Selling Lego on Amazon.com

[skinsfan0521]

Changing the topic, but I'm curious about what other people do for selling EU versions on Amazon US? Some items have correct EU versions listed as different ASIN, but others don't. So, are you just not able to sell EU versions of LEGO sets on Amazon US?

I'm sure I'm not the first person to investigate buying sets that are cheaper/underperforming from other parts of the world and selling them here in the US where they are going for much more. I previously asked in this thread about just labeling with my own FNSKU label to match the US version, but the response that I received wasn't favorable. So, is my only option ebay?

[Foreman Porgy]

6 minutes ago, skinsfan0521 said:

Changing the topic, but I'm curious about what other people do for selling EU versions on Amazon US? Some items have correct EU versions listed as different ASIN, but others don't. So, are you just not able to sell EU versions of LEGO sets on Amazon US?

I'm sure I'm not the first person to investigate buying sets that are cheaper/underperforming from other parts of the world and selling them here in the US where they are going for much more. I previously asked in this thread about just labeling with my own FNSKU label to match the US version, but the response that I received wasn't favorable. So, is my only option ebay?

Amazon itself has a listing for 42093 with the EU version box on the front page. 

[isocleas]

It's been asked quite a few times already (once by me I think), you might be able to find more answers a few pages back. The consensus seems to be that people have done it but if a customer thinks its a counterfeit product because the packaging doesn't match the images in the listing you may get hit with a suspension/account review. 

[skinsfan0521]

9 minutes ago, Foreman Porgy said:

Amazon itself has a listing for 42093 with the EU version box on the front page. 

To that point, I was also wondering if it would be possible to update the listing and add a picture of the EU box to the listing? I have very little experience updating listings, so I don't even know if this is possible.

But, in the case of there being an EU box in the picture (Amazon's listing or not) it brings up the issue that @isocleas mentioned about it doesn't matter if there is a picture of the correct box or not. If the customer thinks it looks suspicious, then I'm screwed, right? Even though they don't accept retail receipts for ungating, does Amazon accept retail receipts to show that it's a legit product?

[Foreman Porgy]

25 minutes ago, skinsfan0521 said:

To that point, I was also wondering if it would be possible to update the listing and add a picture of the EU box to the listing? I have very little experience updating listings, so I don't even know if this is possible.

But, in the case of there being an EU box in the picture (Amazon's listing or not) it brings up the issue that @isocleas mentioned about it doesn't matter if there is a picture of the correct box or not. If the customer thinks it looks suspicious, then I'm screwed, right? Even though they don't accept retail receipts for ungating, does Amazon accept retail receipts to show that it's a legit product?

This is where you would run into a problem. You would need invoices from an authorized distributor in order to provide authenticity if they were to put your account under review. Amazon won’t accept retail receipts or a purchase order sheet. You could also make new listings for EU sets but then you might run into the problem of creating a duplicate listing (this would be up to the bots and how they are feeling that day.)

Edited September 24, 2019 by Foreman Porgy

[Mark Twain]

2 hours ago, redcell said:

And the CPCs are a total pain.  Last year when they threatened to shut listings down if sellers didn't supply a CPC testing report for the product, I took the issue all the way to the Bezos escalation team to make the argument that the federal regulations only require a manufacturer to issue a CPC certification and do not require them to provide the testing reports.  I was able to get a response and they shot me down on it.  

That's the whole hell of the issue. A certificate is one thing, but asking for the CPC full test report . .  a hundred + page testing report is just so freaking dumb. I'm shocked any new sellers are approved for the toys subcategory and Amazon likely wants it this way with all the counterfeiting issues they've seen. 

[cobrakai]

Just now, Mark Twain said:

That's the whole hell of the issue. A certificate is one thing, but asking for the CPC full test report . .  a hundred + page testing report is just so freaking dumb. I'm shocked any new sellers are approved for the toys subcategory and Amazon likely wants it this way with all the counterfeiting issues they've seen. 

