Selling Lego on Amazon.com

[pickleboy]

8 minutes ago, tballw32 said:

I've looked through this thread and see that there have been a lot of requirement changes to sell Lego on FBA. Is there any one-stop guide to getting approval to sell Lego on Amazon with the current rules?

I've always done FBA and the requirement was to just send them the item and let them sell it. I took about a year and half off and just started back up recently without issue.    I found it easier than I ever expected.  I am not 100% sure the requirements if you want to fulfill the items sold yourself.

Edit: After reading exciter1's links in the post above...I think I may be grossly uneducated on many of the restrictions.

 

 

Edited August 3, 2017 by pickleboy

[emonster]

I want to list an item on FBA Canada, but I found 2 listings, one is restricted and one is not. What kind of problem can I expect if I send in this item in the unrestricted listing? I am guessing that someone circumvented the restricted listing in some way, but I am not sure how they did this or what happens if I use this listing. The listing is for the giant tie fighter, Asin B013E5CTWE.

Thanks in advance for any info

[Kenxxx]

12 hours ago, emonster said:

... What kind of problem can I expect if I send in this item in the unrestricted listing? ...

I'm no expert, but just sharing a recent similar experience... I was trying to sell a Sandcrawler about a month ago. The main listing was restricted (... or had it been temporarily disabled?... I can't recall). Anyway, sent mine in under the (open) secondary listing.  About 3 weeks later, Amazon shut down that listing, and put my Sandcrawler in "unfillable" inventory. I had to recall it from their warehouse... got it back, a couple weeks later, a bit more dented up than I had sent it.

[Phil B]

No matter what quantities I put in, FBA insists on creating a separate shipment for my lonely left-over Popstar House (even if I say that I have 20, it still puts it in a separate shipment to a FL warehouse). Should I just skip sending this set in, or is there any other trick I can use to get it to merge with other items I'm sending in (poly's and sets combined)?

[cory730]

1 hour ago, Phil B said:

No matter what quantities I put in, FBA insists on creating a separate shipment for my lonely left-over Popstar House (even if I say that I have 20, it still puts it in a separate shipment to a FL warehouse). Should I just skip sending this set in, or is there any other trick I can use to get it to merge with other items I'm sending in (poly's and sets combined)?

It is a oversized item so it will not ship with smaller items. If you have any other large sets you can send them in with it.  

[redcell]

No matter what quantities I put in, FBA insists on creating a separate shipment for my lonely left-over Popstar House (even if I say that I have 20, it still puts it in a separate shipment to a FL warehouse). Should I just skip sending this set in, or is there any other trick I can use to get it to merge with other items I'm sending in (poly's and sets combined)?

Amazon has different fulfillment centers for different sized items. The only "trick" that might work is to turn on the option that allows you to send everything to a single FC, but that costs extra so probably not worth it. My advice...suck it up and pay the extra shipping...you'll make more money doing that than you will with the set sitting around collecting dust.

[Jackson]

I just had an A-to-Z claim for an FBM order.

The buyer provided his old address when he ordered. Even though I informed him that the tracking information shows the item is being forwarded to his new address, he still opened a claim.

I sent Amazon the information and, within a minute or so, got this response: "We have found no reason to believe that you are responsible for this claim. We have issued a refund to the buyer, but we will not debit your account for that refund."

That's right; the buyer provided the wrong address and is still going to receive the item soon, but Amazon issued him a refund anyway. It is absurd.

Anyway, my question is, does anyone know if this claim is going to appear on my account health? At the moment, I still see 0% under "A-to-Z Guarantee claims".

[Bold-Arrow]

^^ yes it will 

[newbie77]

7 minutes ago, Jackson said:

I just had an A-to-Z claim for an FBM order.

The buyer provided his old address when he ordered. Even though I informed him that the tracking information shows the item is being forwarded to his new address, he still opened a claim.

I sent Amazon the information and, within a minute or so, got this response: "We have found no reason to believe that you are responsible for this claim. We have issued a refund to the buyer, but we will not debit your account for that refund."

That's right; the buyer provided the wrong address and is still going to receive the item soon, but Amazon issued him a refund anyway. It is absurd.

Anyway, my question is, does anyone know if this claim is going to appear on my account health? At the moment, I still see 0% under "A-to-Z Guarantee claims".

yes it will and its going to hit your metrics.

