has not changed since Cauchy in 1850 so why do we need a new edition every few years if not to prevent used or secondary market options for students. The fact that the exact same books cost less in every other country is to me the straw that breaks it, and I hope all current textbook manufacturers go under. They make the list along with walmart as some of the most detrimental destroyers of the American middle class.

[dcdfan]

Don't anyone talk about prescription drugs...

[junkrigger]

Don't anyone talk about prescription drugs...

Agreed. This market is likely even worse. The only difference is perhaps there is a moral argument that can be made as drugs save lives and textbooks only improve education. Excellent point.

[asharerin]

The problem with textbooks on Amazon was the very fast growing number of fakes. We always got some fakes when we bought from 3P sellers on the off season but the past year the numbers of fakes was ridiculous to the point where we didn't even bother with 3P. Sucks that that textbook market is now off limits to re-sellers but very happy Amazon is preserving their image. Plenty more money to be made in other categories. The day Amazon is known for fakes is the day the whole ship goes down. Expect more brands and categories to go without grandfathering over the next 6 months.

[landphieran]

I'm personally glad they are protecting there image, however I understand there are sellers who's career was selling books. This is a very distressing and difficult time for them. 

This is the main reason why i haven't closed my ebay store. You never know when you are going to get stuck with a large chunk of inventory you can't sell on Amazon. Whether it be damaged goods, listing restrictions, accidentally ordering something that doesn't have a listing under a brand which you can't create new listings under (Done this more than i'd like to admit).

[asharerin]

I think it is prudent to remember that Amazon is not your business partner and that no product or category is going to remain unchanged over the long term on the Amazon platform.

[redcell]

Unfortunately the college textbook industry really is a racket.

Getting way off-topic, but most things that have to do with college and can be funded by student loans are a racket these days. Education is a wonderful and powerful thing, but the fact that the federal government subsidizes student loans and has made student loan debt non dischargeable in bankruptcy has allowed many college-related industries to inflate prices in ways that are objectively harmful to those that the underlying policies are meant to help.

[tyclin]

Let's get back to right track. Recent hit sale: Lego 21309. One buyer did not like the appearance of the Lego box, requesting return because he wants to collect this set. Return request was authorized. The item was shipped back but with two seals cut open. I checked inside, there are twelve sealed bags and one sealed instruction booklet.

What would you do to the refund? From New in Factory sealed box to open box (sealed bags), how much value (in %) is deemed lost generally speaking?

Would you consider building the set to make sure no bricks are missing? Is there special bricks in this sets worth being taken out of the bag and "reseal" the bag?