The last time I requested CPCs from EE Distribution, they also included the testing reports.  I was able to get most of my non-lego ASINs reinstated when this was an issue a while back.

[Mark Twain]

The last time I requested CPCs from EE Distribution, they also included the testing reports.  I was able to get most of my non-lego ASINs reinstated when this was an issue a while back.

I’ll have to look into them again, but I’m not set up with a whole seller account and didn’t think I could order from them without it otherwise.


Sent from my iPhone using Brickpicker Forum

[enotoga]

5 hours ago, cobrakai said:

I have been grandfathered for many years, but I do see EE Distribution offering some Lego sets & Lego books through the wholesale side of Entertainment Earth.  I assume those invoices would work for ungating. I have not heard about them charging money for brand approvals lately.

It's probably worth giving it a try.  I have the official Lego USA retail receipts for all my old retired sets. 

Amazon is King, but I've always figured Amazon buyers would be more likely to abuse sellers with shady returns, due to the corporate thing and being less personal.  Maybe that's unreasonable.

The benefits of learning the game and breaking down the barriers to entry are probably worth it though.  

 

[DadsAFOL]

EE lost their ability to wholesale LEGO a few years ago when LEGO was tightening up all channels. Maybe they got it back, but it was never viable for selling at retail on Amazon. If I recall it was ~17% off RRP for licensed and ~23% off RRP for non-licensed.

EE lost their ability to wholesale LEGO a few years ago when LEGO was tightening up all channels. Maybe they got it back, but it was never viable for selling at retail on Amazon. If I recall it was ~17% off RRP for licensed and ~23% off RRP for non-licensed.

[cobrakai]

1 hour ago, DadsAFOL said:

EE lost their ability to wholesale LEGO a few years ago when LEGO was tightening up all channels. Maybe they got it back, but it was never viable for selling at retail on Amazon. If I recall it was ~17% off RRP for licensed and ~23% off RRP for non-licensed.

EE lost their ability to wholesale LEGO a few years ago when LEGO was tightening up all channels. Maybe they got it back, but it was never viable for selling at retail on Amazon. If I recall it was ~17% off RRP for licensed and ~23% off RRP for non-licensed.

They must have brought it back again, but it was never available on all the sets Entertainment Earth sells.  It was always just a smaller selection of newer sets when I noticed it last year sometime.

[skinsfan0521]

6 minutes ago, cobrakai said:

They must have brought it back again, but it was never available on all the sets Entertainment Earth sells.  It was always just a smaller selection of newer sets when I noticed it last year sometime.

They have sets listed on there, but have you looked at the prices? They're RRP or higher for the first tier. Even the best tier is maybe a few % off RRP. Plus their ridiculously priced shipping charges on top of that.

And they usually only sell stuff on there that they have trouble selling on their retail site. 

[cobrakai]

3 minutes ago, skinsfan0521 said:

They have sets listed on there, but have you looked at the prices? They're RRP or higher for the first tier. Even the best tier is maybe a few % off RRP. Plus their ridiculously priced shipping charges on top of that.

And they usually only sell stuff on there that they have trouble selling on their retail site. 

Correct.  If you are using EE Distribution, you are using it for ungating only (possible losing money short term.)  I use them for other non-lego stuff, but you have to know what you are doing and only buy stuff that you can sell for way above retail or plan on holding.  Prices can crash hard on Amazon when all the distributors get their orders of Marvel Legends, Black Series, etc. from Hasbro all at once.  Buying a few cases of RRP Lego would be worth it for someone who needs the invoice to get ungated and make much more $$ long term.

[LegoBro]

Last time I spoke to a rep there..he mentioned the sets they had were via a 3rd party.