 

[Jackson]

4 minutes ago, Bold-Arrow said:

^^ yes it will 

Know how long before it appears? Should I contact Amazon about it now?

[newbie77]

4 minutes ago, Jackson said:

Know how long before it appears? Should I contact Amazon about it now?

it takes about 2 weeks. 

you can contact and try to see what happens. in the past there is nothing that they were going to do and/or the seller-performance... 

what you can do is increase your volume to make it insignificant ... 

 

[Jackson]

My volume is fine. It just pisses me off beyond belief. A buyer can't just provide the wrong address, open an unwarranted claim and f*ck up my metrics, get a full refund, and still get the item. Amazon has to draw the line somewhere at some point.

[newbie77]

12 minutes ago, Jackson said:

My volume is fine. It just pisses me off beyond belief. A buyer can't just provide the wrong address, open an unwarranted claim and f*ck up my metrics, get a full refund, and still get the item. Amazon has to draw the line somewhere at some point.

welcome to selling in amazon. its a different world. you just need to get used to those rules that amazon has put in.

unless you are related to bezos, its not going to change ... [ because million $ sellers don't care about them ] don't believe me ask @Bold-Arrow

[cladner]

this is going to be my first holiday season selling fba and wondering what type of sales volume increase can be expected.  

say if you are selling 6K on 100 sales a month Jan-August, what bump might you see if choose wisely, lowballers don't come out etc.  

i've already begun shipping sets i plan to sell but wanted to have an idea how quickly stock could get burned through to anticipate preparing and timing further shipments.  

thanks-

[exciter1]

45 minutes ago, cladner said:

this is going to be my first holiday season selling fba and wondering what type of sales volume increase can be expected.  

say if you are selling 6K on 100 sales a month Jan-August, what bump might you see if choose wisely, lowballers don't come out etc.  

i've already begun shipping sets i plan to sell but wanted to have an idea how quickly stock could get burned through to anticipate preparing and timing further shipments.  

thanks-

If your price is near or at buy box and not too many other sellers, stuff will burn through quickly on items under a 20k sales rank.  Expect 3-6+ sales a day on these items.

Just my experience...

[Bold-Arrow]

55 minutes ago, cladner said:

this is going to be my first holiday season selling fba and wondering what type of sales volume increase can be expected.  

say if you are selling 6K on 100 sales a month Jan-August, what bump might you see if choose wisely, lowballers don't come out etc.  

i've already begun shipping sets i plan to sell but wanted to have an idea how quickly stock could get burned through to anticipate preparing and timing further shipments.  

thanks-

I see at least 10-15x increase. So if you can keep you with demand and have the right items you should be doing 5 figures in December . Key is to keep items in stock 

[anon33]

What's the latest to send in shipments to be available the last week of November? Is it best to just send in items in October as opposed to waiting the last minute?

[asharerin]

2 hours ago, cladner said:

this is going to be my first holiday season selling fba and wondering what type of sales volume increase can be expected.  

say if you are selling 6K on 100 sales a month Jan-August, what bump might you see if choose wisely, lowballers don't come out etc.  

i've already begun shipping sets i plan to sell but wanted to have an idea how quickly stock could get burned through to anticipate preparing and timing further shipments.  

thanks-

As others have mentioned toys see a nice big bump. Please keep in mind (and prepare for somewhat) that Amazon likes to change rules and restrictions regularly, especially regarding the selling of toys around xmas time. I would not send your whole stack to amazon fba right now incase something goes down with either the entire toy category or just the Lego brand on the amazon platform. Once we get indication nothing crazy is going to change this year with the toy category then I would plan on sending in steadily to many different fulfillment centers throughout the season rather than a few big shipments to distribution centers. Keep in mind the very strong trend on the Amazon platform has been brands outsourcing protection to third party companies who love to send IP infringement notices to anyone who is not an authorized reseller (and none of us are for the Lego brand). Xmas time is a great time to build up or rebuild an ebay selling account. Better safe than sorry.

[LegoEdison]

10 minutes ago, asharerin said:

 I would plan on sending in steadily to many different fulfillment centers throughout the season rather than a few big shipments to distribution centers.

How do i know my FBA is sending to a FC or DC? 

How to select my shipment only sending in to FC instead of DC?