[Porvida]

4 hours ago, cobrakai said:

Correct.  If you are using EE Distribution, you are using it for ungating only (possible losing money short term.)  I use them for other non-lego stuff, but you have to know what you are doing and only buy stuff that you can sell for way above retail or plan on holding.  Prices can crash hard on Amazon when all the distributors get their orders of Marvel Legends, Black Series, etc. from Hasbro all at once.  Buying a few cases of RRP Lego would be worth it for someone who needs the invoice to get ungated and make much more $$ long term.

Quote

 

That’s what I was going to look into. The only issue would be that assuming I get ungated will I be able to list my retired sets purchased retail at some point?

I’m looking at this as a long term investment, so losing money in the beginning by using EED would be worth it but again I don’t want to be stuck only being able to sell EED sets that have no real profit potential long term.

 

 

 

 

[cobrakai]

13 hours ago, Porvida said:

That’s what I was going to look into. The only issue would be that assuming I get ungated will I be able to list my retired sets purchased retail at some point?

I’m looking at this as a long term investment, so losing money in the beginning by using EED would be worth it but again I don’t want to be stuck only being able to sell EED sets that have no real profit potential long term.

 

 

 

 

Once you are ungated in Lego using invoices, you will be able to sell pretty much any Lego sets (with a few exceptions from time to time).  You do not need to provide the invoice each set you are selling.  If you ever have an issue with a customer claiming inauthentic, counterfeit, or used-sold as new, you can usually use retail receipts to resolve those (from what i've heard.) You just can't use retail receipts for ungating.  Receipts are more likely to be accepted for problems if they are from Walmart, etc and have the UPC instead of Marshalls with a random code on the receipt.   

[isocleas]

The bots are out of control. I had 4 Lego listings get hit this week, one of them (Crater Creeper) became unsellable because the bot thought something with the name Creeper in it must be related to pesticides. Atleast that one they fixed after opening a case. The other 3 listings they just removed, I sent receipts from Lego.com (only place you could buy them) to try and reinstate 2 of them but the receipts are old and they want proof of purchase that was issued in the last year. Pretty hard to do on stuff that's been discontinued for 3+ years. 

The 4th listing got taken down just yesterday Nexo Knights Stone Monsters Accessory set 853677 and I'm not even going to try fighting it, there were only a half dozen or so sellers so It'll probably just disappear from Amazon forevermore. It was only released in 2017 it's the first relatively new set that I've had problems with, perhaps a prelude to the fun that awaits in 2020. 

[Bold-Arrow]

3 minutes ago, isocleas said:

The bots are out of control. I had 4 Lego listings get hit this week, one of them (Crater Creeper) became unsellable because the bot thought something with the name Creeper in it must be related to pesticides. Atleast that one they fixed after opening a case. The other 3 listings they just removed, I sent receipts from Lego.com (only place you could buy them) to try and reinstate 2 of them but the receipts are old and they want proof of purchase that was issued in the last year. Pretty hard to do on stuff that's been discontinued for 3+ years. 

The 4th listing got taken down just yesterday Nexo Knights Stone Monsters Accessory set 853677 and I'm not even going to try fighting it, there were only a half dozen or so sellers so It'll probably just disappear from Amazon forevermore. It was only released in 2017 it's the first relatively new set that I've had problems with, perhaps a prelude to the fun that awaits in 2020. 

Just do the pesticide training module . Takes about 40 min but saves you a lot of grief and frustration down the road.

 

 

. 

[skinsfan0521]

2 minutes ago, isocleas said:

The bots are out of control. I had 4 Lego listings get hit this week, one of them (Crater Creeper) became unsellable because the bot thought something with the name Creeper in it must be related to pesticides. Atleast that one they fixed after opening a case. The other 3 listings they just removed, I sent receipts from Lego.com (only place you could buy them) to try and reinstate 2 of them but the receipts are old and they want proof of purchase that was issued in the last year. Pretty hard to do on stuff that's been discontinued for 3+ years. 