 

 

[tacsniper]

So over the past two years I just stick my FBA label on the LEGO box itself and haven't been much of an issue. But as of late, it seems Amazon is using some huge bubble mailer which fits a lot of smaller sets. The problem is the packaging will get crushed when they ship the sets in a bubble mailer and customer claims item is defective/damaged. I have gotten 3 sets back in the last month (2 of the JW helicopter set and 1 Speed Champions small  car) where the sets are still sealed and they are being returned. How do I know they are mailing it out in bubble mailers? Because that is how Amazon is sending it back to me when I recall the item. So what tricks do you have to avoid this issue? I though of bubble wrapping the small sets. But I will have to wrap several layers to bubble wrap to make it bulky enough to not fit in a mailer and it is not very viable. I thought of packing them in a small box, but that adds to the cost; which it maybe worth it in some cases. But return rate is still relatively low at the moment. Trying to gather some ideas and see how I will forward with this issue.

Thanks!

[ISO8T0]

1 hour ago, LegoEdison said:

How do i know my FBA is sending to a FC or DC? 

How to select my shipment only sending in to FC instead of DC?

 

 

@asharerin

[asharerin]

2 hours ago, LegoEdison said:

How do i know my FBA is sending to a FC or DC? 

How to select my shipment only sending in to FC instead of DC?

 

 

Generally anything over 18 units per sku will go to a distribution center (but this can vary quite alot depending on the algorithm). When you make a shipment before you confirm it you will see what centers amazon has chosen. You can look those up to see if they are fulfillment (your items go live as soon as they are checked in) or distribution (your items go backordered for 1-5 days). After a few hundred shipments you will learn which centers are which straight away, and which ones to avoid.

[cladner]

3 hours ago, tacsniper said:

So over the past two years I just stick my FBA label on the LEGO box itself and haven't been much of an issue. But as of late, it seems Amazon is using some huge bubble mailer which fits a lot of smaller sets. The problem is the packaging will get crushed when they ship the sets in a bubble mailer and customer claims item is defective/damaged. I have gotten 3 sets back in the last month (2 of the JW helicopter set and 1 Speed Champions small  car) where the sets are still sealed and they are being returned. How do I know they are mailing it out in bubble mailers? Because that is how Amazon is sending it back to me when I recall the item. So what tricks do you have to avoid this issue? I though of bubble wrapping the small sets. But I will have to wrap several layers to bubble wrap to make it bulky enough to not fit in a mailer and it is not very viable. I thought of packing them in a small box, but that adds to the cost; which it maybe worth it in some cases. But return rate is still relatively low at the moment. Trying to gather some ideas and see how I will forward with this issue.

Thanks!

haven't had the issue with the smaller jw helicopter .  i've sold 12.

i send in the small speed champions sets in a white 8x6x3 fold box with half sheet bubble wrap tucked around the edge fba tag on the box and the orange "SET DO NOT OPEN" sticker.  adds 67 cents to my cost but so far no returns.   have to believe the speed champions are going to afol at these prices where box matters so worth the extra cost to avoid the return. 

Edited September 6, 2017 by cladner

[landphieran]

6 hours ago, asharerin said:

Generally anything over 18 units per sku will go to a distribution center (but this can vary quite alot depending on the algorithm). When you make a shipment before you confirm it you will see what centers amazon has chosen. You can look those up to see if they are fulfillment (your items go live as soon as they are checked in) or distribution (your items go backordered for 1-5 days). After a few hundred shipments you will learn which centers are which straight away, and which ones to avoid.

What is the hate for the distribution centers? I personally love the chicago distribution center. It is one state away and I can send 50 Lb 24x24x24 sized boxes for 6$. They generally receive the package the next day and process it immediately. Contrast that with sending boxes to fulfillment centers (usually on the coast). It takes many days to get there and sometimes weeks for them to inventoried. Double or triple the cost for what ends up taking much longer.

[newbie77]

1 hour ago, landphieran said:

What is the hate for the distribution centers? I personally love the chicago distribution center. It is one state away and I can send 50 Lb 24x24x24 sized boxes for 6$. They generally receive the package the next day and process it immediately. Contrast that with sending boxes to fulfillment centers (usually on the coast). It takes many days to get there and sometimes weeks for them to inventoried. Double or triple the cost for what ends up taking much longer.

it depends on where item is being sent. some DC are notoriously known to be slow for whatever reason (that's beyond my pay grade anyway ). example based on my experience:

LGB4

MDW6

i also avoid following FCs { they lose items } 

SAT2

ONT2