The 4th listing got taken down just yesterday Nexo Knights Stone Monsters Accessory set 853677 and I'm not even going to try fighting it, there were only a half dozen or so sellers so It'll probably just disappear from Amazon forevermore. It was only released in 2017 it's the first relatively new set that I've had problems with, perhaps a prelude to the fun that awaits in 2020. 

Do you know how I can go into an existing listing and enter the UPC number? There is already a listing there with pictures, descriptions, etc., but no UPC is listed. So, when you search by UPC (or by scanning the barcode in the Amazon app) the listing doesn't come up.

[cobrakai]

24 minutes ago, isocleas said:

The bots are out of control. I had 4 Lego listings get hit this week, one of them (Crater Creeper) became unsellable because the bot thought something with the name Creeper in it must be related to pesticides. Atleast that one they fixed after opening a case. The other 3 listings they just removed, I sent receipts from Lego.com (only place you could buy them) to try and reinstate 2 of them but the receipts are old and they want proof of purchase that was issued in the last year. Pretty hard to do on stuff that's been discontinued for 3+ years. 

The 4th listing got taken down just yesterday Nexo Knights Stone Monsters Accessory set 853677 and I'm not even going to try fighting it, there were only a half dozen or so sellers so It'll probably just disappear from Amazon forevermore. It was only released in 2017 it's the first relatively new set that I've had problems with, perhaps a prelude to the fun that awaits in 2020. 

Yes I see 41074 and 41174 Elves sets have popped up on my suspected intellectual property violations recently.  Haven't had those in a long time though.

[Foreman Porgy]

5 hours ago, cobrakai said:

Yes I see 41074 and 41174 Elves sets have popped up on my suspected intellectual property violations recently.  Haven't had those in a long time though.

Make sure you delete your old listings after you sell out. 

[Darth_Raichu]

34 minutes ago, Foreman Porgy said:

Make sure you delete your old listings after you sell out. 

Deleted mine more than 24 hour ago, but still see the violation.  Which "Get Support" option should I file this under ???

[Foreman Porgy]

5 minutes ago, Darth_Raichu said:

Deleted mine more than 24 hour ago, but still see the violation.  Which "Get Support" option should I file this under ???

Once you receive the suspected IP claim, apparently it doesn’t go away for 180 days. I’ve only had a couple but I usually just contact seller support and ask what I can do to fix the situation. 

[cmartin33]

Well I just tried to create a listing for an EU version of a LEGO set that wasn't in Amazon's catalog already and failed miserably. I thought everything was good as the product initially successfully listed, but now the listing is showing as "INVALID_ASIN - This item must be removed. - and it won't let me convert it to FBA. If anybody knows any workarounds, let me know. PM me as I'm willing to pay someone to get some EU versions of sets listed. How does ToyCentric get all his alternate EU listings up?

Do you all think it was the EU set EAN number that was the issue?

[exciter1]

Hello from Amazon,

We are writing to let you know that the following detail pages have been removed from our catalog:
ASIN: B01KILRLS4, SKU: R2-4EEC-GG27, Title: "LEGO Friends Heartlake Gift Delivery 41310 Toy for 5- to 12-Year-Olds"
This item has been identified as one that is prohibited for sale or listing on Amazon. Amazon does not allow the sale
of products that promote child exploitation or depict children or characters resembling children in a sexually
suggestive manner. For more information, please refer to the follow seller help page:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=help_search_1-1?ie=UTF8&nodeId=201174220&qid=1479496841&sr=1-1

ASIN: B01KILRLS4, SKU: R2-4EEC-GG27, Title: "LEGO Friends Heartlake Gift Delivery 41310 Toy for 5- to 12-Year-Olds"

This item has been identified as one that is prohibited for sale or listing on Amazon. Amazon does not allow the sale
of products that promote child exploitation or depict children or characters resembling children in a sexually suggestive
manner. For more information, please refer to the follow seller help page:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=help_search_1-1?ie=UTF8&nodeId=201174220&qid=1479496841&sr=1-1